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What Is Community Cohesion?

Community cohesion refers to the aspect of togetherness and bonding exhibited by members of a community, the "glue" that holds a community together.

“Community Cohesion is principally the process that must happen in all communities to ensure different groups of people get on well together”

Commission on Integration and Community Cohesion (CICC) 2007

In an area with strong community cohesion:

There is a common future vision and a sense of belonging for all communities;
Diversity is appreciated and positively valued with recognition of the contribution of settled and new communities;
Those from different backgrounds have similar life opportunities;
Strong and positive relationships are being developed in the workplace, in schools and within neighborhoods;
There exists a strong focus on individual rights and responsibilities;
There is trust in institutions to act fairly.

A key contributor to community cohesion is integration which is what must happen to enable new residents and existing residents to adjust to one another. Thus, community cohesion refers to a much wider set of concerns in relation to a community as a whole which may include service provision, economic development, issues relating to social inclusion, education, planning.

Community Cohesion is what must happen in all communities to enable different groups of people to get on well together.

Click here for the Community Cohesion Strategy Consultation.

Why does Community Cohesion matter to Urban Living?
The importance of community cohesion for Urban Living is straightforward: community cohesion is necessary for a sustainable community. At an extreme, people are not going to want to live in a neighbourhood that is subject to frequent disturbances and public order breakdown. The 2005 disturbances in Lozells and Handsworth were bad for existing residents and bad for the prospects of attracting or retaining future residents.

In less extreme situations, the better people in an area get on and support each other in improving the quality of life in that area, the more attractive a place it will be and the more likely it is to prosper and progress.

More specifically, close to 70% of Urban Living’s residents are of Black or Minority Ethnic (BME) origin, the highest proportion amongst all HMR Pathfinders. The population not only ethnically very diverse but residents are from many heritages. Furthermore, in recent years, the proportion of newcomers to the area has been significant, both of Asylum Seekers and Refugees and people from the European Union (EU) accession states. The Urban Living area is “super diverse”. There are many different communities in the area between which relationships have to be negotiated as well as negotiating relationships with the world outside Urban Living.

Our approach to promoting community cohesion recognises :
- Community cohesion is multi-faceted with action needed on several fronts. This requires close partnership working and prioritisation.
- Promoting community cohesion will underpin all of Urban Living’s work.
- Urban Living does and can have an impact on cohesion within its neighbourhoods, across the whole Urban Living area, in adjacent areas and across the City Region.
As well as being an ethnically diverse area, other dimensions of cohesion in the area includes the high proportion of young people and mixed incomes. The area is the base for a wide range of voluntary and community organisations (including faith-based organisations) many of which have been established for some time with a substantial record of tackling deprivation, equality and cohesion issues
How does Urban Living contribute to Community Cohesion?
Urban Living’s activity will focus on the following five strategic themes or objectives. We will prioritise areas we can influence most and work with others to facilitate their actions in arenas where they can have most impact. We will also prioritise neighbourhoods in greatest need.
- Supporting young people: promoting intercultural activity for young people in the area, including with young people from outside the Urban Living area, which promotes greater understanding and solidarity, and activity which improves young people’s life chances.
- Creating a sense of belonging: designing and delivering public spaces, housing and other buildings which encourage interaction between different groups in the area, which meet diverse needs and which reflect the diverse histories of local residents.
- Meaningful interaction: enabling cross-community and cross-age cultural, sports, educational, environmental, and volunteering and other leisure activities.
- Improving access to opportunities: initiatives to improve local residents’ social and economic life chances, to strengthen the local economy and to open up access to needed services.
- Engagement, Communication, Empowerment and Leadership: implementing a community engagement strategy with consultation around all initiative this involves ensuring that our communication is clear, authoritative and two-way, for example through the development of our Sounding board. Also co-ordinating support to community organisations with other partners as part of a process of building bonding, bridging and braiding social capital through support to co-ordinated. Finally, we will support the development of community, service provider and political leadership around community cohesion.
Using the above as our strategic themes we have developed a host of projects that will develop Community Cohesion in a number of ways. Click here for details.