Heather Bellamy spoke with Debra Green, the executive director of Redeeming our Communities, about ROC Conversation, a community engagement event.

Heather: At this point in our nation, what would be your biggest concern and the greatest sign of hope?

Debra: The biggest concern is the fragmentation of community, because we all know that you can live on a street and not even know your neighbours, because of people's work and the way that people live very private lives, maybe because of fear of interacting with other people. But I think fragmentation leads to prejudice, it leads to suspicion, it leads to the breakdown of community and we all need to be gathered together. There's great purpose in hearing one-another and knowing we're not living in this community by ourselves, that we have others that are like-minded.

My biggest joy is to see the way in which, we were talking about this before, the way in which churches have embraced this message and churches are going beyond the walls to reach out into community. We've still got a way to go, but churches are saying "We're here for such time as this to really make the gospel tangible to people who don't know the Lord yet."

Heather: If somebody wants to hold a ROC Conversation who hasn't already, what criteria make them suitable to have one in their city or community?

Debra: Honestly, the criteria are so simple; they just need to have a passion for their community. We've done all the hard work of packaging the model up. We've got guidelines and documents that are all prepared. So we as a staff team at ROC HQ will work through that document with a local hosting group and help them to run the ROC Conversation. We even send the invites out; we knock on the door of the chief constable and some of the senior politicians and councillors to make sure that they come to the event, so we're walking alongside that local hosting group. Anyone can have a ROC Conversation.

Heather: Does it have to be a city, or could it be a town within a city as well?

Debra: Yes, towns like Dawlish, we've done. We did a place in Newark in Nottingham. We've done places like rural communities. We did York, the actual city of York. It's different types of communities; they can all qualify.

Heather: How can people find out more if they are interested?

Debra: Go to our website, roc.uk.com, and on there we have a Vimeo channel that gives you some film clips of some ROC Conversations.

Also on our projects page we have the full description of the ROC Conversation and how it works. Get in touch with us and we'll send the pack of information out.