Our Vision …is for our Participatory Collective to be a physical and virtual space for people to come together from the Ideas Fund and other projects in Hull and East Riding, to work in a participatory way to build a movement to shift power and change systems and cultures to enable communities to flourish and grow together.

The PC will also be open for groups, individuals and organisations who want to work in a participatory way to gain support and learn from others to engage well and involve people in collaboration.

We will build solidarity in a movement that will decide and do things differently – working towards shifting power, changing systems and cultures that currently do not meet needs. The PC will amplify the voices of those who have the most knowledge and experience of the services and systems that are currently not working. We follow the mantra of the Poverty Truth Commissions – Nothing about us, without us, is for us!

We work in particular ways holding the values of care, openness, compassion, empathy, authenticity, honesty, trust, curiosity, deep listening, solidarity, equity, ethical, decolonising practices etc etc

We recognise that working in a more relational way, which includes building relationships to co-create the projects, means that what happens will be emergent – participatory processes do not set down outcomes and outputs as such but rather they emerge as the ideas evolve to meet needs through co-design. This enables trusteed relationships to manifest and address emergence ‘Change happens at the speed of trust’ (Stephen Covey). This way of working recognises the need to slow down not rush to solutions, but once relationships are built the process speeds up.

Coproduction – simplicity and flexibility are key to our vision and approach. We will support changemakers in the participatory collective to adapt and create rules, within an iterative process, which embraces co-development, with flexible deadlines and space to unlearn static, inflexible traditional approaches. We see how the invaluable grassroots real-world knowledge informs academia and policymakers for more impactful practice. We aim to support the development of simple but effective approaches to protocols, procedures and systems to remove barriers and increase transparency.

Humanising Engagement: This is key to our vision for the PC we will work with a foundational practice of taking time to build relationships and trust through getting to know each other as humans beyond roles or (often) imposed identities and situations. Everyone matters and their contributions are valued. These processes enable everyone to have an equitable voice and opportunities to understand each other’s context and situations, deeper than pure words, facilitated in a safe space to be both curious and vulnerable. This improves the conditions for joint approaches to problem solving, mutual support, iterative learning and emergent practice. We will operate our meetings and encounters in circle practice, everyone can speak, along with personal check ins and check outs to ensure everyone feels comfortable and is not left with issues to face alone.