Published: 09 March 2007
4.3m worth of Community Glue
Communities Minister Phil Woolas has offered grants totalling more than £4.3 million to 343 organisations to ‘promote a common sense of citizenship’.
Ministers have set out the challenge, for all living in a multicultural Britain, of learning to celebrate our shared heritage while doing more to understand our individual differences.
The announcement recommends funding groups with practical solutions to build capacity among faith communities to support inter faith work.
The announcement follows bids from more than 1,200 organisations to the Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund.
This is the second round of a £13.8 million fund to help organisations promote community cohesion and shared citizenship at a local community level.
Phil Woolas said:
"This demonstrates how we are stepping-up work in communities to promote understanding and cohesion by effectively engaging women, young people and hard to reach groups.
We must continue to emphasise our sense of British-ness and the shared values which hold us together.
Faith organisations play an important role in our communities and know their communities well, we want to draw on the expertise of faith, interfaith and non faith based community groups and do all we can to support them.
This local approach will help reach directly into communities to promote shared citizenship and integration. It is vital that we find ways of bringing people from different faiths and cultures together to understand their differences and celebrate their shared experiences.
The programme has already made a significant impact where projects are up and running and I am certain we can build on this to develop practical solutions to promote community cohesion."
Applications came from a wide range of faith, interfaith & non-faith based community groups and those recommended for funding include:
Milun Women's Centre, Yorkshire and the Humber (Tel: 01132 374 150): This project will develop and facilitate weekly discussion groups for Hindu, Sikh and Muslim women.
They will organise an interfaith informal meeting on a monthly basis, where women will come together to discuss issues, learn about each other's faiths and cultures, and share experiences.
The project will include various social and cultural activities as well as visits to local places of worship and other places of interest to the group.
Global Generation, London: The Generator is a citizenship camp with follow up workshops for young people primarily from a Muslim school, a Church of England youth group and the Liberal Jewish Synagogue.
The programme draws on faith based values and experiences to understand the role of citizens and explores the strength of coming together to tackle environmental issues.
Across Communities, The Young Peoples' Project, North East: They will use the grant to hold conferences and workshops offering training in faith, cultural awareness and diversity issues, to young people to help them understand different faiths and cultures
Kent Muslim Welfare Association, South East: They will enhance inter-faith cohesion and shared citizenship amongst young people in disadvantaged areas of Medway, against the backdrop of ongoing inter-community tensions.
Kent Muslim Welfare Association, at the head of an inter-faith partnership, backed by the Inter-Faith Forum and facilitated by Medway Council, wants to implement a young people led programme of sport, informal education and community engagement.
The Community Development Foundation (CDF) has been commissioned by Communities and Local Government to administer the distribution of funds.
An assessment panel made up of representatives from Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Muslim and Christian communities, as well as interfaith bodies, recommended the projects to be approved.
Further information
343 organisations that have been recommended for funding
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