By Johnathan Schroder, London Borough of Barnet
Council comms teams across the country have been having conversations over recent weeks about their council’s response to the protests and public disorder related to heightened tensions.
It’s an interesting time – therefore – to be launching a community cohesion campaign. But that’s what we are doing in Barnet. And, although the campaign was devised before the recent unrest, it is perhaps a better time than ever to be doing so.
LGcomms members who attended the Academy in Bristol in July will have heard from me and Tamara Kodikara, who works in our Strategy Team, talking about how councils can build, repair and maintain cohesion in their communities, alongside colleagues from Bristol. One of the key themes we kept coming back to was the importance of building relationships with your communities, as stronger foundations lead to more effective responses when times of challenge appear.
So, to our Connecting Communities campaign. It’s been a long time in the making – its evolution began in the wake of Hate Crime Awareness Week in 2024, which resulted in the council running a series of three ‘Community Cohesion Conversations’ with representatives from across many different community groups. We wanted to listen – and they told us some of the key things they wanted to see. They were keen on seeing uplifting messaging, they wanted to see events run by groups highlighted to a wider audience and they wanted to see activities that build cohesion spotlighted by the council. It was also important to them that we do what we could – together – to raise the profile of underrepresented groups, and separate out the positive stories generated by bringing people together, from the negative stories about hate crime.
We listened to them and have throughout looked to co-design the campaign with them, even down to involving them in the design of the campaign logo and look and feel of all the designed materials – and this co-production is an important part of the campaign itself. Alongside this, we have worked with professional videographers to make 11 short films about different organisations that highlight the very best of Barnet – and what makes it a special place to live, work and visit. We are using targeted digital ads to expand our reach across the borough – with more than 10,000 views of our videos within the campaign’s first week. And we’re rebranding our community events under the ‘Connecting Communities’ umbrella – so all our future celebrations of events like Black History Month, South Asian Heritage Month, Pride and more will all sit under, and help strengthen, this brand. And we’re collecting a treasure trove of photos, videos and events from the groups we’re working with, and others, to ensure this strong foundation grows over the coming months.
Through doing this, we’re hoping to show the strength of communities working together. In Barnet, we are a borough where most people get on well together, regardless of background (85%, according to our latest Resident Perception Survey) – and we want it to stay that way. Working with our communities is, without a doubt, the best way of achieving that. Get in touch with me directly to talk about our campaign and the work we’ve done on cohesion over the past two years.