Preaching to the converted .... and how to go beyond

Preaching to the converted – and how to go beyond
(A talk prepared for Essence of Exeter 6th January 2021)
 
OK, so we are Interwoven Productions CIC.  We are Creative Placemakers – that is we help communities find creative ways to celebrate their place.  We do this through the Squilometre technique that employs circular-economy so the whole thing runs on a kind of community perpetual motion. 
 
What I want to talk about here are some of the principles that Interwoven have instilled to preach beyond the already converted, to reach to the “quiet voice” in your communities. 
 

1. Shift from “engagement” to “animation” –  Community Animation = "to give life to, to quicken, to vivify, to inspire" from within.  Our Place Champions are locally-based volunteers who are trained and supported to stand shoulder to shoulder with their neighbours and to animate the local vision – rather than trying to engage them in someone else’s.
2. Try to avoid segmenting communities into different socio-economic groups.  This is particularly relevant when you take to the streets and become place-based because every place, every single place is multi-vocal.  Often we’re forced to do this in order to draw down funding but the fact is, it is divisive and inauthentic.
3. Ditch the “outcomes”.  If you allow funders to dictate the outcomes of your activity before you’ve even started work on the streets you’ve disenfranchised your community before you begin.  Either find the funds that don’t dictate outcomes or find a different way to organise yourselves. Interwoven have done this so that each street-led project that takes place within a Squilometre starts with a completely blank sheet – nothing is assumed.
4. Remove the end dates.  One of the worst things you have to do as a community activist is pull out when the funding has dried up.  It’s brutal and destroys all of those lovely trust-bonds that you’ve been building.  The Squilometre technique does this by not taking top-down funding to run.  We also bring our Place Champions into a supported framework so if they need to step back for a while, Interwoven can bridge the gap for them and they can act as a support for each other.
   
5. And here’s the final provocation - we have to be really sure that we’re not part of the problem. Most of us here are fairly educated and pretty sure that we know what needs to be fixed but we can’t be insensible to the fact that there is a social backlash.  What’s the term?  “Snowflake”?  We see it in our social networking.  We saw it in the vote for Brexit and for Trump.  Maybe you’re seeing it when you do work on the streets. 
    
   The fact is, the stronger, more animated and networked we get, the more we may seem to be forming an impenetrable barrier for those who don’t share our world-view. What are you gonna do, just ignore ‘em?  So my challenge to you is to adopt a Reflection in Action routine.  Instead of just reporting on your successes, stop for a moment and reflect deeply on when it didn’t work. Those jeers, that antagonism, that abusive reaction even – those moments are gold. Those are the moments that you know you’re reaching beyond the already animated voice.  Reflecting authentically on that is your opportunity to work out how to preach beyond the converted and to navigate the duality of our 21st century streets.
   
   

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