NET update: May 2023
Here’s our update for May…we’re sharing more about May’s whole network event, what else is going in our region, and a few other bits and pieces.
Gearing up for our collaboration journeys…North East Together’s whole network event 24
It’s on Thursday 25 May, 13:00–16:30, The Frederick Douglass Centre, Newcastle and bookings are still open.
We’ll be joined by Kevin Franks, Youth Focus North East and Mandi Cresswell, Meadow Well Connected — two impressive leaders in our region. Kevin will be talking about the North East Youth Alliance the story so far including what they’ve learnt about collaboration between youth organisations in the region. Mandi will talking about Leaders Together for North Tyneside, a 12-month leadership programme to transform how they lead and collaborate in North Tyneside focusing on building relationships and deepening trust.
It feels exciting to us to have two regional trailblazers sharing their story . We know collaboration is not always plain sailing but we hope hearing from two great examples close to home will inspire us to default to collaboration.
As well as hearing from Mandi and Kevin, we’ll be getting hold of the North East Together collaboration framework we previewed at our whole network event in November 2022. We’ll share the whole framework, giving you time to explore it together, before going deeper into what we might need to do to make sure we’re ready to collaborate with others, what we might need to do to gear up for collaborating.
Our outline timings are
- 13:00–13:30 — arriving, settling in, mingling and informal networking
- 13:30–16:30 — Gearing up for our collaboration journeys
- 16:30–17:00 — informal networking in the room
- 17:00 to ‘later ‘— more informal networking and food, if you’re free
Remixing our whole network event
You’ll see we’ve made a few tweaks this time…
…we’re very much seeing this as the first in a four-part event series — a learning journey — we’ll embark on together in 2023 and 2024 (see below for a little more). The final event in this series in November 2024 will find us at the 10th anniversary of starting the network. We’re really curious to see what’s changed
…we’re experimenting with the time, running it as a mini-conference in the afternoon, paying attention to people’s energy towards the end of the day. We think this will be an opportunity to not only network and connect with each other but learn together and intentionally ask: how we can commit to working collaboratively. We’ll still have time afterwards to continue our informal networking over food and drinks
…a new venue! We’ll be together for the first time in The Frederick Douglass Centre, Newcastle University, named after social reformer Frederick Douglass. We think this has a great fit for our network and our collective work for social change. We like Newcastle University’s commitment to social justice too: “It is a way of signposting our acknowledgement of the wide range of social activists from the city’s past. It also symbolises our ambition and our responsibility to play our part in the city’s efforts toward reform and social justice in the 21st century.”
Be part of our collaboration learning journey in 2023 and 2024
We know our region faces challenges and opportunities that no one person or organisation can resolve or respond to alone. We also recognise the need to embrace complexity and systems thinking when we reflect on the health of our social systems in the north east in order to develop more nuanced and ultimately effective interventions. Embracing complexity and systems thinking requires a fundamental commitment to working collaboratively.
Together we can. What do you want to learn?
We’ll be loosely connecting our four whole network events across 2023 and 2024 as a collaboration learning journey using the North East Together collaboration framework as a guide. We’re starting with May’s event about getting ready for collaboration and will end the journey in our 27th whole network event in November 2024, which will also mark ten years since the network started in 2014. The big ten-zero. We hope you’ll travel along with us as we share what we’ve learnt in our collaboration inquiry since we started out.
NET Connect: bringing together North East Together members and network friends to connect, grow and nurture our relationships
Join us for NET Connect 04 on Tuesday 12 September, 16:00–17:15, online
Want to host your own pop up event in 2023?
We’re hoping to tell you about a couple of pop up events soon. And don’t forget the NET team can collaborate with you to host your pop up event. Talk with Robert, Marie or Stephanie if you’d like to do this.
What else?
Join and support: #youthstartshere Become a NEYA ally
North East Youth Alliance has recently launched an Allies Network for Organisations. The aim is to build a network of organisations who are allies and committed to the aims, values and principles of the North East Youth Alliance. It’ll also provide a way for allies to be able to demonstrate their support of this approach.
It’s free to join. You can learn more about the network and being an ally before filling in the ally form.
Take part: VCSE barometer survey— how are things for you?
The theme of this quarter’s survey is volunteering. What has been your experience of retaining, supporting and recruiting volunteers over the last year?
The cost-of-living crisis is having a huge impact on both individuals and organisations. Unfortunately, there is very little data available on how inflation and energy costs are impacting charities, community groups and voluntary organisations. You can help to change that. The quarterly ‘temperature check’ of the sector, highlights real-time issues and trends. The survey will take about 20 minutes to complete. It contains questions about your organisation’s finances, demand, volunteering and staff and energy costs. It’s open 9–23 May.
The government needs to understand what community groups and voluntary organisations are experiencing right now. By filling out this survey, you can help us to tell them. The VCSE Barometer Survey is backed by all the major membership bodies, and carried out by the independent experts at Pro Bono Economics and Nottingham Trent University’s National VCSE Data and Insights Observatory. By completing the survey, you’ll be feeding your views directly into the government as it reviews which organisations will keep getting help with their energy, and makes further decisions on public spending in the autumn.
Go along to…
- Data masterclass 2: What data does your Board need? — Using data to improve your governance, 18 May, North Tyneside
- North East VCSE Policy Forum: Child poverty strategy for the north east, 6 June, online — hosted by VONNE with North East Child Poverty Commission and IPPR North and you can read about the background to this work
- North East VCSE skills, inclusion and employment focus group, 15 June 2023, online — the group acts as the voice of north east VCSE employment, inclusion and skills providers, influencing a range of public sector partners at a local, regional and national level. This feeds into the relevant North East Combined Authority/North of Tyne Combined Authority/North East Local Enterprise Partnership (NE LEP) structures
A bit of an update from us at Yes We Can
Our vision at Yes We Can is a thriving north east with an impactful, resilient and influential civil society supported by a healthy ecosystem that supports, grows and develops social change leadership and positive social change. We do all sorts of things but we’re broadly all about collaborating to grow and develop social change leadership in the north east.
One of the ways we contribute to the region and to our sector is by hosting North East Together. We’ve thought a lot over the years about how to best make this work. There was some funding in the early years including from Community Foundation and Newcastle University but funding for networks has been scarce in the best of times. Anyway, we’ve decided to use the time we’d spend looking for and applying for funding to just get on with it and do the work. It couldn’t be a better fit with our purpose and making this decision to stop fretting about funding has been freeing. We could call it sponsorship but we like to use the term host as it’s about our contribution to something we’re also part of. Our income model as a social enterprise means we have time to focus on work we care about and we couldn’t care more deeply about North East Together. Our paid work allows us to do this, and you might have noticed we have started to share a little more of our work. We hope we get the balance right for you all. Please say if it feels too much.
Lead and manage: Best self, Great teams, Amazing together
Our spring-summer learning group started last month for workshop 1: Starting well where we learnt more about each other and our learning needs, connecting and starting to build relationships with each other. We met again last week for the first of three full days, and used our Best self leadership framework to learn what helps us be our best in our leadership role. We focused on emotional intelligence and self-awareness, being organised and effective and resilience and wellbeing, and touched on learning and reflection; communication; how authenticity, trust and vulnerability contributes to building connections and relationships, psychological safety and doing our best work.
We’re looking forward to days on Great teams and Amazing together — the two other parts of what we think is important for leadership — with the last workshop in July to help us end well.
We’re running the programme again in the autumn — and twice a year for next couple of years — so if you’d like to join us for that, our programme brochure will tell you more, email Robert robert@yeswecan.community or use our booking form to book your place. The cost of each place is £600, and will start in September. The dates are 3 x full days (27 September, 25 October, 29 November) and 2 x half days (13 September, 13 December).
About North East Together
North East Together is the network for social change leadership in the north east.
Our collective mission here at North East Together is to create the conditions, and platform for, collaboration to become the norm in the north east and to nurture a healthier social change system.
Our network offers mutual support, enables collaboration and inspires social leaders. We offer a series of dynamic network events; whole day events, self-organised collaborative working groups; pathways into coaching; and independent social change events.
North East Together is hosted by Yes We Can and is a collaboration between Yes We Can and Newcastle University Business School. We’re grateful for the support both organisations give to North East Together.
Cheerio for now.
Stephanie
For the NET team Cisse Tsang, Dr Jo James, Marie Foalle, Robert Laycock, Stephanie Cole
