Near Neighbours comes to Leicester

Here's the text of a press release from the St Philip's Centre for Study and Engagement in a Multi Faith Society that's being circulated today. Rev. Dr Alan Race brought this to the Council of Faiths Board meeting last night, though there wasn't time to do much more than acknowledge it. Clearly it's something to which we should give greater attention.

The Government has today announced a £5 million grant to help bring people who are near neighbours together. Those living in communities that are diverse are encouraged to get to know each other better, build relationships and collaborate together on initiatives that will improve their local community.

To deliver the Near Neighbours programme, the Church Urban Fund and the Church of England are setting up a new charity providing national oversight, called Near Neighbours, who will administer the scheme. Locally, the programme will make use of the parish network of the Diocese of Leicester, and administer the programme through the St Philip’s Centre (other parts of the programme will focus on centres in Bradford, Birmingham and London).

Near Neighbours has two key objectives:

1. social interaction – to develop positive relationships in multi-faith areas
2. social action – to encourage people of different faiths, or no faith, to come together to act for the improvement of their local neighbourhood

The programme will see grants from £250-£5,000 being made available to groups from the Christian faith and other faiths, and those from no faith, who meet the programmes objectives in bringing people together to build relationships and strengthen local communities. The first grants will be released towards the end of 2011.

In announcing the programme in a press release today, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, said “religious organisations play an enormous pastoral role in our neighbourhoods and have excellent networks within our communities – no more so than the Church of England … Near Neighbours will build on this and bring folks from different backgrounds together for the good of the community that surrounds them – be it a sports event or working together to improve a local park.2

In welcoming the news that Leicester will be a focus for this new work, the Bishop of Leicester, the Right Reverend Tim Stevens, said, “I am very glad that Leicester has been chosen to be part of the Near Neighbours project. We have a long track record of working together as faith communities to strengthen our community. With partners right across the city and county, we will now be able to continue this work, and ensure we all work together for the common good.”

The project has support from the Inter faith Network for the UK, the Christian Muslim Forum, the Council for Christians and Jews and the Hindu Christian Forum. Dr Musharraf Hussain of the Christian Muslim Forum said, ‘We are hugely grateful to the Department of Communities and Local Government for supporting this work’, and Ramesh Pattni, of the Hindu Christian Forum echoed this message with support of his own, "The Near Neighbours project has a real resonance with the Hindu ethos of the Universal family… We are confident of the positive outcome of greater understanding and local change with the implementation of this project."

Rev. Canon Dr John Hall, Director of the St Philip’s Centre, said, "After several months of careful planning and conversations behind the scenes, it is excellent news that from today we can go public and begin further strengthening the bridges already in place between different faiths and neighbours in Leicester. To be able to have funds to facilitate this will mean a great deal to local people who want to strengthen the association and relationships locally, and of course give practical expression to this through social action. This will enable the Good Samaritan story to live time and time again!"

Read an article on the Near Neighbours project from The Guardian's website:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/feb/20/church-of-england-community-cohesion

Find out more about St Philip's Centre for Study & Engagement in a Multi Faith Society:
http://stphilipscentre.dioceseofleicester.com/