What’s your Spirit of Lockdown?

Share your story to inspire a better, more connected future

The stories we tell now about our response to Covid-19 will shape how we look back on this time, and how we move forward as a society.

What are the truths that will inspire our better days?
What’s the spirit you want to bottle to guide your way forward?

Share your story of lockdown and join a community of story sharers across the country in celebrating the power of relationships and inspiring a conversation about how we can build back better, stronger and more connected.

Share a written story

Share a multimedia story

Explore others’ stories

Whether you’re looking for inspiration to write your own story or simply to understand people’s experiences during the lockdown, dive into our latest submissions.

Whose relationships?

In brief The stories and ideas we consume shape our views, belief systems and our sense of what is possible. In this blog, Iona Lawrence offers some personal reflections on the shortcomings of her bookshelf and asks who else she should be reading and what needs to...

From process-led to relationship-led: Moving towards more relational Councils

On 14th February, in partnership with LBBD, we hosted our second relational councils convening. In this session, we asked: How could we see relationships as a solution to statutory duties, not as incompatible with them? Our next convening, taking place on 25th April,...

Finding and keeping a home

In brief In this contribution to Joining the Dots, Maeve McGoldrick discusses the importance of relationships in meeting the needs of the 170,000 people currently experiencing homelessness in the UK today. Maeve works for Crisis, the national charity for...

Time for ‘relationship-centred government’? How about it Mr Johnson?

In brief In this blog, David Robinson, who leads the Relationships Project, challenges the UK’s new Prime Minister to take a relationship-centred approach to government, and makes some suggestions for how to go about it. This blog also appears on A Better...

Active Neighbours – Julie

“The satisfaction you get from volunteering is really fulfilling. You get home and know you’ve helped someone that day. It enabled me to meet new people – other volunteers, those we helped. Having the opportunity to talk to some elderly people in the community. When you’re not from somewhere, when would you ever have the opportunity to talk to someone from a different generation?”

Relationships: An idea to organise around?

In brief In this - our second blog exploring the field of relationships - Iona Lawrence and Immy Robinson ask for your help in finding something we can all gather around. You can read the first blog, which lays out what we're up to, here. A few weeks ago we wrote...

At the turning of the year

In brief In this reflective piece, David Robinson looks back at the lessons we have learned in 2020 and what they might mean for the year ahead. Running off-road Politicians and policy people have always loved roadmaps, and so do many managers. It makes the journey...

We can do this, we’re doing it now

In brief In this blog, Relationships Project founder, Shift board member and community worker David Robinson shows what a relational approach looks like, and how it might work, across the sectors. What is a relationship-centred council or relationship-centred economy,...

The measurement challenge

In brief In this Joining the Dots blog, Immy Robinson – Research and Innovation Lead at Shift and co-lead of The Relationships Project – explores some of the knotty questions around measuring and evaluating relationships. The need for measurement The importance of...

What we mean by good relationships

Key Concepts | What we mean by good relationshipsWe often use the word ‘relationship’ to mean different things – from the relationship we might have with our bank to the relationship we might have with a family member. To draw out what we mean by good relationships,...

Everyone is welcome

You don’t need to be an experienced storyteller to take part. Don’t worry about spelling, grammar or being the next JK Rowling – we want to hear about your experience of lockdown in your voice and in whichever format works best for you.

You might want to write your story, to video it, audio record it, draw it, tell it alone, tell it in pairs. Choose the format that works best for you and get sharing!

share a written story

share a multimedia story

Populating the map

We’re building an interactive map to showcase and celebrate stories of lockdown from across the UK. In early 2021 we’ll be inviting storytellers and local decision makers to come together to draw out lessons and shape a better, more connected society post-Covid.

You are under no obligation whatsoever to consent to your story being shared publicly – it’s entirely up to you to decide whether you’d like to share it or keep it private. Whichever format you decide to share your story – written or multimedia – please take a moment to let us know whether you’re happy for your story to be shared.