It has now been 6 months since Chesterfield Climate Emergency: A People’s Assembly. It was an example of grassroots organising of participatory action. I was the organiser that brought the event to life for my town. It took huge amounts of input from others but I was the one bringing them together. I say this because of a feeling I have been having…what was the point?
LEARNING AS I GO
I am intentionally learning as I go with this project. I knew that I wouldn’t deliver perfection but it felt important to bring the ideas to life as best as I could. I could then use every step on the way as a learning opportunity. With this in mind the question of what was the point? can provide opportunities and not just criticism.
FEEDBACK
I received feedback in 4 ways. At the event people spoke to me directly. After the event a feedback email was sent out inviting replies. The facebook page is open to comments and messages. I organised a follow up meeting that all participants were invited to. My reflections below are based on this feedback.
ACTION
At the Follow Up meeting the group identified a missed opportunity for action from the People’s Assembly. Groups on the day were encouraged to self organise and created their own email lists for future action. The email lists haven't turned into groups, for a couple of reasons but mainly due to not finding the right person to 'run' a group. The group who attended the Follow up meeting didn't want to call this a 'missed' opportunity but a 'delayed' opportunity. I wonder if the wider group who attend the People’s Assembly will see it in the same way. It was challenging to incorporate all the steps needed to turn the energy on the day into self organising community groups. As it stands we already have a number of community projects that would support those ready to take the next step. I encouraged the group to look into this and provided them with details of the groups.
Working with the council. I had created links with members of our local council and the report of the day was delivered to Chesterfield Borough Council so it is now part of their bank of knowledge. I can't say any exact action that has been taken due to this but they have set up their own working group to gather further knowledge so are likely to take their lead from this, self commissioned activity. I'm hoping to build on these links and representatives at the council are also keen to do this, so lets see where this goes during 2020.
EMOTIONS
In much of the feedback value was attributed to the opportunity for the community to gather as a large group. It was described as a place where they felt the energy and drive for change in the town. One member described how she no longer felt alone in her endeavours and how powerful it was to see her community gather in this way.
MOVING FORWARD
I think an important step is to be clear about what CCC will deliver. We should speak with openness about what we hope to achieve at each stage and outline each participant’s role in that. As part of that we should speak honestly about how we are learning as we go- and acknowledging the participants hugely important role in that. Their feedback is key. As part of this we could include the fact that we are now sharing our learnings beyond our town. We are able to support other grassroots projects through passing on what we have learnt.
Create Change Chesterfield as a hub for action
The role of Create Change in Chesterfield is to create spaces where the community can gather and experience the energy of working collaboratively. This will come through events that aim to be as inclusive as possible to attract a diverse group from our town. On these occasions we will come together with focus and intent to make progress on the day. In the time between events individuals will work independently, within already established community groups (which Chesterfield has many great ones!) or form their own topic focussed community groups to take action.
Each event will be based on what was raised as important to the community at the previous event, and intervening feedback. I am developing a reflective, feedback led model for this project. With this in mind I have more plans for Create Change Chesterfield and I'm starting 2020 with an event called Inspiration for Action.
Follow these links for more information
https://www.thersa.org/events/fellowship-events/2020/01/rsa-create-change-chesterfield---24012020
https://www.facebook.com/events/492455448072187/
Friday 24th January 2020
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