Community cohesion

Leap Confronting Conflict has been working in the field of community cohesion for many years. One of our core values is ‘Building Community’

Leap strives to work alongside people in the places they live giving skills and resources that help them work to overcome their own conflicts.

Crossing Frontlines Programme

How do we support young people to develop a secure identity in an increasingly complex world?

Leap Confronting Conflict’s newest action research programme looks at what happens for young people in some local communities. What can happen when sections of society live in fear of each other. Wary and mistrustful of those they don’t understand, those who have recently arrived, those from different cultures, those of a different generation. Can we keep our own strong identity without shutting others out or descending to violence?

From our experience in delivering youth projects and from recent consultation carried out by Leap we know that some young people in the UK are now living in communities with and behind invisible frontlines of territory, faith, race, culture and belonging in a way that is new and challenging and can create conflict and violence.

Globalisation, new technology, changing communities, displaced communities and the challenges of living in a world where your identity and values, where you belong in relation to the identity and values of others have become increasingly significant.

We want to act on Leap’s aim to create a legacy of prevention, we want to see if we can help develop the next generation of young leaders who can operate in this new and changing environment – young leaders able to cross the frontlines of territory, faith, race and belonging, and who are skilled in conflict resolution and leadership skills.

Phase 1

We are currently gathering information and learning from three current Leap community based projects – using action research we are exploring different aspects of these themes to build our knowledge and test solutions.

Fear and Fashion project is working with young people in Westminster, targeting those most at risk of becoming involved in knife crime and developing them as peer leaders in the local community.

Our Leadership and Reconciliation project is working with young people developing them as young community leaders able to work with intergenerational tensions and conflict.

The Fair Share Project is working in Bexley with young people around issues of identity and belonging.

From these we hope to begin to learn about what works best in developing young leaders, what hinders the process, which materials and tools around identity and community give positive outcomes, how best to work within multi-agency settings to maximise impact and to learn more about working with young people within their local community context.

We are currently looking for funding to take the programme to stage 2.

Keep reading this section to hear more about developments, learning, impact and plans in this programme

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