Are you thinking of holding a Great Get Together, but need a bit of inspiration? Here are some hints, tips and advice from other organisers to help you in your planning.
More hands make light work
Last year, Disley Quakers ran a Great Walk Together to express solidarity for refugees and bring their community together. They tell us about how by working together, a really powerful event can be created.
“Organising the walk was simple. A local family organised the walk, other volunteers baked cakes for post-walk social tea and cake in Lime Park and a further volunteer arranged for it to be advertised.
Overall it was a hugely successful event and incredibly simple to organise – just a few hours work for a small team of volunteers. The group found it a really simple and effective way to bring the community together – all while supporting an excellent cause and building awareness about the need to support refugees.”
Small is beautiful
We’ve learnt a lot over the past few years about how events don’t have to be big to be impactful. At the Howell Road Allotments in Wolverhampton last year, Beverley brought together her community to celebrate their love of nature and the outdoors.
“The Great Get Together is about bringing communities together, and celebrating what we have in common. Every year we do something to honour Jo Cox and raise money for the Foundation and because of Covid restrictions, it had to be outside. There could only be 30 guests so it made sense for it to be held at Howell Road Allotments because that place celebrates what we have in common. The allotment holders are all from different backgrounds and walks of life and they come together because of their love for fruit and vegetables.”
What about your workplace?
This year, Menzies Distribution are running coffee mornings in their branches and hubs to bring colleagues together. Many of us haven’t been able to see the people we work with as often as we used to, and the Great Get Together is a brilliant way of bringing everyone together – to renew old friendships and make new connections.
Kindness by post
Last year, Moorland Primary School in Cardiff worked on a project called Poetry Post, where they wrote poems about kindness and delivered them to houses in the local area. Post is a really powerful tool for connection. For your Great Get Together, you could drop postcards or notes to your neighbours or people in the local area. It’s simple, cheap, and guaranteed to make people smile!
We hope this has given you plenty of inspiration to get started. And don’t worry – it’s not too late to plan something. Great Get Togethers come in all shapes and sizes. What matters the most is that you’re helping people celebrate that we have more in common than that which divides us.