Weaving Trust into a Divided City: Citizens UK Approach

By Ed Wallace, student from Bristol University

Last Monday (10th November), I stepped into a room that felt like a quiet rebellion against the direction Britain is drifting, a room buzzing not with outrage or apathy, but with something far more radical these days; people genuinely trying to understand one another. Citizens UK, alongside the Diocese of Bristol and Bristol Students’ Union, had brought together a Weaving Trust event, an evening built almost entirely around conversation. No long speeches. No debates. No arguments dressed up as ‘dialogue.’ Just structured, honest, human-to-human conversations with people whose paths would rarely cross.

Before the event, I spoke with Sandra Lawson from Citizens UK to understand how these gatherings first came about. Weaving Trust, she told me, was born from a very simple idea; real change begins with real relationships. Communities don’t shift because someone wins an argument; they shift because people begin to understand one another. ‘We live side by side,’ she said, ‘but rarely connect deeply.’ Citizens UK’s organising practice has long been built on this principle, and Weaving Trust was developed to create the conditions for trust to form across faiths, backgrounds, cultures, and experiences. Now, as a Bristol Citizens alliance begins to form, these events are being brought to the city at a moment when they feel more needed than ever.

The evening began with a warm introduction that emphasised not only the purpose of the gathering but the urgency of it, a reminder that in a climate of rising division, the simple act of talking in person has become strangely radical. David, one of the Co-chairs, spoke about ‘countering polarisation’ and reminded us that ‘change is rooted in relationships.’ It was a grounding, hopeful start, and it set the tone for what followed.

The format itself was strikingly simple. Participants were paired off and given eight minutes to speak one-to-one with a stranger, guided by gentle prompts about values, experiences, and memories. After eight minutes, a bell sounded, and everyone switched partners. We repeated this five times. What sounds almost mechanical on paper was, in reality, deeply human, the kind of conversation you almost never get in daily life, where both people enter with the sole intention of listening.

By the end of the carousel, I had spoken with a retired nurse from Easton, a Sudanese asylum seeker, a chaplain from London, a Moroccan refugee, and a local community worker in Bristol. There was no pressure to agree on anything. No space for political point-scoring. Just honest stories that revealed how differently, and yet how similarly, we all move through the world.

The second half of the evening turned towards reflection and action. People shared what had surprised them, what had moved them, and what they might do next. Responses ranged from the very personal (‘I want to keep talking to people I’d normally walk past’) to the practical (‘I think I might start a small group in my community’). It was gentle but hopeful; action rooted not in abstract ideas but in the relationships formed only minutes earlier.

Then came one of the evening’s most powerful contributions. Ahmed, a Citizens UK leader, spoke about his successful campaign in London to secure free bus travel for asylum seekers and refugees, something he and others are now pushing for in Bristol. He spoke about people who can’t afford the fare to reach vital support services, or to attend places of worship, or even to get to a foodbank. ‘If someone can’t afford food,’ he said, voice heavy with tired hope, ‘how can they afford the bus to the foodbank’. The room fell completely still. In that moment, the distance between political rhetoric and lived reality didn’t just shrink, it vanished.

It is impossible to ignore how timely this gathering felt. Only yesterday, the government released ‘Restoring Order and Control: A Statement on the Government’s Asylum and Returns Policy.’ Regardless of where one stands politically, the language used; centred on ‘control,’ ‘deterrence,’ and ‘returns’, widens the psychological divide between citizens and those seeking safety. Policies like these risk hardening the idea that asylum seekers and refugees exist apart from ‘the public,’ rather than as part of our communities. It is precisely this kind of separation that Weaving Trust works against, not through petitions or protests but through something both lower-key and more daring: the decision to meet face-to-face and speak as equals.

Students have a particularly important part to play in all this. Citizens UK has spent the past year building relationships with people from over 40 Bristol-based organisations - schools, colleges, universities, and community groups - ensuring a mix of people participate in these events. Students bring curiosity, fresh ideas, and the ability to imagine something different from the world as it currently is. And Weaving Trust gatherings have already shown what can grow from these encounters; lasting friendships, unexpected collaborations, even campaigns launched between groups who would never otherwise have met.