Manor Park residents recently gathered to meet their neighbours and to put their heads together to think about the upcoming community forum summer event. The Council invited us to run the whole evening Conflict-and-Change-style and so it was a meeting with a difference for the 22 people who turned up on the night! On top of this were 8 Community Conversation facilitators and 3 council officers.
Along with activities that got people running to find another seat, speaking to strangers about their interests and favourite holiday destinations they also spent time in small groups sharing their experiences of community spirit. In the Getting-To-Know-You Community Conversations we use a positive question about people’s past community experiences to help build relationships and a feeling of community spirit within the group.
Later on groups were given the task of coming up with ideas for the council summer event that would help bring a feeling of community. Loads of ideas came up that the council will try to incorporate into the event, such as picnic, teenage carnival, tea dance – all dance, art work, gardening, cleaning up/litter picking. The most popular idea was “Manor Park’s got Talent”!!
At the end of the event we asked a few questions to the 18 people who were able to stay until the end. For the questions: “Who feels positive about community spirit after today’s meeting?” and “Who feels part of this event that the council is organizing?” the response was “YES” from all 18 people!
We also ran two similar sessions in Roman Road Primary School on 22nd June and in East Ham Town Hall on 24th June. Again local residents shared memories of community spirit and their vievs of bringing Newham people together. They came up with various creative ideas for summer activities:eg. Neighbourhood Watch, International Food & Dance Festival, drive in cinema, intergenerational meetings, decorating front gardens with flowers, Fun Day with sports, children activities, henna, gardening, performances and workshops.
Here are some comments about what people enjoyed:
• Warmth of the group as we came together
• Meeting of new people, new friends
• Being able to talk to people and not feeling I can’t talk to people
• I enjoyed it not being a sitting down meeting, and the exchange of ideas
• It was really nice speaking to councillors and staff from the council
• The warmth, the environment , the discussions and the ideas – very inspirational
Final comments from council officer Tristan Fleurty, Community Development Manager: "I really enjoyed the community conversation. There was a lovely warm and positive feeling in the room and everyone came up with such amazing and creative ideas for the Summer festival. It was one of the few evening meetings where I left feeling energized rather than exhausted."
pictures in this article by: Dario Ceccoli
