Living Together is a major British Council initiative that brings diverse groups together from 27 countries across Europe, to contribute to the global debate on intercultural dialogue.

Intercultural dialogue covers a wide range of issues from ethnically based conflict and economic migration, to religious tolerance and equal opportunities. It is one of the most important priorities for societies worldwide today.

The aim of Living Together is to contribute to the intercultural dialogue and understanding among the countries in South East, Central and North Europe, including the UK, by delivering a series of networks and public forums on the opportunities, threats and implications of increasingly complex societies.

The project focuses on two main themes which are highly important in terms of intercultural dialogue: “Participation of minority communities in public life” and “New migrant communities & their impact on society”. Each participating country will be running project activities under one of these themes. Living Together will also cover a series of multilateral projects, including education and arts programmes, young people’s programmes and international workshops.

In line with the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue in 2008, the Council of Europe also strongly supports Living Together and has granted their patronage to the project.

In addition to multilateral and regional collaborative projects, arts and education programmes, there will be two high profile events: an international summit and a regional congress.

You can now start to apply for the Living Together Congress which will take place between 4-6 March 2008, in Krakow, Poland. If you are actively involved in promoting social cohesion or you belong to a minority community, we welcome you to apply until 19 November 2008. You can find more information here.

A detailed outline of the project can be found in the dedicated website www.britishcouncil.org/livingtogether. You can find out what are the other countries taking part under one of the two themes of Living Together in the What’s going on in my country? section of the website.