Community cohesion services
Alongside our Neighbour Mediation service MESH provides a service to communities experiencing conflict. This may involve groups in conflict or conflicts with statutory agencies working in a locality. We refer to this as Community Cohesion work – it has similarities to limited term community development projects.
Key principles of this work are:
1. Community Cohesion is about activities that support cohesive communities – and this includes tackling situations that lead to fragmentation of communities.
2. A key factor in fragmentation of community is when people, individuals or groups, feel disrespected, not acknowledged for who and what they are, or made the scapegoats for some other group’s convenience. At the heart of this is a sense of injustice, both actual and perceived.
3. To counter such injustice, the resultant separation and fragmentation of communities it is vital to value diversity, and welcome all parts of a community. An important way that is tackled is through the social inclusion agenda, as promoted by national and local government. It often takes the form of funded programmes with the intention of enabling full participation in society, access to education, to employment etc.
4. However, in our view other activities are required to bring about social inclusion and cohesion. We see the key issue as one of identity. Who do we identify with? Who do we see as part of our gang, and who is definitively outside of it? If trouble brews it seems to be human nature to regard the ‘other lot’ (with whom we do not identify) as the cause of the problem - and a sense of ‘us and them’ can emerge. We then need to revisit our common purpose, take seriously the differences that are arising, and find a way of valuing all aspects, ensuring they are part of the whole.
5. In our work therefore, we listen to all sides, we value their contribution, if not always the way that it is conveyed. We help people find their own solutions by helping them identify common ground, shared interests. We also acknowledge when other factors from outside the immediate dispute (social and political factors, local, national, or international) are having an inflaming effect, and when a full resolution may not be possible. Another way of putting this is that we recognise that problems are systemic and cannot always be solved directly by individuals in the front line. In this case, we need to be able to bring in institutions that are able to consider the wider perspective and act accordingly – for example the local authority and its agencies.
Our strategic priority is therefore to establish our service in a way that it is able to:
- Work within a strategic framework with other agencies to promote community cohesion and tackle fragmentation.
- Respond rapidly and flexibly to situations that arise, hot spots in particular, working with individuals and groups in neighbourhoods, working alongside other agencies.
- Report formally and informally to those with strategic roles, providing on the ground intelligence, helping to analyse and interpret situations, identifying recurring patterns and recommending interventions to avert escalation of conflicts and promote cohesion.
Please contact MESH to discuss the specifics of your dispute and the cost of providing these services.
