CAMDEN IMAGINES PARTICIPANT BLOGS
I’m increasingly thinking back to the past to move into the future
My thoughts as a new imagination activist — by Ododo Dafé
This blog is part of a series of blogs written by the participants of the Camden Imagines programme. This eight week training introduced council officers and public servants to the skills of collective imagination and horizontal leadership to empower them to become agents of change in the borough.
Ododo works in housing at Camden Council as the head of housing transformation. In this blog she reflects on how thinking into the future on the programme helped her to think differently about transformation.
A few months ago, I had no idea what an imagination activist was. Yet see me now! I feel like I’ve found a space in which I feel very comfortable, a sense of belonging, and a new identity that I’m loving.
My journey has really had me question issues of creativity, its many forms and manifestations, how it lingers within us all, and sometimes only needs a little encouragement for it to pop out!
I’m so appreciative to have had the opportunity to go on a fascinating journey of discovery with amazing colleagues; and to Phoebe Tickell for navigating us through it. She took us through her work on imagination activism and introduced us to the work of several people, and one person I will highlight here is Rob Hopkins. Phoebe also made it possible for us to meet with him and experience Rob’s ability to fire up our imagination, and hear of so many examples where people within communities have made significant changes sparked by their imagination.
Before the session with Rob Hopkins, we’d been asked to read a very short passage from his book and respond to a few questions in preparation for our amazing eight week course (was it a course, or could it better be described as a profoundly effective developmental life journey?!)
The passage made me smile as it took me back to my childhood, and in my heart I yearned for more of that sense from the past. For example the woods between North Ealing and Hanger Lane/Park Royal that I used to walk through on my own, aged around 10, to get to and from school with the warm sun dappling through the treetops. Also the gorgeous smells from the bakery in our small parade of shops which included a green grocer, butcher, florist, fishmonger, watchmaker, sweet shop, electrical repair shop, launderette and grocer shop that sold only one type of sugar, one make of yoghurt, and only one type of possibly three brands of washing powder (Daz, Omo and Persil). Also the knock we’d get on our front door with the words “Are you coming out to play?” Those were days before the huge Tesco opened its doors in Acton, offering us more choice than was good for us, and before McDonald’s appeared on Acton High Street.
Now people who know me know that I like change, and progress, and moving forward, and improvement… But I’m increasingly thinking back to the past to move into the future. For example, thinking about how some of our housing transformation work potentially needs a ‘back to basics’ approach. Since participating in the Camden Imagines programme I’m even more convinced of this, in a sort of ‘go slow to go fast’ way, or in a way that reconnects us to our shared values of not only treating people well but also treating our environment and our planet well, and with deep care.
My thinking and imagination was taken to new levels through the concept of future generations, when we were asked to consider the effects of decisions we take now on the 7th generation — my own descendants seven generations from now whose names I would never know, and who I would never meet. Yet people who I could conceptually ask for advice from that future place. For any question posed, what might their advice be?
I wonder what our response might be if our future generations said to us: “My goodness, housing and council people. You had a captive audience right in the palm of your hands in terms of council tenants and people who came to you for help with housing. You talked a good talk about social housing being more than just the roof over your head, more than the bricks and mortar, and some of you did some great stuff around, for example, tackling causes of homelessness, helping people struggling with addictive behaviours, and providing employment, financial and digital support. But we’d like you to reflect on whether you did enough? Whether you could have done more to dismantle some of the social systems that gave rise to the increase in homelessness that many of you saw during your adult lives?”
I find it fascinating to think about this. And it leads me to the final thing I’d like to mention from my journey: the ‘What if…?’ question. For some years I have been perturbed by the outcomes of some ‘looked after’ children, particularly given those two words used to describe them; and the previously used language of ‘children in care’. Nationally, the outcomes are poor for people who have been cared for or looked after — and I wonder why. I’ve been pondering lots of ‘What if…?’ questions and, in closing, I’d like to leave some for you to mull over:
What if people didn’t ever experience homelessness and a life on the streets?
What if the percentage of looked after children experiencing homelessness or a custodial sentence in their adult life was reduced to nil?
What if children regularly knocked on their neighbours door and said “Are you coming out to play?”
What if loneliness was not something that younger and older people, and everyone in between experienced for prolonged periods?
What if people felt safe at home, and outside their home?
What if our neighborhoods were buzzing with life of all forms, vitality, energy and creativity — and people felt safe and connected to each other, their surroundings and to their planet?
What if we didn’t have a single child start their classes hungry, or go to bed either hungry or cold, or both?
What if, on the days we worked (probably three days a week) or volunteered in our communities, we regularly had a smile on our face and went home buzzing with the joys of a good day’s endeavour done brilliantly and among people we love and care deeply for?
What if someone from our near future told us that from where they are in perhaps 2030 or 2040, all the above ‘What if…?’s have come to pass?
Wow folks, how did we do it?
Ododo Dafé
31.1.23
This blog is part of a series written by Camden’s Imagination Activists as part of their Imagination Activism programme called “Camden Imagines”. To read the other blogposts in the series, please visit this link.
