Helping communities to have better conversations about differences

Talking about how to tackle rumours

Throughout our Intercultural Cities-funded anti-rumours project, we have been looking at how rumours and misunderstandings can drive wedges between communities, and lead to hostility.

In our first session, we drew upon some of the expertise developed by the Spanish city of Bilbao in developing a network of anti-rumour ambassadors. Then, we brought together people from LGBTQ+ communities and local people in Seacroft for a frank and powerful conversation about Pride, prejudice and pronouns. In our third session, we tackled the role of social media in polarising communities and the part it played in inciting this year's summer of discontent in the UK.

For our third in-person session, we brought together 17 people from across the Seacroft community, with the help of LS14 Trust, to weave all these threads together and talk about how they can be advocates for accuracy and greater understanding within their neighbourhoods.

Bringing people together to learn how to have difficult conversations

While social media can polarise opinions, face to face conversations give us space to actually engage with people who have different views.

We used the Intercultural Cities guidelines on tackling rumours as a springboard to begin to equip our participants with the skills to have some of those conversations effectively. We all recognise that criticising and lecturing people rarely shifts their opinion, but listening, empathising and providing a different perspective can.

At the end of the session, we had some fantastic contributions about practical ways to bring people together to have conversations and bring down some of the barriers of fear or misunderstanding that often lie at the root of the polarisation we all see.

Our final session will be with Chapel FM to distil some of what we have experienced and learned throughout the project into podcasts that can be shared and listened to long after this project has ended.

The Council of Europe's Intercultural Cities Programme supports cities and regions in reviewing and adapting their policies through an intercultural lens, and developing comprehensive intercultural strategies to manage diversity as an advantage for the whole society.

Leeds has been a member of Intercultural Cities since 2019.