What is Community Cohesion?
Community cohesion is about how people get along together in our communities.
Cohesion is important. If people are unable to get on well, tensions can emerge rapidly, which can lead to intolerant, fragmented neighbourhoods, a reduced feeling of belonging, and increases in anti-social behaviour.
The Council has a vision to ensure Nottingham is a diverse, vibrant, multicultural city, where people from all walks of life get on well and respect each other.
We are proud that Nottingham is already a city where most people feel there is a strong sense of community, but we don’t want to stop there.
We want to build on that, and ensure Nottingham is a city where everyone, no matter their background, feels valued, safe, proud of who they are and where they live – and that they belong here.
What the Community Cohesion team does
We are striving to help Nottingham people get on well together by trying to:
- Drive down inequalities, discrimination, and levels of deprivation
- Improve engagement between the Council and our communities – and between communities from differing backgrounds
- Foster a sense of belonging and pride for all Nottingham’s communities, regardless of background
- Boost and promote deeper interactions between people and their communities
- Increase safety and respect for individuals and their neighbourhoods
How we do it
We focus on building partnerships with specific communities who most need help at any time.
Our overall goal is to help communities to help themselves – both now and in the future.
Some of our current work includes:
- Developing fruitful partnerships with communities, helping them to establish themselves in the city, and working together to build initiatives that solve problems and overcome challenges
- Supporting community groups and neighbourhoods facing challenges, locating funding opportunities and assisting with bids, and foraging opportunities for groups to work together
- Taking a zero-tolerance approach to hate, and creating tough strategies to drive down repeat victimisation of hate crime
- Building safe spaces where conversations about tricky topics can happen – enabling people from any background to come together and express themselves openly, with tolerance and respect for differing opinions
- Advising other parts of the Council, and other statutory services, about Nottingham's diverse communities and their needs
- Working with new and emerging communities to help them settle into Nottingham and access the services they need
- Bringing together and supporting community groups who support young people at risk of violence or gang involvement
- Improving relationships between students and other city residents
- Researching emergent needs, and developing policies, to make sure the resources of the Council and our partners are applied to the best possible effect
Cohesion support available
See more of our day-to-day work, and start a conversation with us by following us on Twitter @NottmCommunity.
Tell us about concerns or tensions in your community, or discuss possibilities for working together, by contacting us at community.cohesion@nottinghamcity.gov.uk.
Check out our work to enable difficult conversations, or read more about our hate crime strategy, at Nottingham Together.
To tell us about problems you’re having with anti-social behaviour, Nottingham's confidential anti-social behaviour helpline is available 24 hours a day. Call 0115 915 2020
If you are experiencing a hate crime, you can report it to the police by dialling 101 (or ring 999 if it’s an emergency). You can also report hate online via True Vision.