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We are rethinking how London’s community spaces are used, cared for and managed to their full potential. We want to create more open conversations to imagine new ways of working together across council, businesses and communities.
As a collective, we are excited by the stewardship model as a catalyst for transformative change and challenge traditional ideas of ownership. Here a couple of key take-aways of our discussions, workshops and explorations so far:
1. Understanding the different roles people (can) play.
We decided to use the existing 5 Capitals Model and relate these to stewardship. This framework helps discuss what every individual and organisation can bring to the table by, for example, recognising that the ability to convene (social capital) is as important as having access to a space (physical capital) and funding (financial capital).
We also wanted to consider a collective approach - who might be able to unlock the different types of capital, or power, in order to overcome challenges and move towards a more sustainable, stewardship model.
Adapted from Mark Anielski 'Genuine Wealth'
Adapted from the 'Law of Three' : Exploring ways in which we can overcome challenges collectively to imagine new ways of working.
2. Building Resilience through Stewardship.
We recognise that stewardship is a continuous process of being driven by our motivations and overcoming challenges.
The act of stewardship encourages collaborators to be creative with how they overcome challenges. When we steward places and projects over a long period of time, we are not only interested in how we overcome a challenge in the immediate term, but also what can change on the long term to build resilience in general. In challenging times, people can often spot potentials and imagine new ways of working and managing our collective assets.
3. Being inspired by existing projects
There are lots of different ways, formats and agreements that can be seen as 'stewardship' of places. Showcasing and discussing what has worked elsewhere helps us ground ourselves in practical solutions.
4. Building on foundations of Trust, Belonging and Care
Effective stewardship relies on values of belonging, trust and care. These run side-by-side with stewardship projects, will need to be cultivated at the start of a relationship and collaboration, built-upon and nourished throughout.
This has been a recurring theme that comes up for us as a cross-sector group. Especially as there is often a fundamental mistrust between institutions and the communities that they exist to serve, we need to give people new opportunities to connect on a human level to figure out new ways of being in relationships. Trust is key to also allow an openness to let go of pre-conceived outcomes.
What now?
Together, we have been looking at this topic for over a year and we know we have much more to learn. Our project and discovery is ongoing and we need to keep engaging with our community and with others who are doing similar work.
We are considering how to create a generative environment for stronger, more connected communities so that the most vulnerable can also contribute. We asking how do we steward this work and our group into the future?
We’re keen to hear from people with interesting projects or doing similar work. Get in touch for a conversation about how we might collaborate.
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