Festival of Ideas Workshop Findings

• Includes public services (council services, education, housing, health, and social care) and services provided by charity and community groups.
• There should be services to meet essential needs and build community.
• Services needed are not the same everywhere, there is no ‘one size fits all’.
• Services are fundamental to supporting communities to thrive when they:
  • Provide essential and accessible support
  • Respond to specific local needs
  • Relevant to community needs identified by communities themselves
  • Tackle structural inequalities
  • Support the making of community
  • Have the trust of the community
  • Are designed and delivered by and with the communities they are for.

"[A strong community] should mean living as long and as healthily as everyone in the country. It should mean full employment and social justice for all, with key and essential services, provided not-for-profit. Many times grassroots organisations have the trust of the community. There should be adequate hubs for ALL residents to share the growing regenerated changes happening throughout our boroughs."

"Too often, the volunteers and the wide range of service users we work with have felt that they are sought for consultation, but not deemed good enough to create solutions for the challenges faced by the whole community."

• Social activities form the basis for social connections and future supportive relationships.
• Formal or social events and activities build a sense of belonging or offer mutual support.
• The community should play an active role in defining and delivering opportunities.
• Creative, artistic, music, physical activities, entertainment and food often to draw people in, especially if they are free. They give a sense of purpose and reason to come together.
• Voluntary and community organisations playing a key role in creating opportunities to come together, as well as supporting people to access these opportunities.
• Some communities have a shared identity, but need funding, space and purpose to come together again. Others need impetus to come together and forge a sense of community.

“Coming together is valuable for communities. It helps make sure people belong, have a good life, have fun, are safe. It doesn't happen enough and is really important after the pandemic.

However, communities are not mixing naturally - they need to be pushed to make this happen. This is even more important post-COVID - we need to keep working together.”

• Places and spaces for the community to come together include a range of buildings, online spaces, high streets, parks, transport hubs, schools and others venues offering space for non profit, public and commercial use.
• Community venues do not necessarily need to be dedicated buildings or fixed locations (as long as there are spaces available regularly).
• Community spaces enable people to come together, access services and participate in community activities. They become focal points for a range of communities.
• They can also be online, although there is a strong desire to reconnect in physical locations following the social isolation of lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Community spaces should be free (or funded), safe, accessible and inclusive. They feel relevant and in-keeping as a focal point for the community to come together.
• People coming together socially define and build a community place / space.

“Community is more than just a building. Buildings may be an important feature of the community, but the community is made by people. Whilst prayer services may be what often brings our communities together, it is the baby groups and other social activities which make the community. Strong communities are about strong relationships, with everyone feeling like they have a part to play.”

• Communities actively participate in building the community they want to be part of, mobilising around a shared purpose and coming together to achieve this.
• Communities also take ownership and responsibility to improve the future of their community, acting to influence change in community activities, services or policy.
• A wider sense of inclusion, belonging and safety is vital to community members and groups feeling able to express their views, to be heard and influence change.
• A lack of trust in public institutions and/or community organisations, structural inequalities and a history of being consulted (without evidence of being heard) are barriers to a strong community with voice and ownership to influence change.
• Bringing people together across different communities (not just in silo’s) helps create a sense of shared vision (and a broader community identity) and a collective voice.
• Crucial to recognise that everyone has strengths and brings valuable perspectives.

“Communities come together with a shared vision and goal: to make the world a more enjoyable place- between people and for the environment. Giving people a voice, creates better environments for people to then develop closer relationships with each other. Breaking bread together (we had food and drink) enables those conversations to begin.”

• Communities largely come together around shared identities, backgrounds, experiences, locations and interests to create a shared sense of belonging.
• London is an aspirational community of shared identity, where diverse communities are recognised and celebrated.
• There is a risk of communities coming together in siloes. It is vital that there are varied opportunities to bring people together across different communities.
• Efforts to bring communities together need to focus explicitly on equality, diversity and inclusion. This will be beyond the remit of a single event or community and this should be explored collectively.
• Bringing different communities together can be hard and fraught with tension. It takes people dedicated to making this happen (along with money, resources, support).

“Like a garden where different flowers of different colours and smells grow side by side and together increase beauty of the garden. There will be no discrimination, no racism, no misunderstanding, no difference between black and white, poor and rich, people of different communities live together peacefully and participate in building the community stronger. Communities come together through activities.”

• People feel safe when they are secure and happy where they live.
• Strong communities are safe and feel safe for those who live there, including safe from crime, persecution, racism and abuse.
• When communities lack trust in the police and criminal justice system, they do not feel safe to come together, are more likely to exist in isolation or in conflict.
• People also need to feel safe expressing their views, having a voice and know that they will be listened to or heard.
• Key challenges include inequality, racism, discrimination, a lack of trust of public services.
• Safety is interwoven with a sense of belonging to a community. However, diversity thinking needs to underpin this. Some communities are less inclusive of different identities.
• A lack of trust, understanding and connections between communities can undermine safety.

"We are able to exist in a space where there is no need to explain our identities."

• Resources and funding enable communities to come together and support one another.
• Costs include venue hire, food, publicity, event administration, insurance and support.
• Access to spaces, places or venues that are accessible, affordable, inclusive and enable communities to come together is a specific challenge faced by many communities.
• Organisations need longer term or regular funding to come together (beyond one off events) in order to focus on building stronger communities.
• Some spaces and assets locally are underutilised, (e.g. schools after school hours).
• It is important funding is given by trusted organisations, underpinned by equality, accessibility and community needs. This should recognise expertise in communities and ideally share power for decision making with communities.