Over 100 delegates assembled for the City and Hackney Togetherness conference on Tuesday 23 July at the Tomlinson Centre. The conference was organised to co-produce a strategy for collaboration and resilience.

Professionals from the public sector and the voluntary and community sector met to discuss their shared agenda of a fairer future for local residents and examined the conditions needed for effective and ongoing collaboration.

In the opening address, Hackney’s Mayor, Caroline Woodley, stressed that Hackney is a place for everyone. She stated: “We are about cohesion and holding everyone together.”

Mayor Woodley and other delegates spoke during the day about the unprecedented pressures the borough is under given the £150million reduction in budget from central government since 2010.

Next up, Natasha Ereira-Guyer from Civil Society Consulting gave a presentation on 32 Steps to Togetherness – a manual to challenging growing social fragmentation and loneliness.

Neima MacFoy, Director of the Huddleston Centre, a centre for disabled children and young people, and their carers and families, spoke about the power of their partnership with the public sector and the voluntary and community sector to support young people with special educational needs.

Delegates had time for meaningful table discussions including an in-depth conversation about why disconnection make communities less resilient. Feedback from tables included:

• Isolation is the big factor for mental and physical health. If you are cut off physically and digitally there is such a risk of loneliness.
• When we are disconnected each person is de-energised.
• Organisations like Hackney CVS and Social Founders need to bring people together.
• Community coalition is imperative for community cohesion.
• Disconnection has a huge impact on people’s health and life expectancy.
• Hackney as a borough of sanctuary has a sense of solidarity in contrast to the hostile environment of recent years.

Click here to download the slidedeck from the conference.

Hackney CVS runs a number of collaborative forums that foster togetherness and resilience – please join us – you can find the details of the project leads on the links below. They include:

Hackney Refugee and Migrant Forum

Health and Social Care Forum

EPIC Health

Lunch clubs