The Power of The Parklet
You might be asking yourself “What the heck is a Parklet?
Put simply it’s our way of disrupting a space in an eye-catching way. So that we can reach out to a wide range of people while creating awareness about an idea or issue. Our intention is to make it look and feel completely different from a normal conversation. Also, we don’t want it to look like we are trying to sell UPVC windows!
Each Parklet is unique and they will look different as they are powered by the people leading on the idea or issue they want to make change on.
Why do we listen?
Listening is a fundamental aspect of Community Organising. It helps us to build relationships and connect with new people to uncover and understand some of the issues that people might want to take action upon. We listen in a variety of ways the Parklet is one of them.
Need the loo?
I am currently working with a group of local people on the Need The Loo campaign. Their aim is to improve Coventry’s free toilet provision in the City Centre as they know that it can be a major access barrier for people of all ages. They are currently in the listening phase. To aid their listening they created a questionnaire. But they also wanted to speak with people to hear living experiences.
We scheduled three listening opportunities. The first was at Earlsdon Retirement Village, the second was at a Stroke Support Group and the third was based in the City Centre.
Your voice can make a difference
Over the past couple of years as a Community Organiser, I have had many people say that their voice is not heard. Traditionally it isn’t and people often give up trying to change a system that doesn’t work for them.
We actively seek people’s voices and their unique stories. We believe that these are the voices that can make change happen. They may not always believe it at first but as they start to step into their power they realise that their voice can make the change that they want to see.
One of my all-time favourite quotes is by Margaret Mead:
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Organised listening
The three listening opportunities were all very different so information had to be gathered in different ways. It was worth spending time before to unpick the best ways to collect information:
- Emails to groups asking them if they would like to be involved in the listening
- Designing questions to see if there are gaps in the data — age groups/disability/etc
- Scribes to help those who may need assistance filling in a questionnaire
- For the tech-savvy QR Codes and printed flyers with them on
- Printed copies and a designated drop-off point and time
- Digital copies that could be shared online
- Eye-catching posters for the parklet
- Social media posts with Calls To Action
- Invite people from the wider movement to shadow and have a go!
Growing stronger
Highlighting opportunities for people to join and help to grow the campaign is an important part of listening. The need The Loo team decided a lower level of engagement option was to capture people’s emails who wanted to be kept up to date. And a higher level asking people if they would like to use their skills and time to grow the campaign.
From the responses, people are keen to be kept up to date. Including a revisit to one of the groups to let them know of the progress and how they can get involved. They shared that part is generally missing in the normal consolation process.
After the Parklet has finished its time to reflect and stratergise. With careful planning each action should help the campaign to grow stronger. Each action will help those involved to grow stronger. Each action is a stepping stone closer to the world that they want to see.
Have your say
If you are local to Coventry and have some experience of going into the City Centre have your say on the public loo debate! https://bit.ly/3JcbWLy
If you would like to find out more about how you can get involved with the Need The Loo campaign drop me an email mvsmith@grapevinecovandwarks.org
