John Gray

There’s no doubt of the value of people across diverse or divided communities, being able to reach out to each other, challenge myths and prejudices, and find ways of building local resilience.

Are you involved in, or interested in supporting this “good relations” work?

My friends/colleagues at www.talkforachange.org.uk, together with International Alert, and funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, are running a series of regional meetings for practitioners and managers.

Starting next week, the events will explore setting up a national coalition of good relations organisations which could improve the voice, practice and visibility of good relations work in England. The events will include the chance to discuss local divisive narratives and how you are currently tackling them, and impact measurement.

My connection to this is that Talk for a Change and I are in conversation about how to establish rigorous and realistic impact assessment models for community dialogue and facilitation. And in my consultancy work with the Newcastle Conflict Resolution Network, and in shaping co-design processes for patients and clinical staff, I’m interested in how those who wouldn’t normally talk to each other, can find ways of hearing each other’s voices and build a culture of greater understanding and empathy.

Details of the Talk for a Change regional meetings are here. Organised so far:

24th June in Stockwell, London

27th June in Manchester

2nd July in Warrington

15th July in Newcastle

11th September in Leeds

With other regions to be planned.

Tagged: Globally Responsible Practice, Impact assessment, Inspiring action, Sustainable community