The Great Get Together in Peel Street Park - by Emma Hardy MP and the Peel Project

Emma Hardy MP likes to host a Great Get Together event each year and has done a few different ideas since 2017.

Over the 2022 Great Get Together weekend, Emma Hardy MP and the Peel Project held a Great Get Together event in Hull on Peel Street Park all about rekindling community spirit. It was a beautiful sunny day celebrating everyone who makes up Hull’s vibrant community.

There was a football tournament with local young people and free food and drinks provided and a crafting tent set up where children designed bunting with positive messages (with lots of glitter, of course!). Local faith and community leaders spoke to the #moreincommon message, shared local resources and the importance of community.

With conflict globally causing so many families to be displaced, the theme of welcome struck a chord with many. Hull has historically played an important role in offering sanctuary and this continues today. 

Hull is like a village, where everyone knows each other and is happy to help if you need it. The communities in Hull are brilliant and deserve to be celebrated.

Advice for MPs getting involved

Did you experience any particular successes or challenges when organising?

Getting community groups, like Peel Project, involved was definitely a huge success. They often have a network of people they support who they can invite and we were lucky enough that they have a space they use as a venue. Other years we’ve contacted Hull City Council who have allowed us to use street spaces for coffee mornings. It’s good to look throughout the year to see what’s going on in the local community and if there’s the opportunity to replicate a previous event for The Great Get Together. We were also really lucky to get some funding from local organisations, such as KCOM, Hull’s broadband provider. They have a community fund and also offered to provide volunteers for the event. In return we offered to have their branding on our banner and selfie board.

Some of the challenges we faced were making sure it was accessible for everyone. As the Peel Project had such a big network of people we were concerned about the number of people turning up if it was overly advertised, this meant that when we posted pictures from the day some people felt disappointed they hadn’t seen it advertised. We ended up with around 250 people there.

What impact do you feel the event had?
The Peel Project runs in a very impoverished area of Hull with a lot of cultural diversity. Having people from different backgrounds and communities come together definitely felt significant and really on message for The Great Get Together. Also, choosing to do it in an area which often feels left behind I feel gave people a sense of pride- without asking towards the end of the day we had groups of kids helping us to litter pick and clean up any mess.

What top tips would you offer to other MPs looking to organise a successful Great Get Together event in their constituency?

• Start small! Emma’s first event was a coffee morning in Hull City Centre with a sofa we loaned from a local charity shop and a few chairs. 
• I would also encourage people to involve the local community groups, we managed to split responsibility for organising the event in half this year, which of course took off stress from our office.
  As The Great Get Together is non-political and a positive thing for the community, you’ll often find that local companies are willing to help out with funding or catering. We were really fortunate to get funding from KCOM and 2 Ridings which went towards catering and our banner and selfie board.
• Inviting the press down can often give the event a boost!

Will you be running your own Great Get Together? Register it today to add it to our map.