NET Connect 05 (February 2024): Grow and nurture our relationships
Nine people took part in NET Connect 05 on 14 February 2024 — Duncan, Jackie, Jim, John, Karyn, Kuveri, Paul, Robert and Sarah. Here’s Robert Laycock write up of the event.
We worked together as a whole group supported by the following process — invitation, individual response, group response — so each person had a turn to share.
We invited three people to respond, in about four minutes each, to the following prompts
- Who you are and what you do
- What brought you here today?
- What would you like to share?
Once we had listened to the first three people, the rest of the group was invited to respond. We used the following prompt
- Would you like to respond to anything you have heard? This could be a suggestion, an offer, a connection, or something else that might help.
We repeated this process until everyone had shared.
Themes explored included
- building capacity and leadership skills
- working across organisational scales — national, regional
- for profit, academia, VCSE sectors working together
- people and places, highly local
- community bridge building in Gateshead
As always, the generous sharing of links, resources and other references add to our conversation, and here they are… made during session included
- Cormac Russell, Asset Based Community Development (ABCD)
- Mondragon, a Spanish cooperative
- A history of the Civic University movement
- Newcastle Cathedral’s Lantern Initiative: ‘The Lantern Initiative walks in solidarity with those individuals and groups that have been judged or oppressed by wider society, often as a direct consequence of Church persecution. Radical Welcome recognises that creating spaces of belonging with people will mean some inherited ways of doing things will need to be challenged and transformed’
- Church and Community Partnership in Tynedale: Helping improve the lives of everyone living in West Northumberland, and supporting churches to be more community facing
- Gateshead Community Bridgebuilders: ‘The Gateshead Community Bridgebuilders want local people to have the opportunities, skills, and confidence to engage in making decisions that are going to improve their lives now and in the future. We are changing and extending who gets to participate in decision-making, and changing the ways in which decisions are made and power is exercised.’
- Scouts and Guides boosts later life health — an academic study re impact on individual life outcomes. Robert: I’m sure there would be similar outcomes for other youth services too…
- 004: Devolution — The Social Obligation, This Is The North podcast — Robert: I listened to this podcast about the opportunities that devolution gives for better cross boundary working in the north east and felt quite inspired by the potential for change by bringing more power locally
Thanks to everyone that took part.
What’s next for North East Together
- The essence of leadership? NET Pop-up event #07 with Austin McNamara, 16 April, One Strawberry Place, Newcastle
- North East Together #26: More than you imagine is possible, 21 May, Newcastle University Business School
- NET Connect #06, 11 September, online
Robert Laycock, co-founder, Yes We Can
