Philosophy for Communities

1. Philosophy for Communities

2. Workshop Content • Presentation • what is philosophy for communities and why should you use it • impacts of the Philosophy for Communities project in Oldham and Rochdale (10 mins) • Your very own philosophical enquiry (30 mins) • Questions (10 mins) • 4 minute film featuring the participants of the Oldham and Rochdale project (5 mins)

3. What is philosophy for communities? • Originated in the 1960s during student unrest • Used in 60 countries worldwide to promote thinking and listening skills in schools • Based on principles of socratic dialogue

4. What is philosophy for communities? • How philosophy for communities works in practice • The 10 steps of the philosophical enquiry • Examples of uses

5. How Philosophy for Communities came to Oldham and Rochdale • ‘Philosophies for Children’ is used in many Oldham based schools • Contour Housing proposed to use their experience of ‘philosophy for children’ and apply it to ‘philosophy for communities’ • Commissioned to carry out some philosophy for communities in Alt (Oldham) and Kirkholt (Rochdale)

6. Cohesion Counts Overarching Aims • To improve residents’ satisfaction with the neighbourhood in which they live • To improve residents’ sense of belonging to their street, neighbourhood and borough • To improve residents’ perceptions of living in communities mixed by age, tenure, property types, areas of the neighbourhood and social and ethnic backgrounds

7. Cohesion Counts Overarching Aims 4. To improve relationships within neighbourhoods between residents mixed by age, tenure, property types, areas of the neighbourhood and social and ethnic backgrounds 5. To encourage residents to build relationships with people from different backgrounds from themselves through meeting and talking in a variety of places

8. Project objectives • To facilitate dialogue and bring people together from different backgrounds, ages, and ethnicities (Alt and Kirkholt) • To encourage residents to articulate their views clearly, listen to other points of view and value each other (Alt and Kirkholt) • To aid intergenerational understanding (Kirkholt) • To encourage residents to get involved with consultation and engagement (Alt and Kirkholt)

9. Evaluation methodologies • Pre and post questionnaires • Participants • Family and friends • Longitudinal • Blogs throughout the project • Qualitative ‘big brother diary room’

10. Satisfaction with Alt as a place to live ~ before and after attending the P4C sessions

11. Satisfaction with Kirkholt as a place to live ~ before and after attending the P4C sessions

12. Levels of agreement among participants that having a mix of people from different backgrounds makes Alt a more enjoyable place to live

13. Levels of agreement among participants that having a mix of older people and teenagers makes Kirkholt a more enjoyable place to live

14. Personal Development • Alt participants felt less confident in talking in a group and in listening to others’ views • Self awareness • Kirkholt participants felt more confident in speaking up in a group, better able to put their views across and better able to listen to others’ views • Alt and Kirkholt participants felt that being part of the P4C project had made them more accepting of and more likely to socialise with people from different backgrounds

15. Your own philosophical enquiry • Information about the enquiry to go here

16. Your own philosophical enquiry • questions

17. What participants think • 4 minute film on the impacts on community cohesion in Alt and Kirkholt

18. Philosophy for Communities