Cohesion Counts

Bridge Building Between Communities

This is a Cohesion Counts overview of the project. Click here for the project leader’s report.

Background
Project Aims
Project Objectives
What the Project Delivered
Did it Work?
Recommendations

Background

After initial discussions with the committee at ARC community centre in Alt, Good Relations Oldham (GRO) identified an opportunity to support a link between them and the committee at Fatima’s Women’s Association (FWA) in Glodwick. The neighbouring areas of Alt and Glodwick in Oldham are distinctly different, Alt being a largely White British socially rented housing estate and Glodwick being mainly privately owned terraced housing, with a predominately Pakistani heritage community. Anecdotal evidence suggests that there is also movement into both neighbourhoods from other ethnic groups.

The two community centres were aware of each other and had worked together on a joint project in the past, but had very little knowledge of exactly how each community centre serves its local community. There also seemed to be little knowledge of each other’s neighbourhoods and how people in those neighbourhoods live their lives. The Cohesion Counts steering group viewed this proposed project as a good way to start to create links between the two neighbourhoods, by first of all engaging the two community centres.

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Project Aims

The following five aims make up the overarching focus of all the projects that have taken place as part of Cohesion Counts. The intervention projects have been evaluated within the framework of these aims. However, not every aim holds equal weighting for each project.

1. To improve residents’ satisfaction with the neighbourhood in which they live
2. To improve residents’ sense of belonging to their street, neighbourhood and borough
3. To improve residents’ perceptions of living in communities mixed by age, tenure, property types, areas of the neighbourhood and social and ethnic backgrounds
4. To improve relationships within neighbourhoods between residents mixed by age, tenure, property types, areas of the neighbourhood and social and ethnic backgrounds
5. To encourage residents to build relationships with people from different backgrounds from themselves through meeting and talking in a variety of places

The bridge building project focused on aims 3, 4 and 5.

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Project Objectives

The following five project objectives detail how GRO planned to achieve the three overarching aims:

1. To develop a better understanding of each other’s organisations and community
2. To understand the nature of myths and stereotyping
3. To investigate common concerns and interests
4. To enable the development of longer-term relationships between the organisations
5. To investigate common concerns and interests and to forge links between individuals

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What the Project Delivered

GRO held three ‘get together’ sessions with ARC and FWA, alternating meetings between the two community centres. Using the project objectives as a basis for discussion, participants sat in an informal circle together to have something to eat and drink, talk to each other, share ideas and give their views. GRO facilitated the discussion, prompting on specific areas, helping ease any language barriers and ensuring all participants felt included in the discussion.

(Click here to read about the evaluation methodologies for the bridge building project)

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Did it Work?

Evaluation of the bridge building project demonstrated that it had been a success in making some preliminary links between the two community centres. The project was a first stepping stone in creating sustainable links between the women from the two community centres, with a hope that in future they would maintain communication, work together on joint projects and pass their learning and understanding on to others in their own neighbourhood.

Aim 3: To improve residents’ perceptions of living in communities mixed by age, tenure, property types, areas of the neighbourhood and social and ethnic backgrounds

The bridge building project focussed on improving perceptions of Alt and Glodwick, two adjacent neighbourhoods with very different characteristics in terms of tenure, property types and social and ethnic backgrounds. Some of the women from FWA had not been to Alt before, and so being involved with this project enabled them to learn more about the Alt community and the people who live there.

For the Alt participants, who regularly travel through Glodwick to reach Oldham town centre, the project provided them with a chance to find commonalities between the two areas. Generally, perceptions of each others neighbourhoods improved over the course of the project, with some participants saying that this was due to having now met some people from the neighbourhood in question.

Aim 4: To improve relationships within neighbourhoods between residents mixed by age, tenure, property types, areas of the neighbourhood and social and ethnic backgrounds

Both Alt and Glodwick are neighbourhoods with increasing populations of people from different ethnic backgrounds. By improving relationships between the two neighbourhoods, it is hoped that relationships within the neighbourhoods will also be improved. The discussions had by the participants seemed to lead the way in identifying ways in which the two community centres could start to work together in the future, and hopefully influence other residents to make links and build relationships across Alt and Glodwick.

Aim 5: To encourage residents to build relationships with people from different backgrounds from themselves through meeting and talking in a variety of places

Participants generally seemed to be more comfortable meeting and socialising with people from each other’s neighbourhoods as well as people from different ethnic backgrounds, with different religious beliefs to themselves. Alternating meetings between the two community centres allowed the group to experience being welcomed into both communities. Participants felt that they would have liked to visit each other’s neighbourhoods more, as part of this project. Some participants also felt that they would have liked to meet in other locations linked to the common interests shared by all participants.

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Recommendations

Good Relations Oldham have plans to continue to support the two community centres and the initial links that have been made in order to maintain the relationship that has been built. As the two neighbourhoods are adjacent, links should be relatively easy to maintain. However, it will take effort from both groups, with continued support in the short term from GRO.

The project was very difficult to set up as both community centres have busy diaries. Ideally a project like this would have more lead in time and more time to hold several meetings. This would have also given GRO more scope to introduce further exercises and get the participants working in pairs and mixed groups, further strengthening the relationships between individuals. Running the project over a longer period would also open up opportunities for participants to invite their neighbours and family members along to meetings, again increasing the impact of the myth busting, perceptions work and relationship building exercises.

As only three sessions were held, it is very difficult to anticipate the long-term impact of this project. Revisiting the evaluation in six, twelve, eighteen and twenty four months time would better identify the long-term impacts. It would also be beneficial to include participants’ family and neighbours within this evaluation, to assess how wide an impact the project has had. Have the perceptions and behaviours of other community members changed due to influence from those who were directly involved in the project?

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