Past Truisms CIC

Past Truisms CIC works to bring together communities who would not normally interact with each other on a social level, who may be at risk of extremism, may have different faith, racial, gender etc characteristics and who may display profound economic differences but who have a common investment in a neighbourhood/area.During the reporting period, the work of PT CIC continued to be impacted as a result of ongoing pandemic concerns, namely that previous small funds available to the CIC were inevitably diverted to deal with post-pandemic and associated cost of living crises issues.However, despite these challenges, the work of PT continued to see considerable proactive interest on the part of organisations who had heard about its work. Activities carried out during the reporting period include:1.Literature Book Festival talk (Glasgow) on the life and times of Robert Stanley – working-class, religion / interests etc and contribution to British civic society and his role as the first Muslim convert community in the UK. 2.Milton Keynes Gallery – Talk on community cohesion/ experiences in relation to life and times of Robert Stanely, accompanied by film festival/showing of ‘Freesia’ – film about Islamophobia and extremism. 3.Brick Lane, London/ British Maritime Museum – Talk about oral history and creative fiction representing working class people and their heritage – to the Brick Lane ethnic/cultural community groups and to public in general. 4.Bolton Council/ Sunnyside Club – Presentation about working class history/British Muslim Community at Bolton Council on request of Mayor’s office and Sunnyside Club.5.Halifax Council/ Library – Hosting author visits and talks; discussions on refugee experiences and treatment of child refugees6.Cross-Cultural Friendship Celebration – with artist/author Razwan ul-Haq at Batley Library7.Skipton Library – Talk on Writing Biographies of Historical Figures8.Delivering the Writer in Residence role for Kirklees Libraries. Continuation of talks, workshops and masterclasses in Kirklees; examining family history, memoir writing, cross-cultural friendships and intergenerational relationships. In addition to this – continuing to support and develop the work of KAFE – Kirklees Author Forum Exchange, held at Huddersfield Library.All of the above activities have contributed directly to reducing ignorance and misunderstanding, deepening understanding between communities, giving individuals greater confidence to challenge misinformation, rumour and prejudicial views, along with providing a rare and real time space for interaction between people from different backgrounds.PT CIC’s stakeholders are UK communities who lack regular social interaction and depth of understanding of one another. After all workshops/ talks that took place during the reporting period, members of the audience were asked to provide either written and verbal feedback. Other stakeholders engaged online via social media, sending views, comments, stories of own histories/experiences through for consideration and comment. People continued to share their own experiences of neighbourliness versus marginalization and their desires to find out more about other social/religious/ethnic groups in society. As a result of the work carried out during 2022-23, future plans for visits, talks, project ambitions etc were made for the following reporting period for 2023-24.