‘Island of Strangers’ video, online and print series

The Mirror’s ‘Island of Strangers’ series works across print, video and online to ask how communities in Britain cross difficult divides. The project was devised as the Prime Minister gave a speech asking whether the UK was becoming ‘an island of strangers’ (a phrase he later said he regretted using). Travelling from Teesside to Merseyside, Yorkshire to South Wales, The Mirror’s Ros Wynne-Jones, John Domokos, Claire Donnelly and Maryam Qaiser went in search of hope in some of the country’s most challenged communities.

They gave space to inspiring stories including a rock-climbing project, Refugees Rock, on an industrial estate in Merseyside close to the epicentre of the 2024 riots. In Middlesborough, they spent time at the Flower Patch, where refugees and people from the local community grow flowers together and reclaim abandoned green space. And in Cardiff they visited Posh Club, a cabaret club for over-60s on one of the Welsh capital’s most notorious estates, where performers included Rahim, a gay, belly-dancing asylum seeker from Morocco.

The series comprises films and print and online features, based on months of conversations and winning the trust of under-reported communities. Community screenings brought people together, and films were screened at the Labour Party conference. 

Judges’ comments: “Giving a voice to those who wouldn't usually be heard is vital in journalism at the moment and this initiative did just that.”