Together4Bristol : Beyond Protest - How Can We Really Transform our Communities?

Beyond Protest - How Can We Really Transform our Communities?

Dear friends, it's been an eventful few weeks in our cities, with protests, counter-protests and a lot of chaos and confusion. But we've also seen the best of humanity with many acts of solidarity and courage from people supporting neighbours from every creed and culture.

Bridges have been working hard to respond with as much creativity and compassion as we can. We had the honour of coming alongside refugee families who were particularly affected by the demonstrations and running children's activities to lift spirits. We've been able to send dozens of cards of support and encouragement to people and as always our volunteers have stepped up with love, loyalty and listening ears.

As the dust settles, we are offering two events which we hope will come in the opposite spirit. We'd love to invite you to be part of them.

We are hosting two Listening Spaces events on the subject: 'Recent Divisions and Tensions around Migration'. We will take time to listen and be heard in a safe and welcoming space, on the 29th August and 3rd September, at the Chapter House in Bristol Cathedral.

Anyone is welcome to join. We believe everyone has something valuable to say and everyone deserves to be heard. You don't have to agree with what someone else shares, the aim is to understand where different people are coming from, to build trust and empathy and move forward with respect and understanding.

We'd love it if you would join us. The spaces are capped at 15 people for each event, and the whole evening will be framed by the guidelines. You can find out more and reserve your space on our events page.

EVENTS

One of the ways Bridges helps to build understanding and empathy across cultures is through our Cultural Awareness Training course. This helps people understand the role culture plays in shaping our experiences and expectations in life, as well as preparing them to relate more effectively to people from different backgrounds or perspectives.

We are offering a free 45 minute taster session of our training course, open to anyone who would like to begin to explore these themes. Expect an interactive, engaged, discursive session. We will have 15 minutes at the end for questions.

It is free to attend. Register to be sent a link and a reminder on the day, or find out more.

Beyond Protest - How to Really Transform our Communities.

We're aiming to write more about some of the issues and opportunities in our society with feature-length stories and articles. Our latest, 'Beyond Protest - How Can We Really Transform our Communities?' was a challenging piece to write, but we hope it brings something fresh and positive to the conversation. Feel free to read, share or comment. The article is available here. An excerpt is below:

"As the dust settles, and the protests smoulder out, there is a grave danger that meaningful momentum will give way to frustrated apathy, and ultimately, nothing will change. Moments like this have the potential to cement prejudice even further, but they also create the opportunity to tackle some of the trauma and trepidation in society and to make space for productive conversations to happen. That won’t be easy, but a valuable task rarely is..."

_{Posted: September 2024}