Bridging the Gap - standing shoulder to shoulder in Glasgow

Using a range of activities and services, Bridging the Gap maintains a flexibility and openness to new needs as well as a commitment to successfully breaking down barriers and integrating the community. Find out how... 

Jesus didn’t walk behind or in front of people but shoulder to shoulder with them,  and that’s exactly what we want to do in our work. "

As the name would suggest, Bridging the Gap puts its faith into action by finding the gaps in its local community and bridging them. 'In 1998 a local priest and minister were aware of the territorialism and division in the community and began organising events involving school children that crossed the divide,' says Tricia. 'A few years later when Glasgow became home to a large number of asylum seekers, the local community asked us to step in and take the lead on integrating the new people into the community.' Eager to help, Bridging the Gap provided English classes and gave practical help with essential food and clothing parcels.

Whilst this was well-received by the asylum seekers, they found it did create some division in the community. 'Gorbals has lots of people living in poverty, not just asylum seekers,' explains Tricia, 'and it became hard to justify why we were helping one group over another.' So they changed the services they offered and began a drop-in centre open to everyone. 'Every Thursday we have up to 60 adults and children come and join us, representing a wide range of ethnicities and backgrounds. The idea is to get the community integrated and to break down barriers so we do all sorts of activities together.' These include ‘keep fit’, games, a Samba band and workshops on things like flower arranging. They’ve worked with a local choir, got different people to cook meals from different cultures and have talks about different faiths to break down myths about religions. They run five big celebration events a year too and a separate women’s group has grown out of the drop-in centre. The women's group play Bingo and have fish suppers as well as working on joint projects like making a quilt that represents their different stories.

The Bridging the Gap team still do advocacy work for asylum seekers to help them in their claims and have found that volunteer placements can have a very positive effect. In fact their volunteer programme is open to anyone who is out of work and wants to keep up their skills or learn new ones. Sometimes this has led on to further training and employment, other times it just helps asylum seekers who aren’t allowed to work but don’t want to sit around.

Understanding each other

So much of what causes division is pre-conceived ideas about others and Bridging the Gap has had real success with a project aimed specifically at breaking down myths amongst the younger generation." 

So much of what causes division is pre-conceived ideas about others and Bridging the Gap has had real success with a project aimed specifically at breaking down myths amongst the younger generation. Tricia explains, 'Some people in the community thought asylum seekers had everything. They perceived they were terrorists, driving round in flashy cars, talking on the latest mobile phones – all on hand-outs from the government. The truth is that many are destitute, and the vast majority are desperate to work and contribute to society – they don’t want to live on hand-outs from anyone.' The project takes a game into the classrooms of primary school children and they are asked to think about what they would take with them if they were forced to leave their country with just 10 minutes notice. Asylum seekers and refugees take part in the class, often wearing their national costume and helping the children learn how to count up to 10 in their native language. Recently one of the teachers whose class took part said it was the most powerful lesson she had ever seen in all her years of teaching.

Responding to new needs

The work of the charity changes as new needs are discovered. When they found that some children were having trouble making the move from primary to secondary school, Bridging the Gap began a peer tutoring project. Secondary school pupils volunteer and are trained to coach vulnerable primary school leavers and smooth their transition to the new school. Tricia added, 'We recently came across people in our area who are addicted to drugs and alcohol. They don’t come to our events so we want to find some other ways to reach and engage with them and others like them who are in very vulnerable positions.'

There are so many inspiring things about the work of Bridging the Gap – from the fact that young people are volunteering to help others through the peer mentoring programme to the way the team are flexible in their approach. Tricia says that Bridging the Gap employees and volunteers love their work; 'I think we’re dead fortunate here; we’re passionate about what we do whether that’s bringing our community together or helping young people become good citizens. We get to meet so many people from so many different countries and we learn so much about their cultures. There are so many amazing people who have shown such courage and resilience in the face of adversity. It’s a blessing for us to do anything we can to help.'

We’re dead fortunate here; we’re passionate about what we do whether that’s bringing our community together or helping young people become good citizens. There are so many amazing people who have shown such courage and resilience in the face of adversity. It’s a blessing for us to do anything we can to help. "

Inspired? Tricia gives her top tips for planning outreach into your community:

• Listen to the community. Really listen. Find out what’s going on; don’t just assume you know what the needs are.

• Involve your local community and get a few key people on your team. They know what works and what doesn’t because they are on the ground. We have four refugees on our board of Directors who help to shape the work that we do, one of whom is our Treasurer. For our schools project we had some pupils who wanted to get more involved – we imagined they could be used as spokespeople but what they wanted was to get involved with the board so we got them some training and now they are part of the team.

• Start off small. It’s good to have a big vision but take things one step at a time and see where they lead. It’s my experience that small steps lead to big successes.

• Follow the needs – if they change, change and grow with them.

• Simple ideas can be really effective. We take day trips to the seaside in the summer and it’s amazing how different people feel for a day away from the stresses and strains of life. Some have never been outside of the city; others just enjoy the singing on the bus to and from the trip!

• Build a good team environment for your workers. We are all passionate about the work we do and we all stand shoulder to shoulder. We each have clearly defined roles but are also happy to help each other out when we need to. It also really helps to keep a sense of humour and find fun ways of dealing with stress as well!

Need some more help?

If you’re trying to set up a similar project to Bridging the Gap and would value talking to Tricia or the team in Glasgow, you can contact them at tricia@bridging-the-gap.org

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