Valuable lessons for community cohesion

The experience of two projects in Rochdale that aimed to build cohesive communities will be helping to do the same in communities across the country from this week.

‘Cohesion Counts’, is a year-long series of approaches to improving relationships between residents of neighbourhoods across Rochdale and Oldham. The programme has also looked at what difference the projects have made both within these neighbourhoods and towards other areas.

The Rochdale schemes involved:

• Residents of Kirkholt, from a variety of backgrounds and age groups, meeting together to think about, and discuss with each other, a wide range of issues and questions – a technique known as Philosophy for Communities.
• Lower Falinge residents meeting together for a creative dance project that raised awareness of community cohesion, breaking down barriers between different social groups and helping to change negative stereotypes and preconceptions.

Projects were evaluated by measuring residents’ feelings on a range of issues – from satisfaction with their neighbourhoods to relationships with other residents – before projects got underway. The surveys were repeated at the end of the projects.

Evaluation showed differing impacts, for example some projects were better at improving a sense of belonging than others and others were better at improving people’s satisfaction with the area in which they live.

Commenting on the Philosophy for Communities project, 74-year-old Marie Brierley from Kirkholt said, “I really enjoyed it. It’s really nice to talk to the youngsters on the estate and I’ve been pleasantly surprised to hear what they have to say. Young people get such a bad press but actually the old and young have quite a lot in common. We both want more facilities but I think it is particularly important for them so they are not hanging around on the streets.”

The Cohesion Counts initiative was jointly funded by the Tenant Services Authority (TSA), the HMR Pathfinder and Oldham and Rochdale Councils. The projects took place in areas where there were signs of tension – not simply between people of different ethnic origin but between people of different ages and social backgrounds.