Much has been written recently about young people living in divided communities, and the ways in which leading parallel lives can lead to ignorance, mistrust and ultimately conflict. Increasingly, conflict appears to arise between young people from different religious backgrounds. This section of the website suggests ways of working with young people in divided communities, particularly those divided along religious lines.

Young people in England want and need opportunities to meet and develop relationships with other young people from different backgrounds. Moreover, they recognise that getting to know one another challenges misunderstanding and has the potential to reduce conflict.

This section suggests a process for bringing together different groups of young people and includes sample sessions for you to try out. It also links to a variety of activities that can be used to get people talking about faith, conflict and building peace.

You may be nervous about starting work with young people living in divided communities and this is understandable. Here are some tips on questions to ask yourself before you start planning a project.

Before you start, read Project Pre-planning.

Every community is different, and each group of young people will have different experiences, needs and interests. We offer this process as a way of building sustainable links between two groups of young people and include some short session outlines as examples. Please also mix and match your own sessions using some of the other activities outlined on this website, as some activities will be more appropriate than others for your particular group of young people.

Process

The following process is based on young people working together as peace-makers, to help reduce conflicts and tensions in their local area. This can help to give the young people shared goals and a shared purpose.

1. Planning
2. Time for single group work
   
3. Getting to know you sessions
   
4. Plan and carry out joint activities
   
5. Talking about conflict
   
6. Celebration

Planning

Project work with children and young people requires good planning to ensure success, and this is particularly true when working with divided communities. Adequate time needs to be built in to the project plans to build trust between relevant organisations, to recruit young people and to develop shared goals for the project.

It is important to involve the young people you are working with, in planning the format of the project. This helps build support and commitment among the participants. It means that you are more likely to meet their needs and that they are also developing skills beyond those of the specific project they are working on. For ideas on how to go about project planning with young people see and Save the Children's Participation Spice it Up pack. You could also try www.helpyourselves.org.uk and www.participationworks.org.uk.

Single-group sessions

Before bringing together two groups from a divided community it is often a good idea to do some work with the young people in single-faith groups. This will help you establish the kinds of issues that are likely to arise and how open the young people are to meeting others. The kinds of activities you will want to use will depend on the situation, the nature of the divide and the nature of the contact between the two groups. You might want to use activities that build communication skills, explore the identity of the single group, or start to map local conflicts.

• Download a sample single-group session

Getting to know you - combined-group session

After the single group sessions, it is time for the two groups of young people to come together. You should build in lots of time for the participants to get to know each other before starting to address the deeper issues. A sample session is set out below, but again you will need to vary activities according to how well the groups are getting on.

• Download a sample getting to know you session

Joint activities

Bringing young people together for some joint activities prior to developing more sustained project work is another way in which participants can develop a shared interest in working together. This will give them the chance to build more natural links and friendships than they might in discussion sessions. These activities can be anything that appeals to the young people you are working with, from ten-pin bowling to outward-bound days. It is a good idea to run these early activities away in a neutral place, so that both groups start out on an equal footing. The activities should include room for discussion and reflection, but they can focus mainly on providing chances for the young people to have fun together.

Talking about conflict - combined-group sessions

Once a certain level of trust has been established between the young people taking part, it can be valuable to address issues of conflict. Projects working with divided communities often do an excellent job of bringing young people together but avoid talking about the things that divide them.

Examining the causes of conflict helps young people towards a deeper understanding of relations in their local area. Looking at the roles that they can play in dealing with these conflicts can help to forge stronger relationships between the young people involved. Talking about conflict is also an important step in asking the young people to take responsibility for solving problems. This session asks the young people to develop their role as peace-builders.

• Download a sample talking about conflict session

Celebration

Celebrating what they have achieved through project work is an important way of building young people's self-esteem. It can also be a way of demonstrating what they are capable of to potential or existing funders. A celebration event can also contribute to further reducing community divisions. For example, by inviting community members, parents and carers to the celebration event, they too may get to know each other and the young people can be seen as positive role models for peace-building.

See our Directory for a list of conflict resoltion groups.