Bringing People Together Year 1 Report

The Programme is helping to bring people and communities together in an exceptionally challenging context, with funded projects reporting many signs of change, for example:

• - Helping to forge connections across divides by creating new opportunities for rich, important conversations that help people increase mutual understanding and explore difficult issues.
• - Increasing positive micro-interactions between people, leading to cumulative change.
• - Strengthening a sense of belonging - what is sometimes referred to as social fabric or the glue that can help unite people around a common goal, shared vision, sense of purpose or passion.

Some examples suggest that through their inclusive approach and design, projects are creating ripples of influence and are having a wider, and perhaps unexpected impact upon people, places, organisations and the community infrastructure such as:

• - Building new partnerships and relationships with other organisations, groups and networks across sectors as well as different communities.
• - Supporting the third sector and businesses to share scarce resources for the benefit of communities.
• - Helping to shift power to communities and people with more people stepping up to be local leaders for change.
• - Influencing what others do, in particular statutory bodies, such as councils or transport services.

The projects are also learning how to bring people together, including identifying the critical success factors, as well as tackling the barriers that can get in the way of progress, including:

• - Investing in relationships, building trust and finding the spark that will ignite action and motivate people to take part.
• - Taking time to lay the foundations at the outset, including finding and engaging the right people, identifying a compelling reason to connect, mapping what is already in place and co-designing what needs to happen.
• - Increasing the skills and confidence of the people and roles that help to reinforce the social fabric.
• - Working flexibly and responsively as circumstances and contexts change.
• - This flexibility extending to funders who listen and respond alongside the change makers, as part of the supportive environment we refer to in section 3 of this report.
• - Recognising the factors that can make it difficult to bring people together, including the current context, with the aftermath of the pandemic compounded by the cost of living crisis, and friction and suspicion within partnerships.
• - Developing strategies and approaches to maximise their chances of success by understanding the context and working in ways that make the most of the factors that enable change.

Bringing People Together is a diverse, UK wide programme of creative endeavours for building stronger communities that make sense to people who live and experience them, across geographies, interests and lived experiences. The focus on creativity and experimentation has brought together a lively and resourceful network of committed and passionate change makers, who are learning what it takes to be impactful and effective in challenging times and increasing economic constraints.

Despite these challenges, there are early signs of change as well as important lessons about what is enabling, and hampering, these across the Programme. Examples of the wide range of changes include:

• - New opportunities for and experience of rich, important conversations that help people meet (often for the first time), explore difficult issues and increase mutual understanding.
• - Cumulative micro level changes within and across communities.
• - A greater sense of belonging and being “in it together” – what is sometimes referred to as social fabric or the glue that can help not only bring people together but bind them around a common goal, shared vision, sense of purpose or experience.
• - New skills, or insights into and therefore greater use of the skills and wisdom that already exists within difference places.
• - A focus on shared values alongside a commitment to take action for the greater good.
• - Shifting power to communities and local people, with more people taking up opportunities to be local leaders for change, to contribute and/or to enable others to do the same.
• - New partnerships and relationships with other organisations, groups and networks including across sectors as well as different communities.
• - A sense of the potential for spreading what works and making better use of scarce resources in order to benefit local communities, out of necessity as well as choice.

There is also considerable learning about what is enabling these changes and is likely to bring sustained success over time, including:

• - Investing in relationships, building trust and finding the spark that will ignite action and motivate people to join in and become part of the action.
• - Taking time to get things right, adapt when things don’t work, and explore what is needed, what’s working and what isn’t working with fellow travellers (as a result of the investment in relationships above).
• - Working flexibly, and responsively alongside communities.
• - This flexibility extending to funders who listen to and respond alongside the change makers, as part of the supportive environment we refer to in section 3 of this report.