Hope Not Hate: G15’s work to foster community cohesion amidst a time of division

With our recently published Anti-racism strategy for 2026/27, GCPH is firming its commitment towards embedding anti-racism within our work and organisational practice. As part of this, we aim to strengthen relationships with community partners who are leading the way in promoting anti-racism within their communities, helping to foster cohesion and reduce inequality.

G15 Thriving Places (TP) is an organisation based in Drumchapel. It was set up in 2016 as part of a ten-year TP’s strategy to be delivered in ten areas in Glasgow, and has now evolved into G15TP, a third-sector organisation in its own right, due to continued community need. Its work is centred around four overarching themes of poverty, displacement (supporting New Scots), climate justice and community building.

As part of its work in areas of community building and supporting those who have faced displacement, G15TP has worked on yearly anti-racism campaigns in their local area and supports the integration of New Scots to Drumchapel. In this blog, ‘Community Connectors’ Michelle Donaldson, Ted Scanlon and Tracy Forrester share the success of these campaigns, offering inspiration to other local communities who hope to facilitate a bridge from hate to hope.

Communities in the UK, and globally, are facing many tensions relating to political ideologies causing divisions between different groups. One of the ways that this is manifesting is through an increase in racism and anti-immigration rhetoric.

People are experiencing this in their everyday lives, whether on the streets, or on their phones, iPads and TV screens. Closer to home, an increase in racist comments and activities are openly promoted on several social media platforms. Recently, in England some people wanted to set fire to a hotel where asylum seekers were living. These same people raised the St. George’s flag, considered the flag of England, to ‘reclaim’ their streets – insinuating that certain groups did not belong there.

Unfortunately, in Scotland, a minority of people have embraced the idea of using the Scottish flag with similar intent. The Scottish flag cannot be used to identify with racism. On the contrary, the flag represents most Scots who are caring and welcoming people, to the extent that we do not talk of immigrants in Scotland, but of New Scots.

During the month of October, we at G15TP, a collective of three community development workers based in the Drumchapel Community Centre, engaged in different activities promoting Drumchapel as a welcoming multicultural community, open to receive New Scots. We displayed, in the community centre, 26 flags of the countries of origin of New Scots living in Drumchapel. At the centre of these 26 flags we raised the Scottish flag, understood as a symbol of solidarity and unity.

We successfully launched our anti-racism campaign under the title “Hope Not Hate” on the 3^rd of October with songs, poetry, speeches, a quiz and plenty of food. Even with the bad weather, the event was still well attended by just over 200 people.

We organised a global solidarity football tournament under the title of our campaign which brought together 34 men and women of many flags, living in Drumchapel, to play football together.

This year and last, we have been promoting the “human library” where a New Scot goes in to schools, community groups and third-sector organisations to tell their story of how they came to live in Scotland. It is an opportunity to establish a conversation with the pupils and group participants about their story and the issue of racism. We conclude the “human library” activity in the schools by making badges, which the children design, so that they can take something home to talk about with their families. As well as the “human library” activity, each school produced artwork on the issue of racism, reinforcing the campaign message of “Hope not Hate”.

We produced a special edition of the Drumchapel News informing of all the activities we delivered during the month of October. The Drumchapel News goes out to all 7896 households in Drumchapel. We distributed “Show Racism the Red Card” stickers on the “Wear Red Day” in the shopping centre and concluded our campaign with a ceilidh where we all danced together as one community.

Our hope is that the activities we delivered will contribute to helping create a counter narrative to the dominant racist one we hear every day in the corporate media and on several social media outlets.

The special issue of the Drumchapel News will hopefully help every household in Drumchapel, and each one of us, to reflect more on this vital issue as well as help build an even more inclusive and welcoming community, based on care and solidarity.

GCPH commends the work of G15TP as a prime example of tangible local action that can be taken to dispel harmful narratives and build stronger communities. Racism is a fundamental determinant of health and as such should be a public health priority to ensure that all communities have equal access to opportunities and can thrive. In a time of fragmentation and division, we must listen to organisations like G15TP who understand the issues within their communities and the solutions to resolve them – working together to create positive change.