Belong: Radical Kindness
An evaluation report from Radical Kindness – a project which aimed to create community cohesion by building bridges across differences.
In 2021, Spirit of 2012 funded Belong to produce a series of resources to support communities to cultivate and embed ‘radical kindness’ – actions that intentionally seek to build bridges across differences, develop shared ground, and promote social connection between different groups and communities.
The project drew on the findings of Beyond Us and Them, a nationwide research project funded by the Nuffield Foundation and in collaboration with the University of Kent, which explored the impact of COVID-19 on social cohesion.
The project is also inspired by the broader efforts to make kindness a more prominent part of our conversations about community wellbeing and improvements public services. (for example the work of the Carnegie UK.)
KEY FINDINGS
The report sets out 10 conditions needed to address social cohesion using radical kindness:
- Cultivate and be part of a kind and connected local infrastructure that offers opportunities for cross-sector collaboration;
- Support social mixing in order to develop positive attitudes about others and tackle prejudice;
- Engage with underrepresented and minority groups and communities in a participatory, non-hierarchical way;
- Tackle misinformation to support more trusting relations between individuals, communities and the state;
- Encourage active social engagement and support the agency and empowerment of citizens;
- Promote arts, culture and sports programmes that encourage social mixing and break down barriers between groups;
- Support and develop the lived and specialist knowledge of local people and local organisations;
- Promote diverse leadership;
- Create kind, inclusive cultures that make everyone feel valued and welcomed;
- Develop local and national policy with radical kindness at its core.
You can access more stories and examples of radical kindness, including videos and podcasts, at Belong.