Through Thick and Thin
How an infrastructure for relationships could unlock the collective action we need to accelerate progress towards a world designed for and around relationships
Lots of people in lots of different spaces are doing amazing work around building better relationships, but the connections between these nodes are often weak or non-existent. Drawing on conversations with over 100 people in late 2020 and early 2021, we (led by Iona Lawrence) explore the challenges we share in prioritising relationships in the places that we live and work and the work that needs to be done to address those needs.
Our shared and uniting goal is to build a world that is designed for and around relationships: a world where relationships are the first mile, not the extra one.
Building a Relationship Collective: Our Proposal
Building on the insights unearthed in Through Thick and Thin, we submitted an expression of interest to the Bringing People Together Fund at the National Lottery Community Fund to bring to life the idea of an infrastructure for relationships. Drawing inspiration from Joe Mills and friends in the democracy centre, we decided to publish the proposal in the open so everyone can see what we’re hoping to do and more easily explore ways to collaborate.
In short, the expression of interest we submitted is for a two year project to design, test and build the necessary infrastructure to support shared learning and collaboration in the field of relationships and relationship-centred practice in the coming decades.
We are delighted to say that our application was successful and, as of Autumn 2022, we are focused on developing the infrastructure for a thriving field of relationship-centred practice. Find out more about our plans for the next two years below.
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,...
Relationships in the workplace
In brief In this Joining the Dots blog, Rufus Olins reflects on the importance of data in making the case for a more relationship-centred approach in business settings. Rufus was Chief Membership Officer at the Co-Op Group and is now Executive...
Together we create community
In brief In this Joining the Dots blog, Iona Lawrence offers a personal reflection on what relationships mean to her. Iona was the founding Director of the Jo Cox Foundation. She has been with The Cares Family for the past 8 months...
A common field
In brief In this first post in the Joining the Dots series, Relationships Project founder David Robinson sets the scene for the series and outlines the plan going forward. The hook worm was paralysing entire towns in the rural south of the United States in the...
