Notes from my week — The Good, The (not so) bad, & the Brave
The Good: The Power of the 1–1
The 1–1. The organisers bread and butter. I always approach them with a mixture of excitement about the possibilities and concern about how it might go. (The concern, I assure you, is nothing to be concerned about, it means it matters!) I am often blown away by the openness and connection that they bring. This week I met with a community team member who always reminds me of the power of this way of working. She seems surprised to be in the position of making change locally. “I’ve never been involved in anything like this”, she smiles, “I didn’t know things like this existed”. She tells me that her mum is scared to go past the bottom of their street and that was how she was brought up. Recently this person committed herself to going outside her comfort zone. We met when she wandered into an event we were holding because she was curious as to why the usually closed cafe was open in the evening. We invited her to join and she is now a core team member developing her leadership and one of the first to step up to a task in a room full of people who are experienced in being part of community groups. Who cares whether fate or late night coffee brought her our way!
The (not so) Bad: A Balancing act
As a previously shy until proven otherwise person, dealing with dominant voices in any context can be a struggle. So whilst I love the energy of house meetings, they are not my place to shine. The balance between the loud with something to say, the loud with little to say, the quiet with lots to say, the quiet with lots of uncertainty and everybody in between is hard to maintain. This week we had a productive and interesting second house meeting, with some dominant voices that had interesting points to make and information to share, but perhaps overshadowed some of the less confident or experienced people in the room. Like school teachers, we wondered how to break them up, how to dilute their unintentional disruption, and encourage them to give more space to others in the room. Our reflections on how to spotlight the passions of 10 people in a room should make the next house meeting more balanced. The do, reflect, learn cycle. Repeated. Again and again.
The Brave: Allyship in action
Monday morning started with a simultaneous flurry of both anger and pride upon hearing that over the weekend several of my colleagues had walked out on a play that was unexpectedly overtly transphobic. They had already contacted the theatre and relevant parties to ask for their views and to see what remedy may be reached. We discussed what it means to be a good ally, with an emotive rounds question that showed how powerful a group of people dedicated to sharing their power with others can be. That morning I had watched a video of a young trans women being harrased in the street, with people recording on their phones as evidence but not stepping in. In organising every action is planned, reflected on and adapted for increased impact in the future. We try not to be reactive. But, in building up our communities and our allyship we also build up ourselves, ready to take action off the cuff when the unexpected happens and show up for others. I am honoured to work with people walking the walk (straight out the theatre door in this case!)
Learning, doing and growing through the Connecting for Good movement https://www.connectingforgoodcov.com/
