Quakers offer advice on community cohesion
BYM says it is ‘deeply worried about growing divisions in society’
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) has told the Women and Equalities Parliamentary Committee’s inquiry into community cohesion that it is ‘deeply worried about growing divisions in society’.
The government must fund and implement social cohesion work on a national and local level as well as reinstating the interfaith network if it is to rebuild communities, BYM said, in its submission.
The far right had ‘taken advantage of people’s loss of trust… to spread harmful ideas that divide people by nationality, culture or ethnicity’, it said.
In this challenging context, faith groups and wider civil society have vital experience of best practice in building communities, it said.
Among Quakers, this included BYM’s peacebuilding in Britain, interfaith and peace education teams. Other examples included a Brighton Quaker’s sanctuary group’s cooking club, which BYM said brought together a diverse group of people.
One recommendation the submission made was for a national plan ‘for building cohesion that avoids overemphasis on assimilation at the cost of downplaying the importance of uprooting far right and racist narratives’. Other key recommendations included: re-establishing a national body to promote interfaith relations; creating a national fund to support conflict resolution work; and giving councils a new duty, with proper funding, to lead and coordinate efforts to bring communities together.
The submission also highlighted the importance of schools, which can ‘help children develop healthy relationships and emotional resilience’.
