Trust. Collaboration. Change.
Over the last month Community Lab have proudly supported The Melting Pot in delivering the incredible event Bridging Communities: The Extended Edition. Its purpose? Bringing together community centred organisations with strong social, and often, shared values, to break through the silos that separate them, uncover what they could learn from each other, and how they could collaborate and grow their impact.
The energy was positive from the outset. Helen Denny, CEO of The Melting Pot, introduced us to MyEdinburgh's beautiful new venue, inspired us to open our minds and engage with the speakers from different communities who guided us through an immersive exploration of our views on Trust, Collaboration, and Change. The desire to learn was palpable, and we’re still processing many of the powerful conversations we had on the day.
The video below gives a flavour of the day.
Credit: Saul Garrett at Friendly Motion
We supported the event, its attendees, and the values of the day by building and curating space on the Community Lab platform to allow everyone involved to connect, share, and learn before, during, and ever after. This space consisted of a cluster containing a group for the event itself for info and intros, as well as a Virtual Booth for each partnering community.
The partnering communities came from all over Scotland – Firstport, Dechomai, Catalysing Connections and many more made themselves accessible, added to conversations, and came together to discuss their wins and challenges - big ones at that!
Replicating the event virtually means those powerful conversations are not lost. Supporting partner onboarding enabled connection and made clear their purpose and any asks for the day. Providing a virtual booth allowed speakers and partnering communities to be accessible to those who were allocated to other sessions – no-one had to miss out!
With trust, collaboration and change being the key themes of the day, we listened to lived experience, and considered what we could achieve if we trusted each other and truly collaborated. This resulted in what change we could create for the people of Scotland and beyond. Policy, political, funding, empowerment, awareness, and understanding, the actions are endless.
We constantly reflect on trust at Community Lab – how do we create trust and ensure our users know they have a trusted partner that supports impactful communication? And how can we demonstrate what happens when we trust each other? Be United led with trust prior and throughout to the event as the first community to engage and our experience tells us that the more we can support you the richer and deeper the impact.
We urged the participants on the day not to walk away just having had nice conversations in the capital. Action is now required and we have the tools to achieve it along with human power. In Community Lab, the attendees have a space to consolidate reflections, raise awareness of purpose, showcase their needs, identify kindred communities, and organise collaborative change.
Community Lab is here to help with any and all of that. So, our call to action this week is to explore the space that’s been generated by this event, discover, connect, share openly, and learn.
Artwork Credit: Cassandra Harrison
