Week 2 Communities — Definition: Spring is here. Everyone’s exhausted

Weeknotes from SIDE Labs after our working session last Friday

This week we asked charities to think about a “skateboard” — their minimum viable product — this is the work in progress for IMM (Intergenerational Music Making)

I think all of us felt a massive shift this week because:

(1) The weather — suddenly it’s actual Spring. It was nice to see my dog gambolling through the crocuses in the sunshine at lunchtime.

(2) The Government finally announced a roadmap out of lockdown on Monday. Think everyone has felt a bit heady all week.

During check-ins at the start of today’s session, quite a few said they were “tired”, “on my knees” or “exhausted”. I think all that buzz at the start of the week means people can be burnt out by Friday.

(Maybe let’s not plan any more working sessions for Friday).

Friday lunchtime: Spring is here! My dog standing on grass, surrounded by yellow and purple crocuses

Despite the tiredness, the session went really well. There was plenty of enthusiasm and lots of ideas. We had just an hour and half so a shorter session than last week.

We’ve been learning more about our projects. It’s clear the 6 charities’ needs are all very different. And each will need a slightly different approach. We’d planned to “split” the streams after week 3 but given the stories that are coming out, we decided to take that deep dive a week earlier.

So this week, we worked in two breakouts for most of the session. We agreed to group the charities under two broad themes:

(1) Wellness/care/support. Andy and Jaymie are working with Back Up, MEWSo and WellChild.

(2) Arts/ events. Noam and I are helping ACRE, IMM and Margate Bookie. (Well, ACRE is a bit of a stretch but it kind of straddles both themes — community activities come in so many forms).

The focus this week was skateboards, inspired by Catalyst’s idea of building skateboards not cars. We want our programme leads to think in detail about creating something small for their communities that they can launch and test now. Ideally, we’ll have time to iterate and develop the “skateboards” before the end of the programme.

GIF of man flipping his skateboard, on a concrete surface with blue sky and mountains behind

Learning more about the 3 partners I’m working with is great. I loved doing the 121 chats earlier this week as it’s so nice to get time to speak to people on a personal level. And hopefully an opportunity for them to voice any concerns they don’t feel quite ready to share with others.

Having said that, everyone seems super-happy to share any issues — and also support each other. As I said last week, they seem a great bunch and all super committed to the programme.

On a broader note, after a year of lockdowns, I think edges are fraying. So many plans have been put on hold — surgical operations, moving house, travel — people are desperate to get moving.

And now, because we can see light at the end of the tunnel, people are beginning to relax, allow themselves to get hopeful, let down their guard a little. And that means cracks are beginning to show. People have held for on so long (we can’t hold all that grief and anxiety in forever).

I’m saying that because there seem to be a few crises going on. I’m experiencing it at a personal, family level and wider social level. These things are all just off-camera, in the wings. After the 121 sessions, I know some of the others are feeling it too.

That’s why sharing, collaboration and supporting each other is so important.

Onwards!

Gif of woman in supermarket aisle, lying down and having a rest