18th May 2011
How can people do more for their community?
How often have you heard this from someone in your community:
"i'd really love to help, but i'm working that day" or "nice idea, but we don't have the money to do that"
The Big Design Challenge - Cornwall has enabled new ideas for community enterprise to grow and new working partnerships to flourish. It has created a positive buzz amongst communities in Cornwall, yet it has also highlighted some of the difficulties of community collaboration and potential pitfalls of the Big Society concept with issues such as lack of time, money and leadership cited as barriers to people staying involved in community action.
The good people of Cornwall already do a huge amount of volunteering and work for their communities, yet there is little support currently available through business, community and family networks to make it easier for people to get involved.
Through delivering this project and "Designing Communities" for Dott Cornwall, we have observed that if you want to create a Big Society you need to build capacity from within communities first, but how?
We believe that the Big Design Challenge could be developed further to remove many of the barriers to community action and empower people to make good ideas happen.
Heres some ideas for how this could happen:
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Barriers to community action
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Idea |
How could it work? |
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Funding |
Develop a community "crowdfunding" platform |
The Big Design Challenge website could be adapted to incorporate a “crowdfunding” element whereby people offer money to support the development of a particular idea
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Funding |
Offer free social enterprise /fundraising and business advice |
Lessons in how to set up and run a sustainable social business, how to apply for grants, how to manage budgets etc
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Time |
Create a "Good for community, Good for business" volunteer scheme. |
A scheme where local businesses / employers receive incentives such as tax benefits or Big Society funding if they allow their staff to volunteer for their community 2-3 hrs per week.
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Leadership |
Provide local community organisers |
Sponsored community organisers for each local area. Perhaps this could be a sponsorship opportunity for large private business as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility programme?
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Communication |
Provide community support & communication toolkits |
A toolkit that enables community groups / associations to work together, form an organisation and keep in touch. It could include a local / personalised website with links to all relevant community support services in the area, a forum and a list of jobs that need doing for people to voluteer against.
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13th January 2011
Challenging Big Cornwall to Design in The Time
As we move into the second phase of Cornwall’s Big Design Challenge, I find myself with a moment to pause and reflect on the project so far.
It's been a busy six weeks. We've been out and about in Cornwall collecting challenges from a host of individuals, community groups and organizations. There's been a great deal of activity on the website which has seen 84 challenges submitted. Perhaps more important than the challenges themselves are the 145 interesting ideas submitted, proving that people love problem solving. People are a powerful resource to harness.
It's fair to say that we've had a good response to our crowdsourcing approach. Our activities have encouraged people to think about local issues not as problems, but as challenges that can be tackled and solved. We have developed a useful platform which enables people to share ideas for change and start meaningful conversations.
The big ambition
We now need to build on that enthusiasm and help people develop ideas that will bring tangible benefits to their community. Our plan is to bring together six community challenge teams and pair them up with design and business experts. They will work together to co-design the ideas and prepare a pitch for the Dragons Den in March 2010. For me, this is where the real challenge begins. Asking people to submit a challenge and an idea is one thing, but asking them to give up their time for the community is an altogether different ball game and requires a different approach.
Community collaboration
As leaders of this process, it is important that Sea provide the right information and the right environment for successful collaboration. Going forward, it will be important that momentum is not lost and that individuals enjoy the co-design process. We want to take people on a journey that is useful to them personally and benefits the whole community. This is easier said than done though.
The collaborative design process relies on people organising themselves, working well as a team and having a shared end goal. These factors are exacerbated in a community situation where people lead busy lives and often find it difficult to give up their time for altruistic pursuits. As a mum of two and director of my own business I should know!
So even with the support and knowledge they receive from us, I am in no doubt that the successful group will be the one that maintains a strong belief that what they are doing can make a difference and have an impact.
For more information about the Big Design Challenge and details of how you can get involved visit www.bigdesignchallenge.co.uk
