Playful Healing
Yesterday, Diane who works for Wigan Athletic Football Club, came to visit the little organising circle that we host after Thursday coffee mornings. We had such a good time chatting all things play (w
Liberated from Pet Projects
Over the last three months I’ve been involved in a participatory grant making experiment with Greater Manchester (GM) System Changers with aims to distribute more funds to GM communities facing marg
Gap in My Diary
I’ve been irked the last day or two by an email from a well intentioned professional who may be interested in visiting a social space we host, and might like to come this week, because something has
Six Themes
Between September – December 2022, supported by an evaluation circle, and, a critical friend we decided to collect some stories and interviews so that we could begin noticing and understanding h
Small Fish, Big Pond
On Wednesday I accompanied some women from the community to Sheffield ready for Its Our Community on Thursday, a gathering organised by the Citizen Network. It’s the first time they’d been t
It Gives you a Bit of Worth, Doesn’t It?
This week is mental health awareness week and the theme is anxiety. We’re not doing anything out of the ordinary in the neighbourhood to mark the week, you wont see a hashtag from us. We are j
Breakthrough Change
A few weeks ago I was listening to Sounds About Right: Audiobooks to Help us Understand the World. It was episode 47, Breakthrough Community Change: A Guide to Creating Common Agendas that Change Ever
Community Party
Today is the AGM of Springfield, Beech Hill and Gidlow, wrapped inside a community party, organised by the community. There’s: Face painting; balloon modelling; a roving magician; a help yourself ar
Picnic in the Park
We are really beginning to notice the appetite for local community good news stories and their role in connecting community and inviting more people in. It’s something that we feel we shou