Here Comes Grinch
Sorry to be the party pooper in the run up to the festive season, but I just find all this poverty soothing so difficult to watch and it’s really ramped up at this time of year. You might want to st
The Hills are alive with sense making
Anyone who knows me well, will have heard me say, that hill walking is where I make sense of things. In the midst of nature, as a tiny dot on the landscape, things just start to make sense and d
Victims of Our Own Success
Sunday 21st April 2024 Currently I’m in the lakes, resting up and attempting to switch off from work. I’m literally exhausted and wondering how I might carry on. Noticing too that the exhausted fe
The Practice of No
At the ripe old age of 54, I think I’m becoming more comfortable saying ‘no’. Thanks I think in part to the 12 month programme with Peter Block and Peter Pula exploring Blocks book Confr
Why People Come Together
This summer, whilst we were in full community Playbox flow, Jack Hunter came to visit for a day. We had a mooch around the neighbourhood and then settled in the park where we sat on the grass whilst J
Playbox Living
I’ve been mulling on what the playbox offers to community building in ways that traditional community engagement approaches cant reach. There’s lots I feel. Here’s one of my thoughts for s
Grass Roots of Wigan
This week has been a glorious week in many ways and this morning capped it off when we officially agreed some kind of governing ideas for Grass Roots of Wigan, GRoW. This work has grown out of t
Community Led
Today we hosted the second of the community led afternoon teas, and it made me think about that term ‘community led’. I suppose we define it locally as centring those who are usually recipients, f
Care Full Communities
One of the dreams that we have here is developing care full community alternatives, particularly to the current social care system for children and families. When we say community alternati
Erosion of Trust
There are a few incidents over my career that have eroded my trust in the idea that if we just reform public services, move them closer to neighbourhoods, then all will be well. And whilst communities