This course is designed to support professionals who may be working in the broad area of inter-community relations and may at times need to encourage open, albeit sensitive, discussions about issues that may seem quite contentious to some.

Such issues can often involve themes that people of different backgrounds may disagree on due to religious, ethnic or cultural backgrounds. From our experience these issues often manifest as debates around gender equality – forced marriage, FGM, domestic violence or even lower level discussions about family roles and expectations, for example. Sexual orientation is another theme that arises where some religiously / culturally conservative communities often struggle to come to terms with modern expectations of human relationships.

There is, thus, a need to open up discussions about how the interface between public policy and community life can be managed better in this regard and to support people that work in this important arena.

This course aims to provide a greater degree of confidence to engage in discussions around themes that are often thought of as ‘difficult’ in nature. This is not a ‘conflict resolution’ course but is about preparing better and being more aware of the background issues. This is critical to holding and managing a more constructive (even if robust) discussion.

Length of course: 2.5 hours (but courses can be tailor made to suit specific groups).