Good Practice Guide

What capacities need to be built?

• Tolerance and acceptance of difference, avoidance of negative stereotyping, and a willingness to recognise and tackle racism where it exists.
  
  
• Everyday’ relationships between culturally different groups. Foster contact and exchange across cultural difference, in the process working to undermine negative stereotypes.
  Neighbouring, parenting, working together on common projects
  
  
• Intercultural capacity and cross-cultural empathy among local residents by, among other things, building competency in everyday cross-cultural manners & customs.
  
  
• ‘Interethnic social capital’ by developing trust between various cultural groups and local residents, producing supportive neighbourhoods, building intercultural networks and enhancing civic participation across all cultures.
  
  
• Discussing and solving differences and reducing tensions between different cultural groups.
  
  
• Developing ways to ‘manage togetherness’ in shared settings (places, events, activities…).
  
  
• A willingness to give and take, share and reciprocate among culturally different residents. Embodied in the idea of neighbourliness.
  
  
• Through the concept of ‘multicultural place-sharing’, building a sense of belonging to the local area by developing strategies around place identity and the use of public and symbolic space.
  
  
• Whole of government and community partnerships to capacity to tackle difficult issues such as crime, anti-social behavior, graffiti, social exclusion, poverty and disadvantage etc.
  

Some guiding principles for community harmony projects

Lay the Foundations
Good leadership and anti-racist myth busting messages need to underpin any community harmony program. Access and equity policies and well trained staff are the foundations on which you build.

Avoid tokenism & recognise complexity         
At all costs, one off tokenistic feel good activities should be avoided. Tackling racism and building community harmony requires a well thought through mix of strategies. Think long term, think multiple strategies.

Remember your target audience
Building harmony and community cohesion is not just about CALD communities. Don't forget to include long-time Australians. Don’t just include the ‘converted’. Try to engage those less comfortable with difference.

Widest Audience
Think about how to access the widest possible audience. Projects that occur in public spaces are important. Try not to rely too heavily on very small scale ‘feel good’ activities.

Recognise and manage cultural differences
There are cultural and religious differences that sometimes make bringing groups together difficult (such as food restrictions for some religions). Acknowledge these differences and work with the groups involved to find ways to negotiate these differences in mixed culture contexts.

Local Media
Build relationships with your local newspaper. Get them on board. Work with ethnic community media. Remember: You might only have 20 participants in your initiative, but you can affect attitudes of thousands with good media coverage. Think of media and marketing as central to your project, not an ‘optional extra’.

Participant Buy-In
Make strategic use of steering committees with diverse community representation. Need to work hard to engage and involve community stakeholders in the design and implementation of activities. 

Don’t be afraid to discuss the ‘hard stuff’
Councils should sponsor shared spaces/contexts for discussion and negotiation on ‘place-sharing’ among diverse residents and / or their representatives. Space to discuss the ‘hard stuff’--such as managing change in the diversity of a community, helping long-term residents to be more accepting and welcoming--before it simmers to racism or overt tensions. NOT solely relying on access and equity committees. 

Community capacity building
Be aware of the importance of networks between communities. Between different ethnic community organisations, as well as between mainstream local organisations and ethnic community organisations.

Reflection
Think about what exacerbates interethnic tensions. Does council contribute to them? Eg; Perceived favouritism, poor communication and information, not facilitating calm discussion around tensions.