The Centre for Reconciliation Annual Meeting- Building Bridges

Natasha Ereira-Guyer 

Natasha is a passionate advocate for connection, community, and social solidarity. As Founder and Director of Civil Society Consulting (CSC), she leads efforts to support organisations dedicated to improving health, equality, and social cohesion across the UK. In her work with local people and grassroots organisations, Natasha identified fostering connection within and between communities is at the heart of the solution to almost all the issues that CSC works on, hence she has worked with colleagues and partners to develop a national movement called 32 Steps to Togetherness. 

Currently pursuing a part-time PhD at Cambridge University, Natasha’s interdisciplinary mindset has been pivotal in identifying the loss of connection and community as a shared root cause of many societal challenges. Through the lens of ‘Evolutionary Psychiatry’, Natasha’s PhD research explores how cooperative child-rearing can look in the UK, with the idea that we can rebuild community and a sense of belonging, while improving perinatal mental health. Her fieldwork includes studying the social networks of UK mothers and hunter-gatherer mothers in Congo!

Before CSC and Cambridge, Natasha coordinated communications for the United Nations in Rwanda and worked on WTO projects fostering cooperation between India and East Africa. She holds an MSc in Human Evolution and Behaviour, focusing on wild female chimpanzee behaviour, and has a background in Arts and Sciences, politics, and local charities.

Paul Bodenham

Paul will share what he is learning about bridge-building from his work in three diverse areas – for asylum seekers, initially at RAF Scampton and now across Lincolnshire; with communities still impacted by last August’s violent unrest; and with younger generations facing growing climate risks.

Paul is Programme Manager for Social Action in the Catholic Diocese of Nottingham.  In this capacity he leads Caritas in Lincolnshire and the wider East Midlands, part of Caritas Internationalis, the global humanitarian network of the Catholic Church.

He is responsible for developing the diocese's response to a wide range of social concerns, including modern slavery, environment and poverty and inequality; promoting participation of individuals, parishes and partner organisations in faith-based social action, and reflective practice and formation in Catholic social teaching.