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.
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...
Sustaining the care: Learning from the Warm Hubs experience
What can we learn from the Warm Hubs experience about how to create ‘relational spaces’? And how can this learning, combined with the learning from the community response to the covid pandemic, inform and inspire a bottom up, relationship centred approach to...
How to care for Warm Welcome Volunteers: A guided reflection
In brief In this blog, originally written for the Warm Welcome Network, we review what we learnt about community responses to the pandemic to ask how we can sustain and maintain the momentum in community-based responses to the cost of living crisis. In the early...
A Framework for Relationship-Centred Practice
We posted some ideas about Relationship Centred Practice (RCP) in this blog last November. Based on comments at the time, discussion at our Northumbria Convening and further work by the Relationships Collective we are now posting part two. Here, we share our initial...
Sharing power through relationships
In brief How can we grow professional relationships that share power? In this audio clip, facilitator and social cohesion specialist Emily Danby explores 3 ways to develop a relational practice that turns our commitment to power-sharing into action. Emily is the host...
The Good Life: Book Club
On 28th March 2023, a group of us came together for The Relationships Project’s first ever Book Club. Hosted by the wonderful Christine Frazer from her kitchen table in Gateshead, we gathered together to share thoughts and reflections on The Good Life by Marc Shulz...
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...
Our dreams for a Centre in Community Participation and Connectedness
In brief The UKRI recently published a call for a new world-leading Centre in Community Participation and Connectedness. Bringing together academics, policymakers, practitioners and community members, the Centre will have a bold ambition to make a meaningful...
Relational Councils and the Cost of Living Crisis
The Relational Councils Network gathered on 30/1/23 to talk about the cost-of-living crisis and relational responses. Partners from the council and the community in Barking and Dagenham provided the key note experience. A list of links and resources mentioned in the...
Welcoming The Relationships Collective
Introducing The Relationships Collective The Relationships Collective is a group of 9 individuals who together represent just some of the brilliant, enthusiastic, creative and diverse people who are putting relationships first and pioneering a relationship-centred...
