Camden Connects
The Local Challenge
In Camden, newly arrived refugee groups often find themselves in unfamiliar surroundings, navigating a new language, new systems, and the lingering effects of trauma. In Belsize Park and Swiss Cottage, Families4Peace supports people from Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Hong Kong who want to share their experiences but have few opportunities to meet others beyond their immediate group. Poverty, unemployment, and limited cultural networks deepen the isolation. The situation mirrors that faced by Camden’s twinned library in Kyiv, where internally displaced people encounter similar barriers. Without spaces for real exchange, stories remain untold, and communities remain apart.
The Initiative
Camden Connects pilots verbal and non-verbal storytelling methods to bring refugee communities together with local residents, using art, craft, music, and games to spark conversation beyond language barriers. Sessions start in Belsize Park, where participants feel more familiar, then move to the Swiss Cottage Library to explore a wider world of library services, including conversation classes and digital learning tools. Each session builds towards a public exhibition and day-long conversation event at Swiss Cottage, where personal stories are displayed and discussed, connecting refugee voices with the wider community. Insights from the project are gathered into a toolkit to share with libraries across the UK, Europe, and Kyiv.
What’s Next?
After the pilot, Swiss Cottage Library plans to apply the toolkit with other groups facing integration barriers, running at least two new series of story-sharing sessions in the following year. Families4Peace and Stories in the Street train library staff and volunteers to lead activities, while selected participants from the pilot become peer facilitators, passing on the approach to others. The exhibition is adapted into a portable format, travelling to other Camden Libraries and community spaces, and shared digitally with partner libraries in Kyiv and beyond. In this way, the connections sparked in a single library room grow into an ongoing network of voices, skills, and shared understanding.
Contact theeuropechallenge@culturalfoundation.eu if you have any questions or want to be connected with the team behind the project.
