I hope to design Create Change Chesterfield so that it lives the principles of participation that I think are key to making big changes in our society.
Through this project I've embraced an attitude of learning through action. At each step in the journey so far I've explored ways to make sure that the activity is based on the needs of the community. I aim to take a step forward on this endeavour at each opportunity, and so I built this in to the Inspiration for Action event. I asked for lots of input from the participants about where Create Change should go next. I had a table full of information and everyone was given stickers as they arrived to allow them to vote. You can read the message that everyone received as they arrived here. The intention for this welcome message was to explain THEIR role in the direction of Create Change- to show them that each person's voice is needed.
Some thoughts:
- I was able to outline my plans for the next big community event and it was extremely useful to gather thoughts on these ideas
- We will always be limited by the number of people we manage to engage at each step. We had an attendance of 30 people at the Inspiration for Action event, and although this was good it does limit the data we were able to collect
- You only hear from those in the room! I have every intention to reach out beyond the people who I'm currently engaging with through the Create Change events. Lots of thought and effort goes into endeavouring to create inclusive and diverse events but there is a lot of room for improvement with this- and ultimately if we wait for people to come to us it will take a long time to reach the quieter voices in our community. The experience of gathering opinions in the way I have has made it really clear to me that reaching out in additional ways to listen to a wider audience NEEDS to be part of the Create Change project.
If you're interested in the questions I asked and the information collected then do get in touch. I hope to build on these endeavours to embed participation in all the action that Create Change delivers.
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