Connect
Collaborative spaces for learning, sharing and connecting
Ways to connect
Being a relationship-centred practitioner can feel lonely at times. But you are not alone! Across the UK and beyond, there’s an ever-growing network of brilliant individuals and organisations who all share a belief in the power of relationships. We’re here to help connect you up, helping us all to feel less alone and realise more than the sum of our parts.
The Relationships Map
Explore the Relationships Map to find others who are grappling with similar challenges or working in similar areas, and make new friends, allies and collaborators.
Convenings
Take a look at our upcoming events – both online and in person – to learn from others, explore shared challenges, and share ideas and inspiration.
Upcoming Convenings
We have an evolving programme of events for 2023, both online and in person, exploring topics such as measurement, relational offsetting and the cost of living crisis, all – of course – with a relational lens. Make sure you’re signed up to the newsletter and follow us on Twitter to keep up-to-date on what’s coming up.
Featured event
Relationships Learning Network
In the autumn of 2023, we’ll be convening an interdisciplinary learning network focused on relationship-centred practice. Along with our friends from the After Disasters Network we are hosting an open Zoom meeting to talk about the plan at 2-4pm BST on 21st September 2023. Find out more here.
Relational Networks
On 3rd October, 12-2pm BST (Zoom) we’re hosting a session in partnership with Habitus Collective to explore how better relationships can build more powerful networks. We’ll be sharing activities and exploring the qualities and competencies for deepening relationships in networks and coalitions
Relational Councils: Stewardship approach to tackling loneliness
In the next Relational Councils session (10th October, 12.30-2pm GMT, Zoom), we’ll be hearing about how East Sussex and Barking and Dagenham councils have been helping to build relationships across the system, to better build relationships in communities.
LSE Public Lecture
Following his 2018 LSE public lecture, David has been invited to return to tell the unfolding story of our work, discuss new trends in our understanding of relationships, and put forward our practical vision of a place where meaningful relationships are the central operating principle. The lecture will take place at LSE 31st Oct, 6.30pm and will be live streamed.
Book Club: The power of a great story
On 9th November 12.30-2pm GMT (Zoom) we’ll be hosting our second book club. But instead of a book, we’re going to be exploring the power of storytelling in helping build a more relationship-centred world, drawing on this fantastic Ted Talk by Pádraig Ó Tuama. It’ll be a friendly and informal session to which everyone is welcome.
Building relationships in an increasingly online world
For many, the internet pre-Covid offered a cold web – a mechanism for effecting transactions rather than for enabling a warm web of meaningful relationships. Since 2020, lots of us have learnt about how to deploy digital tools to facilitate purposeful connection. This session will be an opportunity to share ideas and tips for building connections online
If you’d like to co-host an event with us on anything to do with relationships and relationship-centred practice, please get in touch. We’d be delighted to hear from you
Ongoing Convenings
Relational Councils Network
Do you work in or alongside a Council? Are you on a mission to put relationships at the heart of how you work? Take a look at the Relational Councils Network for practical ideas, tools, and opportunities to connect with others on a similar journey
Relationships Collective
Appointed in January 2023, The Relationships Collective is a group of 9 individuals who together represent just some of the brilliant, enthusiastic and diverse people pioneering a relationship-centred future
Past Convenings
Relationship-Centred Practice: Unpacking the how, what and why
23rd November 2022, Newcastle Upon Tyne
On the 23rd November, 80 Relationship-Centred practitioners came together in Newcastle to explore the how, what and why of relationship-centred practice. We were a varied bunch – thinkers, doers and enablers, from different sectors and disciplines, and with a wide range of skills and experiences, all bound together by a shared commitment to making relationships the first mile. Together we began to unpack:
- WHAT do we mean by relationship-centred practice? What are the golden threads? What examples already exist?
- WHY is relationship-centred practice important? What change does it unlock?
- HOW do we evidence the impact of relationship-centred practice? What already exists and where are the gaps?
- HOW do we enable and support relationship-centred practice? What conditions need to be in place?
- WHERE might we go next in exploring these lines of enquiry?
Relational Councils: Learning from Crisis
On the 12th July 2023, we were joined by Kate Cochrane, Head of Resilience for NHS Scotland, Paul Morrsion, Director of Homes for Ukraine, and Neil Denton, Co-Founder of the After Disaster’s Network to explore how top-down and bottom-up responses to crisis can effectively converge, and the lessons we can take forward
Can a transactional approach to co-production ever be appropriate?
On the 15th June 2023, 85 of us came together to explore whether a transactional approach to co-production can ever be appropriate. Co-production has become something of a buzz word. Done well, it can transform outcomes, but too often co-production becomes a tokenistic mechanism for fulfilling commissioning requirements.
Relational Councils: Sustaining the Care
On 16th May 2023, a subset of the Relational Councils Network came together to draw out learning from the community response to the cost of living crisis. We were joined by David Barclay who stewarded the Warm Welcome Campaign
Book Club: The Good Life by Bob Waldinger and Marc Schulz
On 28th March 2023, a group of us came together to discuss The Good Life which reveals findings from the world’s longest running study on human happiness.
Relational Learning with David Jay
On 16/03/23, we were joined by David Jay, network builder, physicist and founder of Relationality Lab who talked to us about the methods and approaches that he’s developing to support ‘relational learning’
Relational Councils: Fourth Convening
On 30/01, 60 of us from the Relational Councils Network came together to explore how a more relational approach can help councils tackle the consequences of the cost of living crisis.
Citizen's Rising: A special briefing with Save the Children
In partnership with Save the Children, we have been listening to young people about their experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic. In this event, we shared what we have heard and explored together what children and young people need from adult society to be able to thrive
Side by Side: A peer learning programme
Over the first half of 2022, we were honoured to host a group of Community Weavers to explore how we can nurture and sustain the community activity which erupted in the early lockdowns, without controlling and constraining it. Spanning 6 sessions and involving a host of fantastic speakers, it was a great programme covering a lot of ground.
Relational Councils: Third Convening
On 25/04/22, we were joined by Bryony Shannon, author of the excellent blog Rewriting Social Care, to explore how local authorities can develop a more relational lexicon. We discussed the impact of language on relationships, words that make us go hmm, and small steps towards shifting language.
Relational Councils: Second Convening
On 14/02/22, we hosted the second convening for local authorities from different parts of the country. We focused on relational approaches to statutory duties and risk management, hearing from Russ Bellenie and Eliot Fineberg who kicked off the discussion for us.
Relational Councils: First Convening
On 13/12/21, local authorities from across the country came together to unpick what it means to be a relational council. We heard from LBBD, Tony Clements and others about what they’re working on and surfaced lots of questions to keep the conversation going.
Nurturing and sustaining community activity
On 10/11/21, we came together to explore how we can nurture and sustain community activity without controlling and constraining it. We explored possibilities as well as challenges, and we plan to keep the conversation going into 2022.
Loneliness and political life: A transatlantic conversation
On 12/10/21 we teamed up with Pepperdine University to explore the effect that loneliness has had on our political lives. Bringing together speakers from different political standpoints, it was a lively and thought-provoking conversation. Our Twitter summary can be found here.
The Lookout: Reflecting on young people's experiences of the pandemic
On 22/09/21, we came together to reflect on the effect that the pandemic has had on young people’s relationships and what adult society needs to do to ensure ‘recovery’ takes into account their needs. This conversation supplements what we’ve been hearing form young people directly.
Measuring relationships: What's the problem?
On 09/06/21 we came together to discuss the ‘measurement problem’. What are we trying to measure when it comes to relationships? What are the risks? Where does potential lie? We surfaced as many questions as we did answers. Our Twitter summary can be found here.
Testimonials from participants
I gain such strength from this group and the people in it and the action that comes when we all gather together. I love all of your storytelling and the compassion with which you speak about the people that you obviously know very well. This personally for me is a very important part of my month so thank you everybody
Action Learning was absolutely phenomenal… it gave me that kick up the backside to make plans – pushing things forward. I really liked that the process was that I was trying to find out answers for myself
[What I enjoy about these sessions is] meeting other practitioners and hearing about their work, […] the diversity of the content and speakers […] the camaraderie and support. It can be lonely and draining work and I get a sense people are really valuing having a support network
You don’t always see the obvious. Our organisation does so much but the Heatmap showed us we don’t really promote it as best as we could… this work will have a knock on effect
Professionally this project has kept me going. To have some direction, to meet regularly with like minded people. To have the opportunity to share my thoughts, to be treated as an expert.
Being in this space has solidified how crucial relationships are – it’s affirmed how much can change if you have good relationships
Featured: The Community Weaver’s Companion
- How can we nurture strong communities in the good times as well as the bad?
- How can we sustain the community activity we saw in the early lockdowns without controlling and constraining it?
- How do we build a positive Covid legacy and resist the pull back to old ways?
Collaboratively created by the wonderful members of our Side by Side Convening in early 2022, the Community Weaver’s Companion offers handy tools and frameworks, inspiring insights and anecdotes, and useful resources for diving deeper into what it means – and what it takes – to build strong communities from the inside.
