We’re excited to see the birth of numerous new community led mutual aid groups eager to help their neighbours. Every neighbourhood has tremendous people with untapped skills and experience.
When we join together we are a vital lifeline for those who are bearing the brunt of Covid-19; whether for those physically distancing themselves or those who might not have access to the support they need in this crisis.
Getting and keeping people together is however sometimes easier said than done. At Shared Future our long experience of community development and community organising suggests that there are certain things to be thinking about when undertaking a much-needed community-led response.
SFCIC News
Latest updates on our projects, including reports, case studies and blogs. You can also search the menu on this page to find items of particular interest.
Shared Future CIC Response to Covid-19
Following public health guidance, we, like many companies, have been changing how we work. All face to face meetings have been cancelled, and we are switching to online meetings. We continue to operate and intend to continue to do so.
Our staff and associates are being supported to work from home (as we all already do), and we are responding to emails, phone calls and other contact as normal. As an organisation used to working remotely we are putting our resources and skills to serve other organisations and individuals however and wherever we can.
The safety and wellbeing of vulnerable people is our priority.
Demanding the Impossible? We Can Do That Here.
It’s the season to be celebrating with our friends, neighbours and families. As we wrap up another year ( and it’s the 10th Christmas since we formed Shared Future CIC) we have been reflecting on what has changed, and why the idea of a shared future remains close to our heart. Together we are stronger.
Participatory Budgeting and Social Enterprise: Latest research report by SFCIC
What links Participatory Budgeting and Social Enterprise? Through reflecting on long-term qualitative learning of Participatory Budgeting in the UK, viewed through a social economy lens, we found that Participatory Budgeting, in and of itself, stimulates the development of new cooperatives and sustained social action.
Leeds Climate Change Citizens’ Jury November 2019.
‘What should Leeds do about the emergency of climate change?’ This was the question that 25 randomly selected residents from across the Leeds city region agreed to thrash out over nine sessions between September and November 2019. Their bold recommendations make fascinating reading; taking back control of the local bus services into public ownership, the halting of local airport expansion, retrofitting of housing through local social enterprises and more.
Does Participatory Budgeting always require a vote?
There is a very real desire to make Participatory Budgeting more deliberative and thoughtful. One of the concerns about voting is that it doesn’t force people to think through the options. That PB needs more deliberation. Nevertheless Jez Hall of PB Partners/Shared Future CIC argues that the vote is crucial for legitimacy and trust within a PB processes.
Deliberative Commissioning, 2nd July, Manchester: Resource page
At our free afternoon event on Tuesday 2nd July in Central Manchester, running during National Co-Production Week (1st-5th July 2019) we offered an opportunity for Health and Social Care professionals to learn about citizens inquiries, juries and assemblies and explore their increasing relevance to person-centred health care and towards supporting effective co-production. Download the event resources on this page
Reframing care for our world as participatory people-led politics
“The natural world is being destroyed and it is a moral imperative to preserve and reconstitute as much of it as possible as soon as possible.” In this blog Jez Hall discusses how re-framing the debate on climate change is about how we build a fairer, greener, and political ‘shared future’. One where dialogue, social action and a people powered democracy is our new normal.
Participatory Budgeting and Climate Change: Our Money, Our Planet events
PB Partners are delivering a series of free events across the UK in response to the Climate Change emergency. Participatory Budgeting is an effective way for local authorities, and other statutory bodies to respond to this existential threat, and mobilise and enable communities take action themselves.
Common Values: What links Participatory Budgeting, Cooperatives and Social Enterprise?
How do the values of cooperation, social enterprise and democratic local governance link? How can we engage communities better, promote democracy and social action, and thereby effect real long-term change? Does Participatory Budgeting encourage a culture of cooperative and social enterprise. And if so, is that because of underlying common values? What do you think?
Beyond the ballot: How citizens can lead the climate change conversation
Over recent months, as climate change has been propelled into the political mainstream, there has been an upsurge in interest in the role of deliberative processes such as Citizens’ Assemblies and Citizens’ Juries, too. An Assembly is a key demand of Extinction Rebellion, for example. Will politicians act or just nod? In this blog Pete Bryant and Rebecca Willis consider how getting the conditions right makes action more likely.