Book News: August 7th, 2008

This publication from the Communities and Local Government sets out a framework for partnership in a multi faith society. Its aim is to create more opportunities for face to face dialogue which supports a greater understanding of shared values, as well as an appreciation of distinctiveness.

It calls for side by side collaborative social action where people come together and share their time, energy and skills to improve their local neighbourhood.

The Framework is structured around the building blocks of developing the confidence and skills to ‘bridge’ and ‘link’, shared spaces for interaction, structures and processes which support dialogue and social action and opportunities for learning which build understanding.

The framework provides a menu of options for developing partnership. The menu sets out some practical suggestions for communities including holding an open day at places of worship or community buildings, sharing space in faith buildings with other local third sector organisations as well as other faiths and working with the local authority to create a register of faith buildings with ‘neutral’ spaces which can be hired for meetings or events. It also highlights the value of carrying out improvements in the neighbourhood like those undertaken by Faiths4Change.

The framework is available from DCLG. www.cdf.org.ukhttp://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/communities/pdf/898682.pd