Middlesbrough Community Bridgebuilders - Full Programme

An interactive, skill based programme to help you improve our community cohesion by building bridges and creating lasting relationships. Let's come together to strengthen our community bonds and make Middlesbrough an even better place to live!

It's free, as are the dinks and snacks, and you'll emerge with a fresh set of skills, some new connections and relationships, and a stronger, more vibrant community network.

It will help strengthen your skills to:

• Talk with people who bring different perspectives
• Deal with hard conversations in a better way
• Encourage positive changes in your own community, organisation or group

“I used to say, ‘I haven’t got time to do this.’
Now I say, ‘I haven’t got time NOT to do this."

Together, let’s build bridges in Middlesbrough– not walls.

Tues 13th Jan 2026 - Middlesbrough Town Hall Crypt 9.30 - 12.30

Tues 20th Jan 2026 - The Studio, Teesside University 9.30-12.30 & 1.30-4.30

Tues 27th Jan 2026 - The Studio, Teesside University 9.30-12.30 & 1.30-4.30

Tues 3rd Feb 2026 - The Studio, Teesside University 9.30-12.30 & 1.30-4.30

Tues 10th Feb 2026 - The Studio, Teesside University 9.30-12.30 & 1.30-4.30

Tues 17th Feb 2026 - The Studio, Teesside University 1.30-4.30

(The 1st and 6th session will be delivered as one large group. Sessions 2-5 will be delivered to half the group at a time to encourage greater participation by everyone. On those days there will be a choice which one you attend. You do not attend both sessions on the same day, just one of them)

Sessions will cover:
1. Create Connection - Practical ways to create stronger connection by changing the way we speak and listen to each other.

2.Explore Relationship - Examining the stories that drive division in the first place

3.Take Ownership - How we all have agency and can create change where we are.

4.Stay Open, Meet Needs - How to be more open to different people and ideas and the importance of recognising basic human needs

5.Challenge, Be Challenged - How to express – and hear – different views in ways that open things up rather than closing them down.

6.Bridge, Build, Brave.

• Bridge – What new connections can we forge within and between communities?
• Build – How will we turn those connections into meaningful collaborations?.
• Brave – How will we stand up together against injustice and challenge the stories and systems that currently divide us?

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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Host or Publisher Middlesbrough Voluntary Development Agency