Report
Evaluating cross-community work in Holme Wood: Making connections?
The wider learning from a local project to improve cross-cultural relationships at Holme Wood, an outer-city estate in Bradford.
This report considers the possibilities and challenges of promoting cohesion and meaningful interaction between different groups in a particular setting. Holme Wood in Bradford has traditionally been populated by people from white British ethnic backgrounds. This is gradually changing.
The report covers:
- the importance of taking the local context into account when designing interventions;
- the tendency of 'newcomers' from different cultural backgrounds to be isolated;
- the importance of bringing these isolated newcomers together for mutual support, while also developing their opportunities for wider relationships;
- the significance of the challenges, including:
- the time-consuming nature of relationship-building work; and
- potential tensions between developing opportunities for mutual support between newcomers and also connecting newcomers with the more established residents and organisations.