Across the country, a quiet shift is happening. You can feel it in conversations with residents, partners, volunteers and staff. People are asking bigger questions - not just about the cost of living, the pressure on public services, or the uncertainty coming with the next budget, but about something more fundamental:
What kind of country are we becoming?
These aren’t questions about services or neighbourhood issues alone; they point to something deeper - the wider atmosphere we live in and the evolving story of who we are as a society.
This month, with moments of cultural reflection such as Black History Month, we’re reminded of the many experiences and traditions that make up the UK. These celebrations matter. They help us pause, recognise contributions that have sometimes been overlooked, and appreciate the richness woven through our shared civic life.
In my last blog, I reflected on belonging at a local level – the kind strengthened through everyday interactions. This month, I’ve been thinking about belonging in its broader sense: how people see their place within the national picture, and how cultural identity, kindness and connection shape the country we want to build.
Belonging in a society that is changing
For generations, belonging in Britain was shaped by a fairly stable sense of who we were as a nation. But today, people are navigating identities that layered and personal - shaped by heritage, neighbourhoods, shared interests, life experiences, and the pace of change around us.
What I’ve been reading recently echoes something we see every day in our communities: the country is wrestling with how to hold diversity and unity at the same time. People want to honour their own culture - whether that’s ethnic, regional, religious, generational or simply the culture of their lived experience - while also feeling connected to a wider “us”.
This diversity is not a challenge to overcome; it is part of our national character.But it does mean we need spaces - literal and emotional - that allow people to show up as themselves while still feeling part of something bigger.
And place plays a huge part in this.
Neighbourhoods are more than boundary lines; they are the settings where belonging is experienced most directly. When people feel rooted in a place - whether that’s a village, an estate, a town centre or a community hub - they carry that sense of confidence into the wider world.
This is where the principles of asset-based community development resonate so strongly. When we focus on what people bring, not what they lack; when we recognise strengths rather than problems; when we create opportunities for people to contribute in ways that matter to them - belonging becomes real.
Cultural celebration brings us together - when it honours the whole picture
This month serves as a reminder that celebrating individual cultures should sit comfortably alongside strengthening our shared culture - a culture built on fairness, kindness, respect and a sense of responsibility to one another.
Cultural celebration is sometimes seen as something separate from everyday life. But in truth, it can be one of the strongest connectors we have. When we share food, stories, art, language or history, we’re not dividing people into groups. We’re creating an environment where every experience adds to a richer whole.
This is not about uniformity.
It is about confidence in diversity.
Cultural celebrations offer a chance to practise what good community life looks like: mutual respect, curiosity, warmth, kindness and the reassurance that everyone’s story has a place.
Kindness as a public value
Kindness is often viewed as a personal trait – a small gesture, a quiet act. But at a national level, kindness can be a public value that shapes how we live together.
Kindness is what makes disagreement safe rather than destructive.
It turns diversity into possibility, not tension.
It allows people from different backgrounds to meet without suspicion.
And when kindness becomes part of the social fabric - part of how services are designed, how decisions are made, how neighbourhoods are supported - it strengthens the sense that we share a future, not just a postcode.
People aren’t only looking for support. They’re looking for humanity, stability and reassurance that they matter. Kindness gives shape to that reassurance.
Belonging is built from the ground up
The things that help people feel they belong are rarely abstract. They are practical, human and local:
- Feeling safe in your home.
- Feeling connected to your neighbours.
- Finding support when life is difficult.
- Being able to express who you are without fear.Having the opportunity to contribute.
My reflections become real through what I see every day at Communities 1st and among our partners. In community gardens, warm spaces, digital sessions, cultural events, learning groups and volunteer-led projects, people form connections that have nothing to do with national headlines. They share stories, celebrate each other’s heritage, build confidence and rebuild trust where it has been lost.
These interactions show that belonging is not conceptual. It is relational.
People want to be involved.
People want to contribute.
People want to feel understood and safe.
Most importantly, people want to feel part of something.
Kindness is not an optional extra. It is the essential ingredient that turns a group of neighbours into a community.
People don’t need perfection - they need dignity, consistency and fairness.
These everyday moments - a volunteer helping someone with a device, a resident joining a gardening session, a newcomer welcomed to a café, young people forming connections through shared projects - are the building blocks of a kinder, more confident society. They make cultural celebration feel authentic rather than symbolic.
Why belonging feels fragile - and why that matters
We are living in a time where people feel pulled between pressures - cultural, economic, political, digital. Uncertainty creates space for mistrust and simplifies the story of “us” and “them”.
The response is not to narrow identity or retreat from diversity.
It is to build confidence – in our communities, in one another, and in the values that have long guided the best of British civic life.
Kindness, fairness, tolerance and care are not sentimental ideas. They allow people to disagree without dividing. They make exploration of identity feel safe rather than defensive. They turn diversity into shared potential.
When these foundations are strong, belonging becomes expansive – something that brings pride, not pressure.
Belonging cannot be mandated from Westminster or reduced to a campaign. It is built through daily acts of respect, through trust earned over time, and through spaces where people feel free to bring their whole selves.
At Communities 1st, our role is modest in the national landscape but significant in the scale of local lives. By supporting volunteers, strengthening community organisations and creating places where people connect, we play a meaningful part in shaping the kind of society many people hope for – one that is fair, gentle and welcoming.
Towards a shared civic purpose
It’s clear from the shifting conversations that people want a civic story that feels relevant and honest. One that doesn’t erase difference, but weaves it into a common purpose - a sense of meaning that goes beyond crisis management or political cycles. They want to feel part of a society that reflects who they are and who they aspire to be.
A kinder, more connected society isn’t built by accident.
It grows through relationships, neighbourhoods, place-based engagement, and the everyday interactions that quietly shape our collective future.
We need a vision of belonging that is:
- bigger than politics,
- broader than identity labels,
- and deeper than economic cycles.
A vision that says: We look out for one another. We take pride in who we are, and in who we are becoming. We build communities where people feel safe, respected and seen.
That is not naive. It is necessary.
And while no single organisation can shift the national narrative alone, every community space, creative project, volunteer-led initiative and shared celebration contributes to a wider story - one in which everyone has a stake and everyone has a place.
Finding our way forward
Belonging is changing.
Culture is evolving.
The country is asking itself what it stands for - and what it wants next.
The answers will not come from louder arguments, but from how we treat each other, the places we invest in, and the values we choose to practise every day.
In the end, kindness, culture and connection aren’t small things.
They are the quiet architecture of a society that works.
And if we continue to nurture them – in our neighbourhoods, in our institutions and in our national imagination – we can help shape a future where everyone feels they belong in the story of the country we are becoming.
By Stephen Craker, Chief Executive of Communities 1st
