Conflict and Change

Community Cohesion practitioners try out Community Conversations themselves		Staff and volunteers at the event

To mark the end of three and a half years of funding from City Parochial Foundation to get the Community Conversations project established, in September 2009 an event was organised that brought together 40 practitioners working on social cohesion and conflict resolution issues in London to explore the lessons learned from our work in developing our Community Conversations model.

The event was the culmination of several years evolution in the project and was a great chance to showcase to other professionals the benefits of an approach that is rooted in deep listening and mediation skills as a means to build better understanding between people.

Working in small groups supported by an experienced Conflict & Change volunteer or staff facilitator, practitioners were able to experience a Community Conversation for themselves. Since this event several of the  participant practitioners have requested training in the Community Conversations method which we plan to deliver later in 2010.

Ros Southern (Community Conversations worker) said: "We were delighted to have the opportunity to share our learning from this project to a wide audience.  It was a special pleasure to be joined by some of the volunteers who are attached to the project and central to it."

You can read in more detail about the project and our learning so far in this Community Conversations Learning Document.