What are the possibilities of a community research network?
Our Problem
Since Noisy Cricket’s inception in 2016, our small but mighty social enterprise has been exploring how to proliferate reciprocally nurturing systems. Sounds fancy, but to put it simply, we want to realise a society which mutually benefits everyone. That’s because when people are free to be who they are and live the lives they want to, everyone thrives.
So, we bring people together, from groups who have been marginalised and disadvantaged alongside organisations across sectors, and we co-create transformational and innovative possibilities for society. While our vision and mission weren’t clear from the outset — it’s evolving all the time — the practice that underpinned our work from the start was.
Community engagement just made sense. If we worked out what everyone impacted or influenced by a social issue wanted, needed and hoped for, we could create insights, spaces and solutions which work for everyone. What we hadn’t accounted for was how organisational agendas often point in directions other than those they exist to serve.
Working with clients across the public, third and private sectors, we’ve seen time and again how hard it can be to centre people — as users, consumers, customers and residents — in the design and delivery of products, services and communities. More often than not, assumptions are made and assertions posited about what’s most important to people. This, without ever asking them what would improve their lives.
The systems we live in underpin the conditions for this state of affairs. Time-capped budgets, siloed teams and professional ego are a few of the many factors which play a part. Yet, in overlooking the requirements of the communities we both directly and indirectly affect through our work, we also create an opportunity cost for our organisations.
It stands to reason that when we consider people’s concerns and aspirations, we offer products and services that address and enable them. As a result, performance is enhanced.. Choosing to overlook them opens up risk, however, from either the reputational or regulatory cost of unintentionally causing harm to communities.
In digging into the wider context of a person’s life, we also open up opportunities for innovation. When we do things in ways previously unimagined to progress society, it aids our organisation, industry or sector too. Trust, however, comes at the cost of pushing the organisation’s success ahead of the people whose success it depends on.
To collectively reap the rewards of community engagement, many sectors and industries are beginning to open up to new perspectives and approaches. We see the green shoots of excellent practice in this field, and a growing momentum around the possibilities that emerge as a result. In this collective endeavour, we need to understand what good looks like for everyone. This includes people in need of choices and opportunities alongside those who have the power and privilege to afford the same freedoms to others.
Inherent in both the process and payoff of community engagement, new social possibilities can be realised, with real value for organisations and meaningful impact for communities in its wake. For those organisations who are willing to try new ways of working, to innovate and to push boundaries, the rewards are many. Thinking about whole systems and our roles within it does require a shift away from the individualistic, competitive and hierarchical systems we’ve created. Yet the transformative power of this approach benefits us all.
Our Intention
At Noisy Cricket, we’ve been working with agency clients and developing our own ventures for over seven years, witnessing and delivering community engagement with institutions, organisations and teams of varying levels of maturity. The more advanced the practice, the greater the value and impact for everyone involved.
From simply informing a community of a new project’s intention to building collaborative spaces for local residents, we’ve come to see community engagement as a spectrum. From more transactional interactions to transformational approaches, it’s those willing to address cultural power dynamics and pre-prescribed structures that benefit most.
Regardless of the role within an organisation or team, transformational community engagement is usually led by those with a personal propensity for change or willingness to try different ways of working. That’s because it gives rise to discomforting conversations, especially when community-led insights challenge team perceptions, pre-empted solutions and organisational ambitions.
Whilst community engagement tends to require adaptation of processes and policies, above all, transformational practice requires organisations to make time and space to first build trust with communities, before they feel willing and able to use their voice. In doing so, communities also want to feel confident your organisation will honour their interests, as much as they do your own.
For community engagement to truly make a meaningful difference requires each individual within the organisation to relinquish knowing best, being in control and ultimately, decision making. The way in which your organisation serves the people it exists for is now led by communities and the choices and opportunities they want.
It’s a momentous shift, in both how organisations operate and how society functions. At Noisy Cricket, we live and breathe this, leveraging transformational community engagement to enable secure and stable futures through homeless employment as well as bringing home the humanity to tech through digital/data ethics. Now, we’re ready to share our learning.
Building on Innovate UK funding awarded to Noisy Cricket in 2023, we’re proposing we continue to explore, evolve and enable the practice of transformational community engagement in line with our funder’s ambition to establish Community Research Networks across the UK. Working with the NHS and GMCA, University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University, Nexer and Reason Digital plus Open Data Manchester and Salford CVS, we’ve only begun to scratch the surface.
With £1 million in continuation funding up for grabs, we’re proposing we utilise Noisy Cricket’s existing insights and assets to establish a SHARED LEARNING ECOSYSTEM for transformational practice. One option is to use our HI (Homeless Inclusive) Future and Responsible Tech Collective ventures as vehicles to further research, co-create and test such a learning ecosystem.
Yet for new social possibilities to be realised at scale, we want to open up the opportunity to learn and benefit from transformative community engagement more broadly. So, we’re looking to partner with government, charity, business and academia, wanting to evolve their practice and push boundaries on live projects, programmes, products and services.
Our Approach
In co-creating a SHARED LEARNING ECOSYSTEM, we’ll collectively explore how to best enable the practice of transformational community engagement in different contexts. And, in the name of practising what we preach, it’s for people from marginalised and disadvantaged communities, alongside people working at all levels across the public, private and social sectors, to tell us what good looks like.
We recognise that the organisations and individuals we partner with will be at different stages in their journey with community engagement. In offering a spectrum or choice of shared learning experiences, we can ensure we meet people where they are. The intention is to help organisations in this ecosystem to work towards creating real value for their organisation whilst learning from each, and through the process, simultaneously ensuring meaningful impact for communities.
Our work to date has shown us that the three key levers for change around transformational community engagement are (1) understanding its value, (2) ensuring readiness for change and (3) optimising impact through delivery. So, the journey we’ll be co-creating will focus on these three areas in helping individuals, teams and organisations maximise the potential of their offerings.
Yet, we also know that transformational community engagement has wider implications for those practising it. To adapt structures, shift culture and overcome the personal fears that crop up when trying to do things differently all require support. Support to deliver, and support to influence your wider organisation to journey with you too. It’s why the SHARED LEARNING ECOSYSTEM will be a community of practitioners, growing together.
In helping organisations become ready for transformational practice, we’ll explore and share insights on how to build trust, share power and ensure meaningful participation through community engagement. In looking to optimise impact, we’ll shape solutions to foster great communication, building shared understanding and facilitating realisations and connections between organisations and communities too.
Our Invitation
All underpinned by human engagement, time and space for personal and professional growth, our intention is to enable collective transformation, both through and as a result of the SHARED LEARNING ECOSYSTEM.
We’ve seen how much potential there is in people from marginalised and disadvantaged communities, and so we’re looking for people who can match their energy. So, we’re looking to create a community full of people who are curious, passionate and open to new possibilities for themselves, for organisations and society as a whole.
The organisations we’ve worked with historically who have made the most progress with transformational community engagement tend to be champions, pioneers or innovators. Those pushing boundaries within their teams and organisations and disrupting and influencing their wider industries and sectors.
It’s for people frustrated at being hindered by the need for fast-paced delivery and short-term returns, and want space and time to explore the incremental gains and long-term change that comes with truly changing systems. It’s for people who can imagine a role for themselves in testing, modelling and scaling new practices. If that sounds like you and your team or organisation, we should talk…
Give us a shout on hello@noisycricket.org.uk, and let’s explore 😊
