Drawing on our experiences of hosting and facilitating 1000s of conversations across the UK and internationally, we have been working with organisations (examples below) to support them to design conversations that can draw out the collective experiences of people and that can lead to better and deeper relationships and a shared commitment to work towards a common objective.
Some of the conversations we have supported organisations to host include;
- structural racism with the health care system
- putting people first in politics
- school exclusions
- regeneration and the decline of green spaces in London
- conversations around food and farming
- how to better use wetlands to increase health and wellbeing
- the underrepresentation of the LatinX community in London’s decision making processes
EXAMPLE: A SPACE TO THINK, GREATER LONDON AUTHORITY
Supported by the Mayor of London, The Selby Trust, High Trees, Black Thrive, and the Greater London Authority – the London Community Organisers Network has been providing ‘A Space to Think’.
‘A Space to Think’ brings together diverse groups of people – social and community activists, community organisers, third sector and civil society organisations, people who aren’t part of any formal group, and policy makers at Borough and London-wide levels – to discuss some of the burning topics and concerns that Londoners face.
Based around key policy areas – such as the environment, mental health and wellbeing, and migration – the events allow participants to think big, talk openly, and find common ground; to connect and condense the ideas generated into a series of concrete and practical actions that will be taken forward and worked through by new communities of practice.
EXAMPLE: BUILDING TRUST, HAMMERSMITH AND FULHAM
Instigated by Hammersmith and Fulham Council, the Building Trust Project seeks to bring local people together with those in the NHS and council who plan and provide local health and care services.
Working in collaboration with the Council and training provider, Apricot Wellbeing, we are supporting community leaders from the borough’s voluntary and community sector to hold a series of listening events for local black residents, with the aim of creating a shared understanding of how difficult issues like structural racism and poverty affect residents’ experiences of health and care services.
Moussa Amine Sylla (Senior Associate) has delivered listening skills and facilitation training to each of the community leaders involved, and provided support, advice and guidance around the facilitation of the twelve listening events happening across the borough.
EXAMPLE: CLEANING UP POLITICS: PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST
In the summer of 2024, Community Organisers worked with The Democracy Network to host and run a series of conversations with 5 of our Social Action Hubs, as part of The Democracy Network’s campaign to ‘Put People First’.
Conversations took place in Luton, Hartlepool, Stockport, North Birkenhead and Haringey and shifted the focus of The Democracy Network’s work over the election period to recenter those who should be at the heart of any efforts to protect and realise democracy in practice. Especially those communities experiencing socioeconomic inequality or who have been most failed by the political and democratic systems of the UK.
One key theme that came through was the importance of local democracy and the importance of people being able to build local power to inform and influence the decisions and to ‘Clean Up Politics’ which led to The Democracy Network’s next campaign.
In these following conversations communities said there was a need to put ‘ordinary’ people back in to politics, to create spaces where people can be heard and to be more transparent about the division and inequality that exists.
