Protests and Demonstrations
Who we are
Centre for Good Relations (CfGR) is an independent, not for profit company that seeks to empower people to address conflict constructively, helping to build more resilient communities across Scotland.
Our core work is ‘civic mediation’, which uses the mediative processes to seek constructive approaches to conflict through empowering everyday people to engage in societal challenges, creating more sustainable and inclusive systems for communities to thrive in.
Good relations work creates space for people themselves to work towards positive outcomes.
How CfGR can help
Steward and marshalling training
The training is available to anyone who is involved in stewarding marches, parades and protests. The training will build the capacity of organisations facilitating these events to plan, prepare and run their events in a safe and professional manner – with particular focus being on public and personal safety as well as risk management.
If you are interested in Steward and Marshalling training, contact our Senior Practitioner, Abdul, at abdul@centreforgoodrelations.com.
How are you being heard?
How well is protesting working for you? Are you reaching all the people you want to?
Centre for Good Relations works with people on matters of contention, taking them through dialogue processes which unpack issues and tensions. Practitioners build avenues for conversation across power systems – including all parties impacted by a conflict/ issue – to create people driven solutions.
Part of our process is to look at if and how people are being heard and what impact that is having. Some questions we have put forward to parties involved in protesting is: who is listening to you and when they are, how are they listening to you? With this question, practitioners gauge: 1) what messages are being shared; 2) how they are being received; 3) what is the level of understanding around the reasons for protesting by the desired recipients; and 4) what response is being sought by those protesting?
If you would like to explore how CfGR can help build meaningful dialogue, contact our Project Officer and Practitioner, Patricia, at patricia@centreforgoodrelations.com.
Resources
CfGR developed a handout to help people handle difficult conversations. The flyer covers an introduction to conflict awareness and provides tools to approach and facilitate the types of difficult conversations you may have.
This resource came from a series of sessions on “How to Have Difficult Conversations”, created for every day people dealing with conflict in their daily interactions – whether that be at work, at a protest, or at their family dinner table. Practitioners have included ‘tips and tricks’ on how to take care of yourself when approaching in these conversations and introduce tools to help you engage safely and productively.
To learn more about our work around protests, marches, and demonstrations, view our previous initiative around COP26 on the Keeping Our Cool page. Practitioners’ reflections of the initiative are available in our Blogs, and a formal report of the work is available to download here:
If you are interested in helping to fund our work, please contact our Directors, Abdul Rahim or Sam Tedcastle: abdul@centreforgoodrelations.com, sam@centreforgoodrelations.com.