The idea is to bring people together who are near neighbours in communities that are religiously and ethnically diverse, so that they can get to know each other better, build relationships of trust and collaborate together on initiatives that improve the local community they live in. Near Neighbours has two key objectives:
1) Social interaction - to develop positive relationships in multi-faith a
reas i.e. to help people from different faiths get to know and understand each other better.
2) Social action - to encourage people of different faiths and of no faith to come together for initiatives that improve their local neighbourhood. Why is Near Neighbours needed? Many neighbourhoods in England have a number of different faith and ethnic communities living close to each other, some of these communities rarely interact with one another and instead live parallel but separate lives. Such separation can lead to misunderstanding and a lack of trust or respect for each other, which is not healthy for a local community. These are also often areas of deprivation, with people living there sharing common concerns for a better community. Despite this shared concern they don’t come together to talk or act on this as much as they could. Yet it is local people, in local communities, that are the ones who are ideally placed to identify and develop solutions that can improve their own neighbourhood. Thus Near Neighbours bring people together; breaking down misunderstanding and developing trust, and helps them to act to change their communities for the better.
