How events bring people together through Social integration.

Integration: The extent to which people interact with others who are different to themselves in relation to age, ethnicity and income background.

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Back in 2012, I took part in a programme called 'The Challenge' (now known as NCS to most millennials across the UK). Fast forward to 2015 and I'm being asked to speak at a Political Party Conference, on a think tank Panel about Social Integration and the affects it has on society.

Talk about a little out my depth! A 19-year-old charity engagement worker, sat on a political panel in a room of nearly all male MP's and other rather important people with me telling them why they need to change their societal views. Who would of thought?

Until I was asked to represent The Challenge, and represent the young demographic of NCS Graduates, I never knew what social integration was, yet alone how it fits in to our everyday.

After looking into it, and reading all three of the social Integration Commission reports (that the Challenge commissioned to show the gaps between our society and how to bring it together), I learnt that a lot of the ways we needed to bring people together were through events as a means of bringing people together.

The Social Integration Commission is important as previous research had shown us where different groups of people live, but had not examined the degree to which they socially interact with people who are different from them, whether this matters or what could be done to promote social mixing. The Report estimated that a lack of integration costs our economy £6 billion, or approximately 0.5 per cent of GDP, each year. Further emphasising the need and demand for integration.

Out of 13 methods the reports came up with to encourage integration, 3 methods really resonated with me and acted as my basis for my speech at the panel for the importance of events on society. The 3 methods I focused on were:

1. Planning authorities should develop and preserve neighbourhoods which are not only diverse, but are organised to enable residents from different backgrounds to mix with one another.

2. Publicly-funded moments of celebration should be open to people from all religions and none.

Retired people should be supported to invest their time and the benefits of their life experience in their communities.

Events are such a catalyst for interaction in communities and a tool for social integration and need to be encouraged as such.

A great example of how the first method - involving planning authorities, can really help achieve this, would be the Eden project's Big Lunch project. Taken from their website, the aim is to get "as many people as possible across the UK have lunch with their neighbours annually on a Sunday in June in a simple act of community, friendship and fun".

The project, saw 4.83 million people throughout the country take to their streets, gardens and local parks to break bread with their neighbours in June 2015/6.

However, this amount of people and community engagement wouldn't have been able to happen without local planning authorities helping to provide information, help organise and fund the larger events as well as helping approve closing roads and squares from traffic to ensure a safe and full-blown community event.

The Big Lunch was a simple idea that shows a few leading community spirits and a supported local authority can help citizens put on events, big or small, that make a massive difference to communities. This is reflective on the statistics below from the Big Lunch 2016:

• 94% of everyone who joins in thinks that the event will have a positive impact on their community

• 88% of organisers feel better about their neighbourhood after hosting a Big Lunch

• 74% of people who host a Big Lunch feel an increased sense of community

In relation to point 2 of the methods, 'Publicly-funded methods of celebration should be open to people from all religions and none', it is not uncommon for people to feel alienated by and unwelcome at nominally-public celebrations rooted in religious and cultural traditions other than their own – even if the party takes place in their neighbourhood or in a communal space.

Thats why I chose to raise awareness of a project called 'The Big Iftar' in relation to this method in my speech. It stemmed from the "Great Get Together" (in memory of Jo Cox), and started as Ramadan gives Muslims the perfect opportunity to reach out to neighbours and strengthen relationships.

Similar to the Eden Project's Big Lunch, the Big Iftar focuses on how eating together is one of the most natural and well established ways of developing deeper friendships and, in their experience, there is no better way of breaking barriers than by inviting people to share a meal.

Again, like the Big Lunch, The Big Iftar looks at how communities can come together and with and without needing public funds. It is open to those civilians who want to host 2-3 people in their kitchen, all the way to mosques opening their doors for 100's for the event. It isn't a designated amount of money from the council or the government towards it, but the main focus is opening religious festivals and cultural events to those from all religions and none. From my own experience, I know that the muslim community sometimes can be quite isolated especially in smaller towns and suburbs. But through learning and welcoming others into those events we hold sacred, we're helping break barriers and build bridges across communities - reinforcing the groundwork for social integration to happen and be encouraged in the future.

Last but not least, there's the 3rd and final method that 'Retired people should be supported to invest their time and the benefits of their life experience in their communities'. It was hard finding examples of how we can introduce this considering its such a niche area of society, but studies found that those over 65 were the loneliest demographic of our society.

One initiative, carried from South and North London cares, is the Manchester cares programme.

The programme brings young professionals and older neighbours together, through weekly events called 'social clubs'. These range from small 'desert island disks' nights in a local community room, to film nights and even visits to local businesses so the older community can keep their skills relevant to the modern world whilst learning more about the young peoples jobs and work lives.

Through these smaller but frequent events, Manchester Cares helps encourage the older generation to invest their time in the community whilst helping the younger generation learn from their experiences and build long lasting friendships.

They also have a key focus on:

• Reducing isolation and loneliness amongst older people and young professionals alike

• Improve the connection, confidence, skills, resilience and power of all participants so neighbours can feel part of our changing city rather than left behind by it

• Bring people together to reduce the gaps across social, generational, digital, cultural and attitudinal divides.

Despite most of my examples being community/charity initiatives or initiatives with no solid funding or backing, there are real life examples across the county and in every neighbourhood of events that act as a space for communication and social integration.

From what I can see, the benefits of holding community events are heaped against any of the issues (eg. lack of funding and experience) a founder or planner may face, solely on the social and community impacts they create.

To take a read of the Social Integration Commission Reports - follow this link: http://socialintegrationcommission.org.uk/index.php

To read more on the Eden Project's big lunch - http://www.edenproject.com/eden-story/our-ethos/the-big-lunch-neighbourhood-get-together

To read more about The Big Iftar - http://www.thebigiftar.org

To read more about The Great Get Together (in memory of Jo Cox) - http://www.greatgettogether.org

To find out more about Manchester Cares - https://manchestercares.org.uk/home

After the success of the Think-tank Panel hosted by Demos at the Conference in October 2015 (pictured above), I was invited to represent The Challenge and NCS Graduates/Young People across the country at the National launch of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Social Integration - pictured below with: (left to right) Chuka Umunna, Jon Yates and David Aaronovitch.

I look forward to seeing what the future holds for the events industry, and how we further aid social integration through . I know I certainly still believe in the integration commission wholely, and I'm excited to encoruage these methods to aid better integration in my own communities.

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