How to create social cohesion in a divided neighbourhood

London’s recent bomb attacks and the ensuing police raids across the country have consequences for many of us. In the 48 hours following 7 July, the police reported 70 incidents against minorities and a sense of tension and unease prevails in many mixed communities.

As these communities are also often the heartlands for regeneration activity, the industry may now have a part to play in promoting a sense of cohesion in neighbourhoods. And it has the tools at its disposal, thanks to the work done in community mediation.





In the heart of regeneration neighbourhoods, community mediators are increasingly being brought in to tackle the really big issues that pull communities apart, create violence, and occasionally, tragically, lead to deaths. Experts such as Jenny Lynn, freelance regeneration consultant and neighbourhood renewal adviser to the ODPM, have worked in such areas following acute displays of anger and violence, such as Oldham and Burnley in the aftermath of the 2001 riots.

In fact, community mediation has been in existence in this country for many decades, originally dealing with neighbour disputes about noise, children, parking and other factors of everyday life. Lightly but effectively certificated by bodies such as Mediation UK, a community mediation outfit typically consists of a paid worker or two, a flock of carefully trained volunteers, and a grateful client base of housing associations, local authorities and cold-callers.

Anyone still thinking that mediation is for hippy-types should cast an eye over current Civil Procedure Rules

Tried and tested between neighbours, mediation is now being used to resolve all manner of disputes, many relating to regeneration, planning and building in general, and involving disputes between communities and authorities or companies. With an increase in large housebuilding programmes in certain parts of the country, it can be highly productive to create a forum where sceptics and objectors can air their views openly and early.

Anyone still thinking that mediation is strictly for hippy-types should cast an eye over the current Civil Procedure Rules that govern the English and Welsh civil justice system. The courts must now take into account “the conduct of the parties” when making their judgment and, crucially, in apportioning costs to one side or another. And a key factor they consider is whether either party proposed – or unreasonably refused – mediation as an alternative to an adversarial court battle.



Lord Woolf’s visionary civil law reforms reflected what was already happening outside the legal world, particularly in some of the more embattled and deprived areas of the UK. And, more importantly, they reflect the plain facts that mediation is cheap, and it works.

Regeneration expert Jenny Lynn’s advice

Jenny Lynn is a freelance consultant and neighbourhood renewal adviser to the ODPM. Here is her advice on how to foster community cohesion. She says: “It’s really a long-term task to create conditions of positive relationships between communities and the public authorities that serve them.

“I often see minority communities – whether white or Asian – and especially their young men, shut out from employment and training opportunities in the wider community. “In Halifax, we had to work out how to knit the excluded community back into the town’s mainstream life and work. We invited training body Common Purpose to do leadership courses, and every year I made sure that, of the 20 or so people on the course, at least four or five were influential young people from the excluded and disadvantaged community.

“Slowly but surely, this helped build up networks that included the minority community. Confidence and trust led to more tangible outcomes such as minority community members applying for more adventurous jobs in the town, and becoming members of town institutions such as the local college’s board of governors.”

Lynn is also a believer in targeting key members in a community and getting into a relationship of trust with them. “I sit down with key individuals and have a good, long one-to-one discussion to find out their concerns and to listen as honestly as possible. Let them tell it in their own way and encourage them to tell you what they think the solutions are.

“That’s a process that often has to be repeated many times, with the aim of winning people’s confidence. Along the way, I drop hints about the positive things I have heard elsewhere and ‘spread good news’. Quite often in conflict situations, all people hear about are the worst things that are going on. Yet if you really talk to people, you find out that there’s unsung and unappreciated work going on in even the most fraught situations.

“The benefits of being an outsider are that you have a licence to hear, from scratch, about everything, good and bad. When people open up to an outsider, they remind themselves about the good things around them, and get some of their confidence back that conflict can so easily erode. As an outsider, my role is to look for the little signs that can be turned into important foundations for building.”

Key rules of mediation

Whether you are dealing with a small-scale neighbour dispute, a planning campaign or a racially divided town, some general rules of mediation apply …

Prevention is better than reaction

If used early and judiciously, mediation can head off likely conflict, rather than try to patch up communities pulled apart by violent conflict.

Get in early

Even if trouble has started, don’t wait. Getting each side to compile “diaries” itemising the other side’s transgressions tends to entrench each faction and allow resentment to build. Some housing organisations only use mediation when everything else has failed.

Who pays the piper…Be careful about who is paying for the mediation. Will one side appearing to be “in control” skew the process and therefore the message? If it helps confidence in the process, try to get the intervention funded by external, independent funding.Community mediation has limitsRecognise early and honestly when mediation is not enough. Neighbourhood mediators in household disputes often refuse to continue if there is clear evidence of as yet undisclosed criminal behaviour, particularly if linked to violence or racism.Don’t rush to obvious conclusionsThe deepest divide may be buried beneath the surface. For example, in a racially diverse community, the hardest division to conquer may in fact be one between rural and town-dwellers, or between homeowners and tenants.Don’t go for the easy way out …Mediation works by addressing, not suppressing conflict. Don’t paper over some truly deep divides or prejudices by agreement to simplistic platitudes. Make sure all the issues of conflict come out, not just the easiest to address.… but remember, “quick wins” are a good confidence boosterExperienced practitioners from Mediation Northern Ireland say that long-term mediation processes are helped if there can be genuine but quick early signs that things can really get better.

Source

RegenerateLive

Postscript

Peter Marcus is a barrister in housing and civil law at Manchester’s Young Street Chambers, who, together with Jenny Lynn, spoke on community mediation at the RTPI national regeneration convention 2005