Building kinder, healthier communities
Over the past year, throughout the pandemic, we have been listening to what is important to customers and beginning to build relationships in different ways.
We recognise that when people and organisations come together on an equal footing and really focus on what matters then together we can build communities which are kinder, healthier, more resilient places.
These are places where all people thrive and are proud to live.
Sometimes without discussing what helps people to stay strong, in control and valued with their local communities as individuals, we forget what a good life looks and feels like and what are our dreams and aspirations.
We can get stuck and forget the value that we each bring and can contribute to those around us.
We have begun to work with an organisation called Community Catalysts to help colleagues think and act differently, so that increasingly we are focusing our energy on supporting people to ‘get a life, not a service’.
This will help people make sense of things, connecting them to what is going on in their local area and to find community-based solutions and to be less dependent on traditional services through the development of personal resilience.
The next phase in exploring this different approach is to welcome Community Catalysts to work alongside us in three communities – in Bedford, Southampton and Halifax.
For the foreseeable future, we will still largely be working remotely from our own homes.
This will mean engaging in virtual ways and with customers living in those areas who welcome colleagues and Community Catalysts to join them to walk alongside; to share stories, to make connections and focus attention on how together we can focus our collective energy on making good things happen.
We’ll provide more updates on our work with Community Catalysts soon.