Welcome to Connecting Communities!

Connecting Communities is the name given to what was initially an eighteen month long project co-ordinated by Charnwood Arts in liaison with the East Midlands Resolving Differences Team and other Resolving Differences Projects in the region. The project primarily focuses on nine areas of Charnwood to identify and explore issues and processes that either promote or act as barriers to local 'community cohesion'.

This site is constantly under construction but a fair amount of content is already on line. The site was built in two phases - the first is related to the work of the first six months of the project and the second is an open and continuing invitation to participation from Charnwood residents. Many people have been involved in it's construction since it's launch in 2002.

In one sense the project is aimed at asking residents to tell the 'truth' about Charnwood and thus reveal the many truths and views about living here, how we get on with each other and where tensions arise. It is also here to build on and celebrate the place we all contribute to as people, making the places that would only be spaces without us.

Connecting Communities has generated many interesting projects and has created a legacy of ongoing initiatives including Charnwood Sportslink, involvement with a Children's Fund project in east Loughborough, youth arts work projects and estate based work in a number of areas and new relationships with many schools and other agencies.

The project has also generated this website, which now contains hundreds of pages related to Charnwood and issues around community cohesion, and CCTV the first home grown web video channel for the area.

More than this it is the invisible work of the project that has held the greatest value. The understanding that has arisen between people of different ages, cultures and backgrounds through the sharing of their time, space and views.