Communities benefiting from good faith relations

The Community Development Foundation (CDF) has published the final evaluation report on its £4.4million Faiths in Action programme, where almost 600 community projects were funded in the last two years.

Feedback suggests that links between faith groups have improved as communities have reached various members of society through innovative outreach schemes.

The report said: “Some of the key challenges for communities included the difficulty of building trust and relationships across different faith groups and developing projects in areas where community dynamics were tense.

“The opportunity for people to engage with others of different faiths and of non-religious beliefs is important and direct personal experience of other faiths and values can help to move towards more integrated communities."

The projects engaged young and old members of the community in a wide range of activities, including training and workshops, sports tournaments and cultural festivals.

Faiths in Action looked specifically at the social impact of the fund in terms of meeting its priorities, which included helping communities develop skills to integrate more effectively in the pursuit of common concerns and shared goals.

Daniel Pearmain, Research Officer at CDF, was responsible for the evaluation.

“The evaluation shows that the Faiths in Action local grant programme has strengthened relationships between people of different faiths, and between those who are religious and those who are not,” he said.

“Closer working relationships have developed between the faith sector, the VCS and statutory agencies. This has resulted in better co-ordination of work towards joint goals around inter faith, and a more inclusive approach to faith issues.

"It also demonstrates that small amounts of funding invested in communities can have impact in building integration.”