Nurseries are at the heart of enabling children to positively contribute to the communities they live in. Through their work with children and families, nurseries can help to create happier and healthier neighbourhoods that are more cohesive. In this blogpost, we explore how early years providers might show this kind of community leadership.
Supported by the British Academy and the Nuffield Foundation through their Understanding Communities programme, our research team have been exploring how organisations that work with children are a fundamental part of building strong and cohesive communities. Below we share some of our findings about 1) what community cohesion looks like on an everyday basis and what it means to early years providers in particular and 2) some of the practical ways that organisations working with children and families enable community cohesion as part of the work that they do.
In our research, when we talk about “happier local neighbourhoods” we are thinking particularly about the strength of community cohesion in a local area. Community cohesion can be defined as “both a process and a state that describes people’s connection to other individuals, groups and communities” (Beyond Us and Them project, 2021). This definition suggests that connection is at the heart of community cohesion in a local area. Meaningful connection can look like lots of small things that happen day to day – it might be a smile, a wave or a conversation – and it can lead to bigger things, such as friendships, community groups and practical grassroots support in times of difficulty.
For organisations that work with children, community cohesion is often a by-product rather than the central aim as Dom Rice, Operations Manager of the Youth and Play service at Bolton Local Authority explains: “Kids probably naturally do it anywhere, just through the natural crossovers of their day.”
