📢 Our Director of Capacity Building and Standards, Carly Walker-Dawson, recently wrote an article for The MJ on building participation that promotes community cohesion. In it, she highlights how public participation is a long-term solution towards greater community cohesion and how it can be approached.Â
Read a snippet of it below. 👇
Building community cohesion is a long-term venture — one that takes time, energy and a lot of persistence. Sadly, there is no magic wand. So where to start?
One of the biggest challenges to community cohesion on a local level is divisions based on entrenched inequities, and competition — real or perceived — for jobs, social security, public services and housing. This is even more stark after years of austerity followed by a cost of living crisis. The result? Distrust, fractures, and increased crime and anti-social behaviour. We have seen glimmers of hope in recent years — most visibly the way communities came together during the Covid pandemic.
Public participation is a long-term solution towards greater community cohesion.Â
At my organisation, Involve, we want to create a better, more vibrant democracy, where everyone can shape a society that works for us all. Part of our work is creating tools that help people do participatory processes on the ground.Â
If you'd like to continue reading Carly's piece, click here.