Explore expert-crafted toolkits designed to weave social cohesion into the fabric of your work
Toolkits
Explore expert-crafted toolkits designed to weave social cohesion into the fabric of your work
Toolkits
Welcome to our Toolkit Library
Our toolkits are based on rigorous research, evidence and developed with the knowledge from practitioners, delivery organisations and sectoral experts. They aim to offer guidance and learning on how to put principles of social cohesion at the heart of your activities.
The Power of
Connection
FREE Toolkit
Key Info
Certification
Free certificate of completion upon plan submission. Four lines!
Completion Time
This toolkit takes an average of 12 hours over the course of 3 weeks.
Free Toolkit
This toolkit is absolutely free! Enjoy!
The Power of Connection toolkit has been designed to help people organising and supporting volunteers and volunteer programmes to provide volunteering opportunities which strengthen meaningful connection between people from different backgrounds.
This helps to reduce prejudice and increase understanding between people from all backgrounds. It also results in more people wanting to volunteer, so it’s a win-win.
Who is it for?
The toolkit aims to help people organising and supporting volunteers and volunteer programmes to provide volunteering opportunities which build stronger social connections between different groups. Strengthening social connections and cohesion helps to reduce prejudice, build trust between people and increases community resilience.
The toolkit could also be used by commissioners, funders and policymakers to think about how to build stronger more cohesive communities and local places. And by businesses and workplaces looking to foster stronger connections and trust with their local area through workforce volunteering schemes.
Link to toolkitIt is very useful as it covers all aspects of volunteering with examples and videos. The toolkit is very easy to navigate, you are able to save all work, takes the info to the next unit and you can dip in and out when possible.
Toolkit User
The Power of
Sport
Free
Key Info
Certification
Free certificate of completion upon plan submission.
Completion Time
This toolkit takes an average of 12 hours over the course of 3 weeks.
Free Toolkit
This toolkit is absolutely free! Enjoy!
Welcome to the Power of Sport toolkit. This toolkit will enable you to explore the vital role that sports and physical activity programmes can play in supporting better social cohesion and integration in local communities and local places.
We know that sports programmes and activities are already having a positive impact on social cohesion and inclusion. Many may not be aware they are doing this. Others have a better understanding of their impact and are already able to demonstrate this.
This toolkit brings together a wealth of best practice examples, guidance, practical tools and resources to help those who are designing and evaluating sports and physical activity programmes deliver better cohesion and integration outcomes. It presents a stream-lined, accessible, step-by-step guide to design and evaluation.
The Belong Network work together with our members to advocate for a kinder, fairer, inclusive British society. If you would like to join us you can find more details of how to do that here.
What do the terms cohesion and integration mean?
Cohesion and integration are terms that describe the extent to which people from different backgrounds mix, interact and get along with each other.
Those differences are typically ethnicity or faith, but they could also be social class, age, gender or disability. Building cohesive communities is about developing neighbourhoods, workplaces, institutions and social spaces where difference is welcomed and celebrated. It is about moving beyond narratives of “us” and “them” towards ideas of kindness, trust, shared identity and a sense of belonging between groups. The terms cohesion and integration have been used at different times to describe this important idea in different ways, but here we are using them as entirely interchangeable.
What role can sport play in building cohesive communities?
Sport has a unique power to bring people together. When we approach sport the right way, it can play a powerful role in bridging divides and helping people to understand and connect with one another.
Designed well, sport has the power to break down barriers between individuals and challenge ingrained prejudices. This toolkit explains how sport can help to build greater social cohesion and provides practical support for designing and evaluating sports and physical activities that can help to achieve this.
Is this toolkit for you?
Are you designing or delivering a sports programme or activity involving sports that will bring people from different backgrounds together?
Are you commissioning a programme that is focused on improving social cohesion, or which could play a role in helping build more cohesive communities?
Are you conducting an evaluation of a sports programme or activity involving sports that involves people from different groups?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then this toolkit is for you!
This toolkit is for those commissioning, designing, delivering and evaluating sports programmes that could play a role in helping to strengthen cohesion and integration in their local area.
- Funders and commissioners can ask for proposals to be submitted on the basis of toolkit completion
- Project initiators can design and evaluate their project with the aid of this toolkit
How do you use this toolkit?
This toolkit provides best practice examples, opportunities to reflect on your practice, and questionnaires to support and develop your understanding.
You can save your results and come back at any time! After each section, we will email you a copy of your answers to save for future reference.
Each section includes:
- Key questions about your programme:
- What are the social cohesion outcomes you might be able to help address?
- Who are the target audiences?
- How will you design your programme in a way that will support social integration and cohesion?
- How will you check that you are having your intended impact?
- Best practice examples and case studies from other sports programmes
- Signposting to relevant data sources, research and resources
- Templates and mini activities to develop your knowledge and improve your practice
What does this toolkit contain?
This toolkit:
- explains how sport and physical activity can lead to greater cohesion and integration
- provides a practical guide to support you in the design and evaluation of these activities
It is structured around sequenced steps, based on the different stages of programme development, delivery and evaluation, as displayed in the following flowchart:
