32 Steps to Togetherness

01/10/2026

30/09/2026

Isa’s mum was in tears watching him on stage. Watch this one and you’ll understand why!

Marie runs sessions at CentreStage Perform for children with additional needs, and she says the same thing happens over and over. A child turns up not saying very much, spends a while watching everyone else expressing themselves, and then finds their own voice. Next thing you know they’re performing. 🌟👏🙌🎭

Second of three from Marie this week, and there’s one more to come 🧡🧡

28/09/2026

Marie had a young family, and she missed being creative. Her local theatre group had shut down. So she started her own.

That’s honestly how most grassroots organisations begin: one person, or a small group who want something that doesn’t exist where they live - so they decide to make it exist. They see the gap and fill it, often with no money - just sheer enthusiam and passion.

Marie’s driven by getting people in a room together and telling their stories on stage. It’s not been easy but she’s done it anyway.

Big up to you Marie - may your group go from strength to strength. 👏

Stay turned this week to hear more about the difference Centrestage is making to people as we have two more films to share later this week! 🧡

18/09/2026

Did you know that charities and non-profits are desperate for the skills and experience gained by corporate professions? 👀

If you work in the private sector and could spare an hour or two a week to help make a difference why not check out charity trustee vacancies in your area - even better if you can find a cause that you care about! 💫

🙌🙌 As John explains in this film, his banking career has made him a very valuable trustee within the charities he has worked with, and now he has retired he is working ‘on the ground’ too and loves it!

So, our message to you in the wake of back in June - why not expore what value you could add? If you are not sure where to start ask Google to ‘find volunteer opportunties near me’ and see what comes back! ✨🙋‍♀️🙋‍♂️

15/09/2026

💬 “Conversation is a powerful form of self-love and care” 💬

Charles hosts a weekly wellness hour on , and he’s seen what loneliness does to people and what a bit of connection can do.

He’s passionate about community radio as a way to connect: a voice in your kitchen, a reason to pick up the phone, a sense that someone out there is talking to you and not at you.

So let’s keep those lines of communication open. Local groups online, a proper hello/chat to your neighbour in the street, or calling in to have your say on a community radio show

Know someone who would like this one? Send it their way. 💚💚💚

28/08/2026

Zahara came to Burnley looking to build a new life — and right at the centre of the life she wants is belonging somewhere.🫂🧡🏡

✨🤝 So after being supported by New Neighbours Together - a brilliant Burnley charity connecting refugees and people seeking asylum with the wider area - she now volunteers with them. Like a lot of their volunteers, she’s been on both sides of that welcome.

This is what people rebuilding their lives are so often doing — showing up for everyone else too.

As Zahara puts it: “let’s all find tiny ways to build community together.” 🧡

Know someone who needs to see this? Send it on.💌

14/08/2026

It’s amazing how much better you can feel about the world - and your role trying to make it a better place - after getting together with other good people.

We’re hosting another one of our online bookclubs.

We’ll be joined by a mish mash of special guests to discuss Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor’s book - End Times Fascism and the Fight for the Living World. It’s about the strange new alliance of tech billionaires, religious fundamentalists and ethno-nationalists who appear untroubled by the prospect of collapse — having made private arrangements for surviving it — and about what it takes to build something better instead. “Our task is to build a movement strong enough to stop them,” as the authors have it.

Non-academic, warm and welcoming — our guests will set out the ideas, then everyone gets to weigh in. It’ll be a hopeful conversation on the most salient topics. All perspectives valued, including the ones that disagree with ours.

Panel:
🔸 Cllr Rachel Millward, Deputy Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales
🔸 Cllr Richard Rout, Conservative group leader, Suffolk County Council
🔸 Zara Mohammed, our fellow Director and former Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain
🔸 More to be confirmed

Facilitated by our founding Director Mark Ereira-Guyer. 

📅Tuesday 20 October
⏰7–8:15pm
📍Online

You don’t need to have finished the book. You don’t ACTUALLY need to have started it (because it’s not out yet, so that wouldn’t be fair)

Book your place: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/online-book-club-end-times-fascism-and-the-fight-for-the-living-world-tickets-1996233993612

13/08/2026

90 years ago, the East End stood shoulder to shoulder on Cable Street and stopped Mosley‘s Blackshirts in their tracks.

We’re marking the anniversary the way this community has always done its best thinking-out loud, in collaboration, in verse.

📅 Sunday 4 October
⏰ 5-6:30 pm
📍St George-in-the-East, London

Join us - IN PERSON FOR A CHANGE - for an evening of spoken word celebrating modern Cockney identity and the comradeship of East End communities, with Michael Rosen.

Free to attend (though donations welcome).

We will be launching an anthology on the night.

Poetry has a magical way of connecting us giving us a way to explore our innermost emotions and make sense of the world around us in a peaceful yet honest way. In a city as complex and beautifully diverse as modern London, we believe those connections matter more than ever.

Two ways to be involved:

✍️ Write a poem. The New Cockney Poets is an open invitation - anyone can submit a poem on modern Cockney identities and the Cockney diaspora, or on unity in comradeship in the East End. The best of the beautiful bunch will be read live on the night and published in the anthology. The very best will win £1000. 🔗 Link for more information in bio

🎟️ Come along. 🔗 Link in bio to book your free ticket.

Partners: .literature Bengali East End Heritage Society British Billingual Poetry Collective