Out of the comfort zone, standing together against hate

It's always good to get out of your comfort zone.

I’m the public affairs lead for Core Cities UK. You probably won't have heard of us, but I won’t take it personally because we're involved in some pretty niche areas of public policy, for example fiscal devolution, investment vehicles into cities and tourism levy.

Our key audiences tend to be civil service, government ministers, think tanks and private sector regeneration businesses. We don't provide vital day to day services to the public. Most people, outside our rarified group of partners and stakeholders, wouldn’t know what we do.

But late last year we embarked on a project that was completely outside of our economic policy comfort zone.

Fraying community cohesion

Our city leaders and their CEOs expressed growing worries about the rise of people being openly racist towards others in our communities. Some of our citizens actually felt afraid in their own neighbourhoods. Community cohesion in our places, some of the most diverse and vibrant places in the UK, was fraying. We felt we had to do something.

After all, the Core Cities are global cities, home to many different communities and cultures. Our leaders will tell you that what happens in the world, from Gaza to Taiwan, impacts directly on our streets and neighbourhoods.

We wanted a public statement, a line in the sand if you will, and began work on a video called Core Cities UK Standing Together Against Hate.

We released it in early March … 

As you can see, it's pretty quick and dirty, short pieces to camera filmed by eleven Core City comms teams from across the UK, all working to a brief written by me.

The videos came in a variety of formats, but thanks to comms colleagues at Leeds City Council who generously gave their time to edit and caption, we managed to edit into a half decent two-minute video.

There's no excuse for racism

I think it does a good job of explaining a pretty complex subject, tells a strong story and echoes already brilliant work by colleagues across our cities who have produced anti-hate campaigns in conjunction with other public bodies.

It acknowledges that community relations in our places are strained, sometimes deliberately by 'bad actors', but is clear there will never be any excuse for racism.

And it reminds that city leaders are often conveners in place and are working with other leaders in our cities, from across the public and private sectors, to make sure racism is never tolerated.

It’s also realistic. The fightback against racism cannot be won through a one-off statement. We understand a sustained campaign and collective leadership is needed.

As our chair, Cllr James Lewis, says: “It’s time to work together to counter those arguments of division and hatred. It is time to make a stand against racism and hate.”

Will Mapplebeck is public affairs lead at Core Cities UK. His blog was first published at Comm2point0, the website owned by Creative Communicators founder Darren Caveney.

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