A vision of the future...?

“The future is not an inheritance, it is an opportunity and an obligation.” Bill Clinton

Perhaps it’s a little brave (and embarrassingly cliché) to use a politician’s quote to start this post, but I was really attracted by the opportunity and obligation that ‘Teflon Bill’ refers to here. It is particularly relevant to our activities this week. The team has been a part of some great examples of local people and groups making the most of opportunities to improve their areas for future generations.

Prince Charles approves...

I have been attending the Prince Charles endorsed Enquiry by Design Ham Close visioning events. There is a huge opportunity for Ham on the table through our Uplift programme, so it’s worth spending time on getting it right. I’d describe the process as being a little slow ,but very authentic. ‘Slow’ may sound critical, but (and I do love a terrible analogy) for me it was like instant vs. fresh brewed coffee - both are coffee, but one is simply better. 

What I mean is that, whilst slower, taking this participatory approach gets a better result for the community. Whatever the outcome from the process, it has been thorough and I've heard some really interesting things about Ham's history, present concerns and ideas for the future. The outcomes will be grounded (no coffee pun intended) in grassroots, local input.

Lynette has been involved in similar things in Barnes. She told me it was great to see so many local residents turn up to support the Barnes Ponder Community Meeting on Monday evening.  Lots of great ideas were formed on how to take the Ponder outcomes forward, including suggestions of having a sensory garden in one of the parks.  She’s really looking forward to working with Emma and the Barnes Town Team, the Barnes Community Association and local residents to turn their ideas in a reality.

I’ll finish with a suggestion for any people involved in community engagement to read a blog post from Kate Goodall. Quite amusing, and top tips to remember when we are asking people what they want. It can be a dangerous, and misleading question! 

http://kategoodall.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/cogitation-cogitation-cogitation/

(Thanks to Tom in our comms team for the link to this… I’ve always thought it was a cog.)

New Years Resolutions, Repetitions and Revolutions

And we're off! 

Richmond Upon Thames' Community Links team are now blogging. We wanted to be able to let people know about our work in a new way, and we hope any readers or fellow bloggers enjoy what we post here. This first blog has been oh-so-wittily titled to reflect the time of year in which we are launching our contribution to web.

Resolutions? We have agreed to get out and find more people with brilliant ideas for their community, who only need to know who to talk to, or where to access support.

Repetitions...? As well as the new resolutions, we want to keep doing what we've done so well in the last year - keeping in touch with people, groups and organisations who are already doing great things within the borough.

Revolutions?! A little less Che Guevara, and a little more James Dyson - looking for new and different ways in which we can go about our business. Such as writing a blog about our activities, thoughts and reflections on Community Linking in the London Borough of Richmond Upon Thames.

We look forward to working more with the brilliant people of Richmond throughout 2014.


John, Lynette and Mamta.