Based in Bradford, The Linking Network is a charity striving to develop and deepen young people’s knowledge and understanding of identity, diversity, equality and community, creating space for discussion of these issues within the school curriculum and supporting teachers to address them.

We aim to enable children to develop skills of enquiry, critical thinking, reflection and communication, as well as providing the opportunity for children and young people to meet (virtually at the current time), build new relationships, work together and contribute to the wider community. We do this through the high quality resources and planned programmes that we offer. We also produce materials and guidance, and offer training for teachers and headteachers, around SMSC; providing wider support for schools and teachers through lesson plans, curriculum resources, school ethos audits and we work with #iwill on Youth Social Action and Intergenerational Linking. There is strong evidence that high levels of meaningful contact between people from different backgrounds can reduce prejudice, increase trust and understanding between groups and lead to a greater sense of togetherness.

We support a network of facilitators who lead local schools linking programmes in their own area. There are now 29 such locally led areas across the country.