People, Place, and Purpose: Churches and Neighbourhood Resilience

Based on intensive research in three vulnerable communities in the North East of England, this report highlights the importance of engaging people in common action, curating places of public gathering, and refusing stories of decline and degeneration. The report make 12 specific recommendations. These include that churches should use resilience tools at a neighbourhood, regional and national level to support their community action, resource allocation, and vocational training; local authorities should conduct neighbourhood audits of community facilities; a new Community Wealth Fund could be established; and that churches should be engaging with conversations around culture and identity as enthusiastically as they do on issues of poverty and exclusion.

To accompany the launch of this report, Theos commissioned ComRes to conduct polling intended to gauge optimism and pessimism in the run–up to Britain’s departure from the European Union and to understand public perceptions of the church’s public and social role.

The report is available at: www.theosthinktank.co.uk

The data set is available at: www.comresglobal.com