Above: Diversity and Dialogue website

The 'Broadening Horizons' pilot project links together students from rural and urban areas and gives them the opportunity to experience and explore cultural and ethnic diversity between their communities. During the pilot phase of the project students and teachers from linked schools in Leytonstone, East London and Camelford, Cornwall travelled to one anothers communities for a 4-5 day exchange during which students engaged in explorations of their own identity and the identities and lifestyles of others. Prior to embarking on the exchange students undertook video diaries to provide peers at their partner school with insights into their lives, school and community. During each exchange, host students acted as local guides and welcomed their visitors into the local community and together visited sites of cultural and social interest.

Diversity and Dialogue (led by the Citizenship Foundation in partnership with Christian Aid, Islamic Relief, the Jewish Council for Racial Equality, Muslim Aid, Oxfam, Save the Children and World Jewish Relief) aims to bring awareness to issues of diversity and difference by allowing students to take part in experiential learning. For further information about the initiative a 10 minute DVD and case study detail the experiences and outcomes of the pilot project and provide schools, teachers and organisations interested in undertaking a similar rural-urban linking project with a framework and guidance from which to develop their own project. The DVD and case study can be accessed by following the link to the Diversity and Dialogue website below.