Dover Community Tea – Report
Hosted by Dover Stands Up to Racism
8th July 2016
Months of planning came together on Friday 8th July as the first Dover Community Tea got off to a positive,
cake-laden and well-attended start. The event was organised by Dover Stand Up to Racism, with support from
Churches Together in Dover, South East Kent Trades Union Council, Samphire and HOPEnothate. Over 50
people came together to understand one another better and discuss how we can work together to make
everybody feel safer and more included in the town! As well as, of course, to have tea, eat cakes and be merry!
Structured conversations were facilitated around three themes. Here is what we found out about
our relationships to our town…
What do you like
about life in Dover?
Participants found they had
much in common as they
discussed some of Dover’s
lovely locations; parks,
lakes, hillside and beach
venues.
2
What can be difficult
about life in Dover?
Similarly, many people
pointed out common themes
about what can make life in
Dover difficult. Although
some of our facilitators were
shocked to hear about
discrimination and occasional
racist incidents which people
faced in town.
What should we do next?
We all agreed that moving forward, we, in Dover, need to befriend and stand up for the vulnerable;
build opportunities to work together to make us all feel safer, prouder and more at home in our town:
Meet up more as a community – more community teas, more socials!
Work on more evening activities.
Work together more based on unity, respect and learning from each other!
Do more work outdoors together, engage in community growing, working together
to improve the appearance of green public spaces.
Do community get-togethers in different locations, not just the centre of town!
Work together to spread knowledge about what is going on.
Acknowledge community frictions and tensions and look at ways to move beyond
them.
Get more activities going – football, art!
Campaign to change the High Street and build a better town centre in Dover.
More celebration of different cultures in Dover.
With that in mind, more events and activities are in the pipe line. We are working on organising a
multicultural football tournament to be held over the summer, and we hope to have some more teas as well.
If you’re interested in getting involved contact: [email protected] and/or like our ‘Dover Stand Up to
Racism’ Facebook page.
If we have your details then you can get involved with events and we are always looking for more people to
help out with organising!
A massive thank you to everyone who came down and especially to all those who helped out in anyway.
Special mentions to Lesley Stephenson, Sue Hill, Peter Wallace, Bill Martin, Gary Moore and Sheeren
Hussain who all facilitated a different element on the day.
With thanks from the organising team,
Sarah Gleave, Beccy Sawbridge, Scott Wright (DoverSU2R) & Caroline Browne (Samphire)
Dover SU2R – was established in December 2015 and
constituted officially in February 2016. We are a local group
which aims to: promote a peaceful, harmonious, diverse
and cohesive community in Dover District; value difference
and reject racism in all its forms; use only non-violent action
and peaceful protest to achieve our aims and promote the
human rights of refugees, migrants and other minority
groups, by working with existing groups and promoting new
initiatives.
Samphire – is a local charity which, as part of its work, is
engaging with the Dover community to raise awareness
about the facts about migration, support migrant groups
and work on community cohesion and integration.
Samphire is particularly interested in working in partnership
with local groups and schools and would love to hear from
community members. Contact Samphire on
[email protected] or visit our website for more
information: www.samphireproject.org.uk.