Case Studies

The Living Library is a community-based initiative that aims to bring people together through one-to-one conversation and interaction and thereby encourage understanding, challenge negative stereotypes, and reduce prejudice. This way, it further aims to use the simple yet powerful strategy of Living Library to build social cohesion.

The consultation sessions with these groups sought to gather information on people's thoughts regarding the increasing cultural diversity within Holland Park, their thoughts and experiences on racism and any suggestions that would improve race relations and strengthen the community in Holland Park.

This project aimed to establish how: Attitudes to racial groups are formed in certain rural areas; how these attitudes are permeated through local opinion makers or other influential people; how to achieve change on a long term basis; identify the nature of community relations, (inter) ethnic relations and race relations in selected rural communities.

The aim of ‘Belonging to Blackburn with Darwen’ was to build more cohesive and, by definition, stronger communities. The borough recognises that this can only be achieved by strengthening citizenship and forging pride of place - a common understanding of a shared future where all citizens from every economic and cultural background are personal stakeholders.

Migrants who contributed to building the Broken Hill community early last century are often been overlooked in Broken Hill's official histories and the overall formation of Broken Hill community. This project aims to share the migrant history in Broken Hill with the entire community and help people appreciate migrants as important part of their history and community.

This project by the Immigrant Women Speak Out group aimed to work in educational, interactive and non-threatening ways with young and older migrant and refugee women on dealing with Racism.

Involved a conference to identify barriers to equitable access to services and full participation in the community faced by Indigenous and ethnic people; and a forum on "Promoting Good Community Relations" which focused on the reduction of racism and discrimination amongst young people in the community. It also included school peer training sessions.

The Goodness and Kindness Program was initiated in NSW in 2002 as a non-profit grassroots initiative by people of the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths to: Address division in our society and to promote increased action and cooperation on our common values.

This project worked with communities to document the nature and extent of racism and provide regular reporting on incidents across the state. It provided support and resources to ethnic communities in order to combat racism; and worked with mainstream agencies to increase awareness of racism. It also developed training materials aimed at perpetrators of racism.

The Living Library is about building social cohesion in the community and increasing acceptance and understanding. It’s about celebrating diversity and fostering respect and appreciation of any community’s diversity. Personal contact is very powerful in breaking down barriers – it’s very hard to maintain misconceptions and stereotypes when personal exchanges are shared a positive way.

The aim of the project was twofold, to educate and increase the awareness of our own students about racism, stereotyping and multiculturalism and secondly for them to have a voice in the broader community about their perspectives on these issues. The students made a film and teachers made a resource kit to accompany it, thereby creating a resource that would be used in all schools.

The main aim of “Linking New and Old Communities” is to create a model for managing new arrivals in the UK. New Link also assists in the integration of new communities to the local area and to address and prevent tensions emerging with long term resident locals.

ReSolve aims to build and nurture a conflict resolving community where ultimately hurtful conflict does not exist.

To improve relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous groups through recognition and respect.

Melways Community Building Project aims to bring diverse communities together. Building a stronger, more self-reliant community is one of the aims of the Melways Community Building Project, based in Melbourne's inner west.

The aim of the project is to create a forum in which young people can find opportunities for debate, information and participation in the development and improvement of services.

Kar Kulture will encourage contact between young people from migrant communities and from the broader community in Dandenong. This project will help to break down barriers between the different culture groups and promote harmony.

As part of the “Doggies to Highpoint” Community Building Project, Helping Residents Feel More at Home: A Project at Gordon Street in Maribyrnong, aims to build a stronger, more self-reliant community.

The intention of the carnival is to communicate with all sections of Kingston’s communities through attempting to involve members in merry making, dancing and eating. Food and music which are the mainstay of most communities played a crucial role in bringing people together.

This project, Breaking Barriers in Burnley is a multi-agency youth provision project, which aims to involve young people from different areas, backgrounds and cultures together in order to develop positive relationships between the various communities of Burnley. It works to tackle racism, bring communities together, promote understanding and tolerance and to reduce conflict by providing constructive activities for the young people of Burnley.

U-Nite is a community cohesion event held by Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council (UK). It aims to build understanding between young people aged 12 to 19 from different socio-economic groups, ethnic backgrounds and areas. It also puts young people in touch with officers from the borough’s voluntary and statutory agencies in a non-confrontational environment.

The aim of Lane Cove Community Men’s Shed has been to enhance the well-being, health and quality of life of older men by providing a fully equipped workshop and activities/projects to do for themselves and their community. Men from culturally diverse backgrounds share skills and information enhancing each other’s networking opportunities, adult learning opportunities, encourage cross-cultural co-existence and help to combat isolation and depression in older men.

This program seeks to assist young refugees in their immigration and integration to Australia by providing a supportive and enjoyable environment through a soccer development program.

this project was to help newly arrived migrants and refugees who have arrived in Australia to get involved with existing local soccer clubs. The initiative came about due to an increased awareness that newly arrived and refugee communities in theregion, who are interested in and enjoy playing soccer, were not accessing mainstream competitions due to financial, social and cultural barriers.

The aim of the Women Helping Women initiative was to create an intimate relationship between Muslim and non-Muslim women in the Arncliffe/St George area, based on English language learning classes.

The Winds of Change is a movement developed by Asistencia para Latinos to address the issues of cultural isolation and language barriers presented by the new population of Latino immigrants coming to the rural resort areas of Colorado.

Diversity in Libraries is a project aimed at helping libraries build multicultural collections and enhance their role in regards to the acceptance of minorities through intercultural education of librarians

The increase in migrant agricultural workers can be challenging for rural communities. District councils can play an important role in improving local understanding to help migrants and their children. This project aimed to increase community cohesion through education, participation and engagement.

The aim of the pilot project was to utilise mentors to support and guide clients from a refugee background towards appropriate career pathways in terms of employment or further study.

The aim of the project was to support CALD women who were identified as under-represented in leadership and decision-making roles within our community, specifically in the South Western Sydney region where there is a significantly high migrant and refugee population. It was designed to prepare CALD women for leadership roles in their communities as well as in the general community.

Welcoming committees are a useful means of building good relationships between long-time residents and new arrivals to a local community. This PDF includes some examples from regional Victoria.

The aim of the project was to build bridges of tolerance and peace by assisting local refugee and migrant women to resettle in the New Zealand community.

Moving to a new country can be daunting for anyone, trying to adapt to the culture, way of life and often the language. The journey has been made easier for a group of new young arrivals in the inner northern suburbs of Adelaide through the Homework Tutoring Program. The aim of the project is to provide practical assistance in dealing with language barriers and related problems with homework.

This project aimed to: Combat intolerance, bigotry and racism through large-scale community arts projects; and change attitudes through reaching the mainstream community in innovative ways.

The main aims of ‘Difference in a Day’ are to: work with schools to foster positive relationships between young people from different cultural backgrounds, work in partnership with community arts groups and organisations to promote community cohesion, and facilitate greater understanding of commonality, and encouraging young people to celebrate this.

The original aim was to develop new audiences for the Rugby Art Gallery and Museum (RAGM). The Pupil Reintegration Unit (PRU) and Youth Offending Team (YOT) would access a creative resource enabling young people to experience artists and art in its widest sense.

The objectives of the Lifecycle project were to bring people together, to establish links within and between the sub-communities that form our shared community. Lifecycle provided a forum for interculture, intergenerational and interfaith sharing and storytelling.

The aim of these interrelated projects was to focus on creating intercultural exchange through the use of public space, to engage with the Indigenous population and create sustainable harmonious outcomes through working together.

The aim of the project is to enable people to make their own comics as a means of expression, to tackle issues and produce information for the creation of communal harmony.

The aim of this project was to promote community harmony to people from all cultural backgrounds and ages in the Palmerston community by undertaking a major cultural development project including forums, workshops, events and multimedia products.

This project, now drawn to a close, aimed to increase public awareness of Living in Harmony values through a visible contribution to volunteer services by young people from a diverse range of cultural backgrounds.

The aim of the festival is to enhance community cohesion and help create a healthy, interesting and beautiful environment by bringing people together from various cultural backgrounds in activities that emphasise their common future together, care for the environment and their contribution to their community

Ashfield's Community Harmony project focused on creating a welcoming atmosphere in its multicultural town centre. The project built relationships with mostly Chinese shopkeepers, and aimed to draw more non-Chinese into Chinese owned shops.

The aim of the Cramer Street Project was to promote the concept of an inclusive neighbourhood whereby the Mosque, like the local church and primary school, is accepted as an integral part of the neighbourhood. The project helped to minimise isolation and segregation between neighbours arising out of differences in ethnicity, culture, religion and language.

The international Intercultural City project, undertaken between 2005 and 2007 explored: the institutional barriers and opportunities to maximizing economic benefits; considered the urban planning needs of cities with culturally diverse demographics; and aimed to provide guidance for future policy on diversity and wealth creation in cities.

The aim of the belonging project is to celebrate the diversity of people in Auckland, while giving individuals and organisations the opportunity to: Think about and describe what their community means to them and how they belong; Get involved and make their mark in their community.