Deeds not Words
Our North Star, follow this link for the full vision
As part of our journey to develop our North Star, our collaborative vision looking forward into the future we wanted to create a Manifesto.
A manifesto is defined in the dictionary as “intentions, motives and views you want to publicly declare”. Sometimes it’s easy to declare things and not take action. We don’t want to be like that. We’ll be starting to share examples of how we’re taking action on each of our manifesto points over the coming months and sharing our progress.
Street Space is a pragmatic and doing kind of organisation. We get stuck in. We work with people in a place, be that in streets or within networks of streets in neighbourhoods. We engage with whoever lives in these areas, no matter their background, colour, class or culture. We try and find ways to engage, inspire, listen, excite and most of all imagine a new future together in as meaningful a way as possible.
Working at the coal-face of community development often in low income communities for over 10 years we are always jostling with the effects of mass migration (domestic and European), long term austerity, large scale economic change e.g. manufacturing, huge changes in the nature of work, an underfunded social sector and a broken housing model. On the street corner, outside the school, at the shops — these are the things that people are talking about. Not exactly in these words but they are living with the effects and impact of all this.
Poem I wrote after a long discussion with a shopkeeper about our broken justice system and local violence.
This is not easy. When people feel ‘left behind’, not listened to, that they’ve been shouting for years their truth that has not been heard or even acknowledged. They are angry. They are exhausted. They are numb.
We work in areas where all of these feelings are the norm, across the board. Our work centres around hearing these feelings and honouring the experiences that created them.
But we are also asking people to step into their power. The power that lies in all of us, even if it feels like it’s not there. We ask people to not wait for it to be granted. To take up space in whatever way that feels real for them. We are trying to kindle the seeds of hope over fear.
To plant seeds and plants at the base of a tree on a barren pavement. To tie knitted flowers to the grey railings they see everyday down to the subway. To light up an alleyway with colourful messages of hope. To demand safer streets and crossing points at the school gate. To demand more space for people on foot or bike and put cars in their place.
We are all coming from different places, carrying with us hurt, loss, disappointment and a deep fear of not being lovable or good enough. I’m not saying all our pain is equal. But I want us to embrace our shared existence in a place or street as an opportunity for togetherness. For imagining how we can use the space we have differently. To pay attention to small details that may bring smiles, or enable a young child to play out on the street and connect with a neighbour. To limit the dominance of traffic on residential streets and unleash the tsunami of social capital that brings. When we feel powerless, recognise that feeling and turn it on it’s head. Take action, no matter how small about something you care about.
Flowers knitted during lockdown to bring colour to streets in Marks Gate & North Chadwell Heath
To guide our deeds and action, we’ve created these 10 Manifesto points. We’d love to hear your feedback and thoughts on them:
Start with what’s strong, not what’s wrong
Move at the speed of trust
Take Action (not matter how small)
Don’t wait for funding (funding doesn’t change culture)
Harness communal spaces
Design for connection
Design for, and with future generations
Embrace uncertainty
Distribute leadership (give up control)
Build in reciprocity
These are not original thoughts — many have been inspired by great thinkers such as Cormac Russell and other ABCD (asset based community development) and tactical urbanism practitioners. But ideas, and words are not enough right?
Community planting day to install planters & seating
We’ll be posting more about what each of these mean to us, with examples of action over the next few months.
This is a request that you, our friends, collaborators and supporters call us out if we haven’t met them. We know many of them are really hard, oftengoing against our natural ways of being, but we’re trying to break patterns and need your help and encouragement to do this.