Audio: spoken word recording of Who Are You?
Mama D Ujuaje, Community Centred Knowledge
Year 1 Civic Futures Fellow, Transcript
Provocation
Transformative social change has always started in and with civil society. In a world which often risks being captured by the past, we need a civic society which can be both fiercely independent in organising itself, and also truly interdependent with all those seeking to build a shared future.
In London, this civic society is already around us. It is represented by the people working tirelessly to serve their communities, by the city’s highly effective activists and organisers, its radical artists and curators, as well as by the individuals and networks exploring new ways of caring for each other and the world around them. Deeply embedded in communities across the city, this civic society has a unique role to play in bridging us to new and unknown tomorrows.
To support that urgent work, Civic Futures starts by asking How we can build shared wisdom in making the transition to a better future? How do we best bring together some of the amazing people active across London to learn from and support each other in building that future?
Project Story
Civic Futures was commissioned by the Community Engagement Team at the Greater London Authority (GLA) in 2019. It was formed during a period of profound change for the city as part of a wider culture change within the GLA towards better engagement with London’s civil society.
Originally conceived as an advisory group, it developed into a more ambitious project intended to build leadership capacity across the civic system in the city. Explore the programme design and journey here.
By the end of 2024, the programme will have worked with 145 civic leaders through a project which combines connection, reflection, personal and collective inquiry, and civic experimentation. You can read a full learning report on the project so far on the GLA website and the Koreo website.
Fellows
Each group of fellows has been a vibrant and diverse mixture of activists, artists, funders, curators, educators, politicians, organisers, civil servants, connectors, technologists, carers, archivists, and people playing hybrid roles across those categories and London’s civil society.
Download a detailed list of fellows and their organisations through this PDF.
Project Impact
Across its first 3 years, Civic Futures has enabled personal change, connected people from different parts of the city and civic system, and created the conditions for projects which have grown well beyond the programme.
Read below for an overview of themes, or explore the story in detail via the Story So Far report on the GLA Website or via the Koreo Website.
Influencing Practice
The clearest impact the project had was its influence on the way people approached their work, and the principles/values they introduced as a result of that participation. For example, Sara Conway (Barnet Council, Year 2) had the opportunity to apply her learning directly to her role by developing a community participation strategy at the Council. News story here. She reflected:
“Barnet would simply not have a community participation policy or evolving practice like this had I not been on the Civic Futures programme.”
Relationships & Networks
Overall, there was a sense that people were meeting ‘fellow travellers’ who they’d stay connected to and collaborate with over the long term.
“Primarily, the thing I got out of Civic Futures was the group of people and the network it connected me to. It really inspired me. That was the key for me. Reflecting back on the feeling of Civic Futures, I think about the inspiring moments I spent with incredible people doing incredible things in this city.”
Year 1 Fellow, Charity Leader
An Unusual Learning Space
Fellows described Civic Futures as creating a rare space for learning and development, offering something they hadn’t seen or couldn’t find elsewhere. In particular that related to the cross-sector nature of the cohort, and the opportunity to experiment practically.
‘It’s with real people in real contexts, in real sites of governance and decision-making. I don’t know anything like it. There’s nothing like the collective learning process that Civic Futures is.’
Year 2 Fellow, Artist & Organiser
Personal Confidence & Transition
It was striking how many Fellows talked about the programme arriving either at a time of personal transition or starting one. Whether Fellows found their way to Civic Futures because of those transitions or vice versa, these personal developments were facilitated by new information, connections, support, reflection, credibility, confidence, or some combination.
“It really helped me think about the bigger picture and systemic change. At that time, I moved to [a new role], and I felt more confident to engage with the range of teams that exposed me to, to bring them into the work, and to support them. So I was able to work between innovation and policy teams, and to have the confidence that I can do that.”
Year 2 Fellow, Policymaker.
Licence & Platform
The project has provided a platform and license for Fellows to explore, inquire, and experiment on themes that feel important to them. Speaking about the influence of Civic Futures on the WeWalworth project, Mike Wilson from Pembroke House said:
“It was amazing because Civic Futures had created this space where you could…have the space to think about things in a different way. It also created this group of people with very different expertise coming together, from vastly different backgrounds and different perspectives, central and local again.”
Connection Into the GLA
Fellows reported a better understanding of the role local government played in London’s civic system, and the GLA’s role in particular:
“I felt quite disconnected from decision-making within local government which had an impact on the work I did, the space I ran, and my community. Being on Civic Futures gives me a bit more of a seat at the table, I suppose.”
Year 2 Fellow, Cultural Producer
Greener Together
In addition to the experiments funded through the project, Civic Futures has also been a catalyst for other projects. Greener Together began following a conversation between Year 1 Fellows Eli Manderson-Evans (Blagrave Trust) and Nile Bridgman (Saqqra) and the GLA’s Environment Team. The project was responsible for the community-led and sustainability-focussed development of the Alma Street area in Newham.
Read a fuller write-up of these interviews on the Koreo Medium.
Funded Experiments
Since 2022, Civic Futures has funded a number of learning experiments. These experiments are designed and led by Fellows, and are intended to produce learning to be shared across London’s civic system.
From Ownership to Stewardship:
A collaboration between 7 Fellows from Year 3, which asks how we might move from ownership of process, space, and policy to equitable, collective stewardship. Building on conversations started during their year on the programme, the group (Will Cooper, Rebecca Towers, John Chan, Tamara Khan, Kaltun Abdillahi, Emily Collins-Ellis, and Leslie Barson) are deploying a combination of research, group workshops and wider storytelling to gain a deeper understanding of stewardship as a viable alternative to traditional ownership.
Local News & Engagement:
An ongoing collaboration between Fellows from Years 2 and 3, and hosted by Social Spider CIC, this experiment explores a new model for engagement and interaction between decision-makers and communities, supported and amplified by community-focused media. Focused on Waltham Forest in Year 1 and Barnet in Year 2, the hypothesis is that a community-focused local newspaper offers the council a route to engage with local people beyond those who are knowledgeable about and actively interested in the work of the council.
Mental Health Provision In Barnet:
Led by Sara Conway (Barnet Council), this project in Year 2 convened local mental health providers in Barnet to explore approaches to providing strategic mental health support to civil society professionals in communities during the pandemic. Run as a pilot programme in 2021, the probe increased well-being, confidence and knowledge among participants, and generated an appetite for ongoing partnership. The partnership is currently exploring funding to develop the programme further.
Creative City Stewardship:
Two inquiries/provocations built on themes discussed during the programme were led by Joon-Lynn Goh (Migrants in Culture) and David McEwen (Unit 38), and included input from multiple Fellows. Joon-Lynn’s project focused on the capacity for radical imagination and creative collaborations in stewardship, incorporating a series of interviews and a ‘learning lab’ delivered in multiple settings – including the GLA. David’s focus was on migrant infrastructure and organisations and again was produced through a combination of interviews and research. Read more on the GLA website.
Community Nourishment:
Hosted in the Livesey Exchange in Southwark, this project is led by Mama D Ujuaje (Community-Centred Knowledge) and is a collaboration between Fellows from all 3 years of the project, exploring the concept of community nourishment. Using an immersive workshop format called the Food Journey, the aim is to work with people to explore how the idea of nourishment can support social change practitioners to more critically explore how we invest in and nourish communities in London.
Community Leadership:
Delivered in 2021, this project was a collaboration between Year 2 Fellows Dilwara Khatun (Redbridge Council) and Ajay Pabal (Art Clubbers CIC). Delivered as a one-day event, the probe was designed to examine how Redbridge Council could create a space for civic discussion and leadership that included the council but also addressed inequitable power dynamics. They actively involved the ‘unusual suspects’ from across the borough, which led to practical action and change in the relationships between actors in the borough, and ultimately led to the commissioning of a community leadership programme for the borough: Leading Redbridge.
Abolition in Organisational Practice:
Hosted by Migrants in Culture, and combining Year 2 and 3 Fellows who work with migrant-led groups, this project aims to test how civic organisations can mutually support one another to apply abolitionist principles to their specific organisations and ecosystems. Through the learning produced by a peer learning process, the group hopes to help Londoners develop abolitionist organisational practices, which can be used and adapted by others.
Intergenerational Activism:
Bringing together 8 Fellows from Year 3, this collaboration focuses on the need for intentional spaces dedicated to supporting intergenerational learning as a way of building power. Building on a model originally trialled in the United States by Co-generate, this pilot seeks to build on this by working with a larger pool of participants in London to focus direct action on matters that affect the city and to strengthen the activist community across London’s civil society.
Pause in Leadership:
Led by Xia Lin (formerly Toynbee Hall) and Sripiya Sudhakar (Tower Hamlets Council), this project’s hypothesis is that by ‘pausing’ and focusing on ‘being’ rather than ‘doing’, leaders can become more effective in creating positive social change. Comprising one half about creating and testing reflective space in a team context, and another half about the value of different ways of ‘being’ in co-production work, it aims to create a whole which demonstrates the value of pause and reflection in leadership.
Embodiment & Trauma:
This project aims to bring together individuals and communities who live and work in London across generational and cultural difference. It intends to support those communities to share their lived experiences of systemic trauma and offer their own embodied rituals and practices for transformation and healing. It is led by a combination of Nishma Jethwa (The Rights Collective), Mama D Ujuaje (Community Centred Knowledge), & John Chan (Artist).
These overviews will be updated with further resources as these experiments are delivered across 2024.
Partnership Reflections
Civic Futures has been designed and delivered in partnership between four organisations:
The GLA Community Engagement Team: The Greater London Authority (the GLA) is the devolved regional governance body of Greater London. The GLA’s Community Engagement Team’s mission is to bridge the gap between City Hall and London’s communities. The team delivers a range of programmes and projects aiming to support Londoners to have a voice in City Hall and an opportunity to shape the future of London.
Koreo is a learning consultancy dedicated to imagining and building a just and regenerative world. Since 2009, Koreo has worked alongside leaders in communities, supported household name charities to shift culture towards learning and transformation, and brought together networks to collaborate across organisational, sectoral, and geographic boundaries.
The Young Foundation are experts in understanding the changing role of communities in the 21st century. As a UKRI accredited Independent Research Organisation, social investor and community development practitioner, the Young Foundation combines skills and expertise to develop better-connected and more sustainable communities across the UK.
Dark Matter Labs is a strategic design practice focused on institutional innovation in an age of interdependence. They work with partners, clients, and collaborators across the world, researching and developing new institutional support frameworks for collaborative system change through cutting-edge research, strategic design and organisational innovation.
Partnership Reflection
As a partnership, Civic Futures has has pushed us and our practice. Thinking about this process as a whole, and reflecting on conversations with the GLA as well as within the partnership, we’ve distilled a few reflections from the delivery team.
Working Emergently:
There’s no doubt this approach has made the programme richer for everyone, influencing access and cohort, learning content and topics, and the introduction of experimentation funding. It’s also made it more challenging to deliver, with the programme harder to articulate in the first years and the expectations of participants therefore harder to manage.
A Big, Open Invitation:
Civic Futures started with a big, open, ambitious invitation that connected the project with a macro story of social change and London’s future. Participants responded to that invitation and our sense is that it has defined the programme starting point and experience across each of the 3 years.
Access & Equalising Space:
The conversation about how to create an equitable space that allowed everyone’s full participation was explicit right from the beginning of the pilot year. In particular, this was about recognising and designing for the differences between people working/volunteering beyond traditional organisational structures.
Broadening the ‘Practical’:
We’ve consistently met scepticism for anything that isn’t immediately transferable to practical action. We’ve sought to keep action and reflection in a creative tension, and have also regularly needed to challenge an understanding of what constitutes the ‘practical’.
Balancing Inner & Outer Work:
There’s been a consistent theme throughout the delivery of the programme around practising different ways of being with change and transformation, and the need to hold a space for different levels of change.
Consistent Theme, Varied Action:
Despite an open invitation and different thematic approaches over the 3 years (open, recovery missions, etc.) there’s been a remarkably common theme to the conversations across all 3 cohorts, We’ve reflected on the opportunity to be more confident about the theme of the programme in future years, while also being more intentional about shaping the constraints around the learning the project supports, in order to make them easier to develop.
The Importance of Cohort Make-Up:
The success of a project like Civic Futures will always depend on who’s in the conversation and what they contribute to it. We’ve been incredibly fortunate through Civic Futures to work with a range of talented leaders and activists who’ve challenged us and each other to make the most of the space.
Connection into the GLA:
Connection into the insight of the GLA team and the power of City Hall to open doors or facilitate activity, is a major part of the appeal of the project. We’re not surprised that across the years there’s an opportunity to work out what engagement Civic Futures Fellows should or shouldn’t expect with City Hall following their participation in the programme, particularly in terms of access and/or influence.
Contact
More info: GLA Website
Inquiries: civicfutures@koreo.co
Thank you to everyone who has applied for, taken part in, or contributed to the Fellowship since 2019. In particular, thanks to Farah, Ayesha and Melissa at the GLA for helping us make this happen.
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