Towards the end of 2024 we shared the Just Ideas’ Review of 2024. You can read the full review here.
Here we highlight one of the projects we worked on in 2024 which showcases the use of graphics and the creation of a ‘project on a page’ image to communicate complex outputs.
Just Ideas was invited by the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead to be a delivery partner for Berkshire’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy – an initiative from DEFRA and Natural England to shape the priorities for nature recovery and increasing biodiversity in local areas.
Through a series of workshops, we worked with residents and stakeholders from local communities to make sure their views and priorities for nature were represented in a meaningful way.
We organised and facilitated:
six place-based community workshops, attended by a total of 235 people
three workshops for farmers and landowners, attended by a total of 140 people
an online workshop with 35 participants
400 responses to an interactive survey.
Our associate, Natalie, produced some beautiful illustrations of Berkshire’s habitats and species for these workshops. They were very effective in bringing a wealth of complex information to people in a meaningful way and encouraging them to engage with it. Natalie also created a striking graphic summarising the priorities of the people we talked with.
Credit Natalie Ganpatsingh, Just Ideas’ Nature Engagement Associate
At a review of the pre-consultation draft of the strategy, with the supporting authorities and Natural England, there was positive feedback on the extent and depth of our public engagement work. The graphic was also highlighted as an example of best practice.
“We were really impressed by your description of how the stakeholder engagement was undertaken and how it contributed to the setting of priorities and measures.”
Representative, LNRS supporting authorities and Natural England
A public consultation on the strategy is planned for early 2025, and it’s good to see the results of our collective efforts progressing to the next stage.
Find out more
One of our big learnings from this work is the power of creating a ‘project on a page’ image. We’re continually exploring visual ways of working, including graphic reporting. For more information on how this communication tool can be used in your organisation please contact us.
https://just-ideas.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/BLNRS-Natalie-graphic.jpg8611213Maryhttps://just-ideas.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/just-ideas-logo1.pngMary2025-01-14 13:58:142025-01-14 13:58:14Highlights from 2024 – ‘project on a page’ graphics: The Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy
And once again grateful for fantastic artwork from our associate and Nature Nurture Director, Natalie Ganpatsingh. Watch the making of the artwork here.
Many thanks also to Sophie de Albuquerque of Wise Copy for working with us through the year on our look back each quarter. We look forward to that opportunity to reflect and share our learning throughout 2025.
For us, the standout theme of the past three months is the energy, flexibility and creativity we’re seeing in our teams of Just Ideas’ associates. Working with challenging systems and sensitive subject matter, they’ve shown remarkable teamwork, initiative and resourcefulness. We’d like to say a huge thank you for their contributions.
Covid-19 Inquiry – Every Story Matters
Experiences of Test, Trace and Isolate (Module 7)
We continue to work with Ipsos, in partnership with WSA Community, on the UK Covid-19 inquiry Listening Exercise – Every Story Matters. We have just finished working on Module 7, focusing on people’s experiences of test, trace and isolate, from home testing and PCR tests to tracing efforts, guidelines around isolating, and the impact of those.
Once again, we travelled around the UK talking to a broad range of people. Our work has focused on a number of target groups including those who were digitally excluded (lacking the confidence or devices to access Covid-19 information online); people supporting family members to isolate; people with neurological conditions; people with learning disabilities; and nomadic people.
The nomadic group covers a huge spectrum, from people living on boats, to travelling show people, to people from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. That posed challenges in how we contacted people and arranged meetings. Through our network of contacts, we’ve worked with organisations that support those communities, and been able to do most interviews by mobile phone.
Our research and preparation has been careful. We’ve listened to organisations that know these communities best, to help us build relationships and trust. There’s been a need for sensitivity and understanding, particularly about how people from Gypsy, Roma, Traveller backgrounds feel society views them generally and how Covid heightened feelings of mistrust. We’ve needed to be very flexible with our offer, in response to people’s needs and preferences.
Insights in to Digital Exclusion
Talking to people who fall into the category of ‘digitally excluded’, we’re understanding more and more of the nuances involved. We’re learning that, while certain platforms are digitally inclusive of some people with learning disabilities, or some people who are neurodivergent, other platforms don’t work for them at all. We’re realising it’s not just a case of access to devices, or money for data, or skills that enable people to use digital technology – it’s more nuanced than that, and in some cases people are opting out of digital communication by choice.
“It’s been a real privilege to get to speak to such a broad range of people about their experiences of the pandemic as part of Every Story Matters, and being part of a really supportive and flexible team as a Just Ideas associate has made this feel especially safe and rewarding.” Just Ideas Associate
Impact on Children and Young People (Module 8)
We’ve just started work on Module 8, focusing on the impact of the pandemic on children and young people, particularly relating to changes in education, access to health and other services, and digital communication. We’ve welcomed some new team members who bring the relevant expertise, including a new associate from a teaching background.
Publication of Healthcare Systems record (Module 3)
When we talk to people about their experiences of the pandemic, they often tell us that they appreciate the opportunity to talk, but have doubts about what will change. It’s been really good to see some quotes from our Module 3 fieldwork published in the first Every Story Matters record, so we can assure people that their experiences do matter and are being shared. Ipsos’ Managing Director of Public Affairs, Trinh Tu, recently celebrated the publication of the record on LinkedIn. Trust for London – London Housing Panel
Having facilitated successful hybrid (in person and online) reflective workshops in support of the London Housing Panel in 2022 and 2023, we were delighted to work with the Panel again in June 2024.
We used a variety of methods and activities to stimulate debate, working together on themes and issues arising from a previous survey and themes that surfaced on the day. We introduced the Open Spaces for Dialogue and Enquiry method to generate and capture dialogue, showcasing a methodology that the panel wanted to learn more about for future work.
“We were immensely grateful for your thoughtful help and support beyond the brief. From responding to… such enormous hurt being felt right now in the Gypsy Roma Traveller communities, to being mindful of those joining online. Aware of the number of technical and relational tasks your team was juggling… and with such an air of calm and warmth!”
Secretariat, London Housing Panel
The London Housing Panel shared a draft report of the workshop with participants and told us that the outcomes are already showing up in meetings with the GLA.
Following the Magpie Pathways Pilot project we were involved in this spring, facilitating listening workshops with vulnerable mums and their minis, we put together a report of the insights we had gathered.
We’re delighted that the team at The Magpie Project really appreciated our work. They have asked us to partner with them again to take the learning from the listening workshops, and build on it with four co-design workshops with the mums and the professionals.
Each workshop will be on a different theme that emerged in the listening workshop: Better Play in the Universal Setting; Clearer Pathways; Prepared Professionals; and Big Picture Policy. The purpose of each workshop is to design the work programme for that theme.
Each work programme, delivered by a Task and Finish group involving mums and professionals, will be responsible for developing tools, materials, resources and practice to shape future services, interventions and advocacy, improving access and opportunities for mums and minis.
“The report was brilliant. Out of seeming chaos, chat, and emotions, you managed to distil themes and directions in a way that makes sense, but without losing the feel, tone and heart of what was discussed with professionals, mums and minis. The report looks so great, we can be proud to send it to people to read. We have already had feedback from professionals that they enjoyed reading it.” Jane Williams, CEO Founder, The Magpie Project
Local Trust and Big Local
As part of Local Trust’s ‘measuring change support’, we’re working with Villages Together on their brilliant idea for piloting a community hub on a local estate, bringing together local agencies, community groups and associations and creating a space for new activities and events to happen. The idea is for people to be able to access support and advice all in one place, without travelling out of their area.
Richard Usher, Director of Just Ideas, co-facilitated a session, bringing together all of these groups, to think about what they want to see, what they want to get out of it as organisations and the difference it would make to people on the estate. We made the most of the local contacts we had established as part of our work on the Covid Inquiry listening exercise, and had really good attendance, with 20 different organisations present.
We returned in October to run a session with people living on this estate, to talk through what they want to see and be part of in the community hub, and how the process of developing it will work.
Just Ideas Collaborative
It’s been really inspiring to see the way our teams of associates are working together, creating opportunities, building relationships and supporting each other.
With the Covid Inquiry bringing some challenging targets, and involving research work that’s not so conventional, our team has really risen to the challenge. We’ve seen people seizing opportunities, making contacts, getting through to people and setting up interviews in really short timeframes. It’s taking creativity and flexibility, and we’re really heartened by the good communication and mutual support going on in the team.
COP 29: Model Climate Conferences for schools
Another team of associates is coming together to plan and facilitate nine model climate conferences for schools across England this November. Timed to coincide with COP29 in Azerbaijan the conferences will take place in Council Chambers from Cheltenham to Ipswich and Reading to Birmingham. In partnership with youth climate charity InterClimate Network, a group of eight of us are looking forward to traveling around the country and delivering those conferences together.
Keep in contact
Join our mailing list to hear our news and get links to helpful information and resources.
Opportunities to work together
We’re really grateful for the long-standing relationships we have with our clients, meaning we get to work with them on an ongoing basis, often on long-term projects.
We’re always interested in developing new partnerships, so if you have a project you’d like to discuss with us for 2025, please get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.
Looking forward to updating you on our progress again, and sharing our highlights from 2024, at the end of the year!
Richard, Helen, Mary and the Just Ideas Collaborative
We are delighted that funding has been confirmed – and planning is well underway – for the 2024 Reading Schools’ Climate Conference. Our 11th local conference with InterClimate Network, this has become an annual fixture in the Reading calendar, with the Just Ideas team organising and facilitating the Conference.
This year we are grateful to Tomato Energy for sponsoring the Conference. We are set to welcome eight local schools to the Reading Borough Council chamber for what promises to be a lively debate in allocated country teams, followed by discussion of how to maximise local impacts. A panel of local decision makers and business representatives will be questioned by students attending, who will be invited to showcase their climate initiatives in school.
Looking back at the 2023 Reading Schools’ Climate Conference
Presentation: The impact of the 2023 Conference
Featuring the student feedback and summary of how attendees valued – and were impacted by – last year’s conference. Download the presentation here – Reading Climate Conferences feedback 2023 (002)
Beyond the Reading conference, in 2023 Just Ideas’ work with InterClimate Network (ICN) was also scaled up due to the formation of a team of climate conference associate facilitators. We have worked with ICN to expand the conferences delivered to include a range of formats, hosted by individual schools, as well as in town halls across England.
We are delighted to share the publication of three reports for Local Trust, examining the long term impact of their Community Leadership Academy. Richard Usher, our Learning and Evaluation Director, explains the role of Just Ideas in this project:
“This piece of work is the result of a long standing Learning and Evaluation role Just Ideas had alongside IVAR, helping to bring together the learning and see the difference the (Local Trust) Community Leadership Academy was making. “
“Living, Leading, Learning” brings together learning from three roundtables facilitated by Just Ideas and IVAR, attended by stakeholders involved in Community Leadership in a range of different ways, from the grass roots through to those funding through to organisations supporting community leadership.”
Richard Usher
Please contact us for information on our Learning and Evaluation offering and learn more about our work with IVAR for Local Trust on the Community Leadership Academy in our Spring 2024 Review
https://just-ideas.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Report-cover-Spheres-of-community-influence.png766540Maryhttps://just-ideas.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/just-ideas-logo1.pngMary2024-08-13 13:02:162024-08-13 13:02:16New Research for Local Trust: ‘Spheres of Community Leadership’ report launched
Bringing diversity, creativity and lived experience
This year, we’ve committed to reflecting on our progress on a regular basis and sharing that with you. Here are our reflections on the work we’re doing in the spring of 2024, highlighting what we’re learning, and recognising with gratitude the contributions of everyone involved.
Covid-19 Inquiry – Every Story Matters
Working with Ipsos, in partnership with WSA Community, we’ve started Module 6 of the UK Covid-19 inquiry listening exercise – Every Story Matters. This focuses on the experiences of people with care needs and in the care workforce, as well as unpaid carers and loved ones of people needing care and support during the pandemic.
Our team will be doing 48 interviews between now and September, working to make sure we hear and support people whose voices may not be heard through more mainstream methods. Because of our specialism in this area, we will be supporting people with learning difficulties, and those that care for them, to share their stories.
We’ll be going into care homes, talking to the workforce, residents, loved ones and unpaid carers. It’s obviously very sensitive work. We’ve refreshed our trauma-informed research practice training and made sure that appropriate emotional support is available, for our team and for participants.
We’ve faced challenges in working out what’s appropriate in terms of ethics, and managing expectations as to the stories that we can appropriately capture. We’re working hard to make sure that conversations happen in a way that doesn’t retraumatise and that provides a positive opportunity to reflect, talk and be heard.
We’re really excited to be doing this work with a great team, including two new members who bring their youth and diversity of experience.
The Magpie Project
We were put in contact with this brilliant charity by one of our team. The Magpie Project provides a safe and fun place for mums and preschool children seeking safety, who are living in temporary or insecure accommodation in and around Newham, East London. They invited us to work on their Preschool Pathways Project, listening to the difficulties families are facing in meeting the emerging needs of their preschool children, and working with local health professionals to help them access support.
In the first phase, we’re providing specialist facilitation for eight workshops to support the mums in talking about their experiences, so they can be heard by a range of healthcare professionals, from speech and language therapists and special educational needs coordinators to health visitors, social workers, midwives and staff from children’s centres.
The second phase will build on what we know about the barriers these mums face, exploring what will help them get the specialist support they need for their children – identifying where there are missed opportunities. We’ll be supporting the codesign of pathways and tools that enable people in this situation to be looked after much better by the system.
One of our real strengths is the team that we’ve been able to bring to this work.It’s been really important to represent ethnic diversity, and to include team members with lived experience of some of the challenges these mums and children are facing. We’ve found a really good match with The Magpie Project’s values and person-centred approach, and are delighted to be working together.
– six place-based community workshops, attended by a total of 235 people
– three workshops for farmers and landowners, attended by a total of 140 people
– an online workshop with 35 participants
– 400 responses to an interactive survey.
We’re delighted to have achieved such a successful level of engagement, making sure that community voices have really been heard. We’re proud to have created an approach that was informative, enjoyable and allowed people to learn from each other.
“Just Ideas were friendly and professional, working hard to reach timelines with a complex and changing brief! I always enjoyed meetings with them, coming away feeling supported and empowered about the project. The workshops received very positive feedback, and the notes they painstakingly collected are being used to shape the strategy.” Rosie Street, Berkshire Nature Recovery Strategy Manager
Again, our significant strength was in putting together a team of people who specialise in facilitating workshops and creating visual resources related to nature and ecology. Through our creative approach to workshop design and communicating information, we’ve seen people and nature really come alive.
New Local
We’re excited to be working on two projects with New Local. One is working with the council and communities in Ealing to codesign ways for communities to get engaged in influencing the council. Events so far have included our team getting involved in impromptu dancing, alongside some more traditional engagement and research!
We’re also working with Leicester City Council on a project called Leicester Changing Communities. The aim is to help the council understand what makes its local communities tick and what’s foremost in people’s minds, with a view to being better able to connect with those diverse, changing communities.
St Martin-in-the-Fields
We’re delighted to continue our long-standing relationship with St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity. Recently, we’ve been working alongside their senior leadership team, providing bespoke coaching and leadership support, and supporting managers in the organisation through coaching and mentoring.
It’s a dynamic organisation that has grown a lot recently and had some big changes in the senior leadership team. We’ve facilitated an interactive workshop with managers to identify their support needs over the over the coming year, and a codesign workshop to talk about their learning and development needs over the next month.
Connecting Health Communities
Helen is working with IVAR on Connecting Health Communities in Dudley, exploring how cross-sector partners and communities can work together to shift behaviours and help residents live healthily and happily. We’re looking at childhood and family obesity as both an outcome and a contributing factor to other difficulties.
We aim to help professionals working in the area to deepen their understanding of how children and families make choices about food and exercise, and the barriers to making choices that lead to greater health and happiness. We’re delivering interactive workshops with primary schools, involving asking, listening, imagery, activity and movement.
Helen has also been delivering webinars and training for the Connecting Health Communities Champions Network. It’s been really interesting to explore leadership in situations where people are tackling complex issues, as well as learning about spotting unconscious bias, and sharing practical tools for leading change collaboratively.
Local Trust and Big Local
Reflect | Recharge
We’ve reached the final stage of Reflect | Recharge, which has been a huge piece of work for us over the past two years, involving 15 Big Local areas. It’s been really valuable to reflect on the ten-year process of Big Local, which involved challenges like the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis, and to acknowledge the energy of so many community volunteers.
Richard has been working with groups in Manchester and Warrington, exploring the ongoing change that people want to see in their communities. We’ve focused on valuing people’s contributions to their communities, thinking through lasting infrastructure change, and supporting groups to become sustainable.
“Thank you so much for today, it was very helpful. Members of the group fed back that it has helped reduce stress for them, which is a huge compliment!”
Big Local Area Co-ordinator
“It’s helped us to see how much community spirit we have – and a willingness to work together. That passion came through and some great ideas! Thank you!”
Reflect | Recharge participant at Latch Ford Big Local
Big Local Area Profiles
Our work continues on researching and running workshops for Big Local areas. We are currently working on four areas, and will be researching and writing a further four area profiles from July. These area profiles will form part of the Learning from Big Local website.
Just Ideas Collaborative
Welcome new associates
Mike Ball has been working with our core team to support us with our systems. At Local Trust, he successfully set up systems on a much bigger scale, so we’re benefitting from all his knowledge. He’s been particularly helpful in unpicking the complicated processes needed to make the Covid-19 Inquiry listening exercise work well.
We’re happy to be working with new associates, some recently graduated, and broadening the experience of our team.
If you’d like to find out more about working together, or talk about partnering with us, or just sign up to keep in touch and hear our news, please do contact us. We’d love to hear from you.
We look forward to updating you on our progress again, later in the year.
Richard, Helen, Mary and the Just Ideas Collaborative
Highlights from 2024 – ‘project on a page’ graphics: The Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy
/in Frontpage Article, News/by MarySharing highlights from our story of 2024
Towards the end of 2024 we shared the Just Ideas’ Review of 2024. You can read the full review here.
Here we highlight one of the projects we worked on in 2024 which showcases the use of graphics and the creation of a ‘project on a page’ image to communicate complex outputs.
Just Ideas was invited by the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead to be a delivery partner for Berkshire’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy – an initiative from DEFRA and Natural England to shape the priorities for nature recovery and increasing biodiversity in local areas.
Through a series of workshops, we worked with residents and stakeholders from local communities to make sure their views and priorities for nature were represented in a meaningful way.
We organised and facilitated:
Our associate, Natalie, produced some beautiful illustrations of Berkshire’s habitats and species for these workshops. They were very effective in bringing a wealth of complex information to people in a meaningful way and encouraging them to engage with it. Natalie also created a striking graphic summarising the priorities of the people we talked with.
Credit Natalie Ganpatsingh, Just Ideas’ Nature Engagement Associate
At a review of the pre-consultation draft of the strategy, with the supporting authorities and Natural England, there was positive feedback on the extent and depth of our public engagement work. The graphic was also highlighted as an example of best practice.
A public consultation on the strategy is planned for early 2025, and it’s good to see the results of our collective efforts progressing to the next stage.
Find out more
One of our big learnings from this work is the power of creating a ‘project on a page’ image. We’re continually exploring visual ways of working, including graphic reporting. For more information on how this communication tool can be used in your organisation please contact us.
Ripple Effect – Our Annual Review 2024
/in Frontpage Article, News/by Richard UsherWe’re delighted to share our story of 2024
And once again grateful for fantastic artwork from our associate and Nature Nurture Director, Natalie Ganpatsingh. Watch the making of the artwork here.
Many thanks also to Sophie de Albuquerque of Wise Copy for working with us through the year on our look back each quarter. We look forward to that opportunity to reflect and share our learning throughout 2025.
Read the full review here.
Wishing you well for the festive season and 2025.
Richard, Helen, Mary, Mike and the JI Collaborative.
Just Ideas’ Autumn Review 2024
/in Community development, Company information, Facilitation, Frontpage Article, Learning events, News/by MaryFlexible, resourceful teams…
…thinking creatively and building relationships
For us, the standout theme of the past three months is the energy, flexibility and creativity we’re seeing in our teams of Just Ideas’ associates. Working with challenging systems and sensitive subject matter, they’ve shown remarkable teamwork, initiative and resourcefulness. We’d like to say a huge thank you for their contributions.
Covid-19 Inquiry – Every Story Matters
Experiences of Test, Trace and Isolate (Module 7)
We continue to work with Ipsos, in partnership with WSA Community, on the UK Covid-19 inquiry Listening Exercise – Every Story Matters. We have just finished working on Module 7, focusing on people’s experiences of test, trace and isolate, from home testing and PCR tests to tracing efforts, guidelines around isolating, and the impact of those.
Once again, we travelled around the UK talking to a broad range of people. Our work has focused on a number of target groups including those who were digitally excluded (lacking the confidence or devices to access Covid-19 information online); people supporting family members to isolate; people with neurological conditions; people with learning disabilities; and nomadic people.
The nomadic group covers a huge spectrum, from people living on boats, to travelling show people, to people from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. That posed challenges in how we contacted people and arranged meetings. Through our network of contacts, we’ve worked with organisations that support those communities, and been able to do most interviews by mobile phone.
Our research and preparation has been careful. We’ve listened to organisations that know these communities best, to help us build relationships and trust. There’s been a need for sensitivity and understanding, particularly about how people from Gypsy, Roma, Traveller backgrounds feel society views them generally and how Covid heightened feelings of mistrust. We’ve needed to be very flexible with our offer, in response to people’s needs and preferences.
Insights in to Digital Exclusion
Talking to people who fall into the category of ‘digitally excluded’, we’re understanding more and more of the nuances involved. We’re learning that, while certain platforms are digitally inclusive of some people with learning disabilities, or some people who are neurodivergent, other platforms don’t work for them at all. We’re realising it’s not just a case of access to devices, or money for data, or skills that enable people to use digital technology – it’s more nuanced than that, and in some cases people are opting out of digital communication by choice.
Impact on Children and Young People (Module 8)
We’ve just started work on Module 8, focusing on the impact of the pandemic on children and young people, particularly relating to changes in education, access to health and other services, and digital communication. We’ve welcomed some new team members who bring the relevant expertise, including a new associate from a teaching background.
Publication of Healthcare Systems record (Module 3)
When we talk to people about their experiences of the pandemic, they often tell us that they appreciate the opportunity to talk, but have doubts about what will change. It’s been really good to see some quotes from our Module 3 fieldwork published in the first Every Story Matters record, so we can assure people that their experiences do matter and are being shared. Ipsos’ Managing Director of Public Affairs, Trinh Tu, recently celebrated the publication of the record on LinkedIn.
Trust for London – London Housing Panel
Having facilitated successful hybrid (in person and online) reflective workshops in support of the London Housing Panel in 2022 and 2023, we were delighted to work with the Panel again in June 2024.
We used a variety of methods and activities to stimulate debate, working together on themes and issues arising from a previous survey and themes that surfaced on the day. We introduced the Open Spaces for Dialogue and Enquiry method to generate and capture dialogue, showcasing a methodology that the panel wanted to learn more about for future work.
The London Housing Panel shared a draft report of the workshop with participants and told us that the outcomes are already showing up in meetings with the GLA.
We’ve drawn on our experience of facilitating excellent hybrid sessions to create this guide to running successful and inclusive hybrid meetings.
The Magpie Project
We’re delighted that the team at The Magpie Project really appreciated our work. They have asked us to partner with them again to take the learning from the listening workshops, and build on it with four co-design workshops with the mums and the professionals.
Each workshop will be on a different theme that emerged in the listening workshop: Better Play in the Universal Setting; Clearer Pathways; Prepared Professionals; and Big Picture Policy. The purpose of each workshop is to design the work programme for that theme.
Each work programme, delivered by a Task and Finish group involving mums and professionals, will be responsible for developing tools, materials, resources and practice to shape future services, interventions and advocacy, improving access and opportunities for mums and minis.
Local Trust and Big Local
As part of Local Trust’s ‘measuring change support’, we’re working with Villages Together on their brilliant idea for piloting a community hub on a local estate, bringing together local agencies, community groups and associations and creating a space for new activities and events to happen. The idea is for people to be able to access support and advice all in one place, without travelling out of their area.
Richard Usher, Director of Just Ideas, co-facilitated a session, bringing together all of these groups, to think about what they want to see, what they want to get out of it as organisations and the difference it would make to people on the estate. We made the most of the local contacts we had established as part of our work on the Covid Inquiry listening exercise, and had really good attendance, with 20 different organisations present.
We returned in October to run a session with people living on this estate, to talk through what they want to see and be part of in the community hub, and how the process of developing it will work.
Just Ideas Collaborative
It’s been really inspiring to see the way our teams of associates are working together, creating opportunities, building relationships and supporting each other.
With the Covid Inquiry bringing some challenging targets, and involving research work that’s not so conventional, our team has really risen to the challenge. We’ve seen people seizing opportunities, making contacts, getting through to people and setting up interviews in really short timeframes. It’s taking creativity and flexibility, and we’re really heartened by the good communication and mutual support going on in the team.
COP 29: Model Climate Conferences for schools
Another team of associates is coming together to plan and facilitate nine model climate conferences for schools across England this November. Timed to coincide with COP29 in Azerbaijan the conferences will take place in Council Chambers from Cheltenham to Ipswich and Reading to Birmingham. In partnership with youth climate charity InterClimate Network, a group of eight of us are looking forward to traveling around the country and delivering those conferences together.
Keep in contact
Join our mailing list to hear our news and get links to helpful information and resources.
Opportunities to work together
We’re really grateful for the long-standing relationships we have with our clients, meaning we get to work with them on an ongoing basis, often on long-term projects.
We’re always interested in developing new partnerships, so if you have a project you’d like to discuss with us for 2025, please get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.
Looking forward to updating you on our progress again, and sharing our highlights from 2024, at the end of the year!
Richard, Helen, Mary and the Just Ideas Collaborative
Announcing the 11th InterClimate Network Reading Schools’ Climate Conference – November 2024
/in Facilitation, Learning events, News/by MaryWe are delighted that funding has been confirmed – and planning is well underway – for the 2024 Reading Schools’ Climate Conference. Our 11th local conference with InterClimate Network, this has become an annual fixture in the Reading calendar, with the Just Ideas team organising and facilitating the Conference.
Reading Climate Conferences feedback 2023 (002)
This year we are grateful to Tomato Energy for sponsoring the Conference. We are set to welcome eight local schools to the Reading Borough Council chamber for what promises to be a lively debate in allocated country teams, followed by discussion of how to maximise local impacts. A panel of local decision makers and business representatives will be questioned by students attending, who will be invited to showcase their climate initiatives in school.
Looking back at the 2023 Reading Schools’ Climate Conference
Presentation: The impact of the 2023 Conference
Featuring the student feedback and summary of how attendees valued – and were impacted by – last year’s conference. Download the presentation here – Reading Climate Conferences feedback 2023 (002)
Guest Blog
Just Ideas’ associate Farid Abdurrahman published a blog about the 2023 Conference summarising his experience as an observer.
From the ICN website
The write up of the 2023 Reading Conference can be found here – Climate Conference – Reading Schools and Colleges – InterClimate Network
Interested in hosting?
Beyond the Reading conference, in 2023 Just Ideas’ work with InterClimate Network (ICN) was also scaled up due to the formation of a team of climate conference associate facilitators. We have worked with ICN to expand the conferences delivered to include a range of formats, hosted by individual schools, as well as in town halls across England.
To find out more about hosting a Model Climate Conference please get in touch
New Research for Local Trust: ‘Spheres of Community Leadership’ report launched
/in Community development, Company information, Evaluation, Facilitation, News, Organisational learning, Partnership development/by MaryWe are delighted to share the publication of three reports for Local Trust, examining the long term impact of their Community Leadership Academy. Richard Usher, our Learning and Evaluation Director, explains the role of Just Ideas in this project:
Entitled “Spheres of Community Influence” the three reports include ‘Living, Leading, Learning’ .
Please contact us for information on our Learning and Evaluation offering and learn more about our work with IVAR for Local Trust on the Community Leadership Academy in our Spring 2024 Review
Just Ideas’ Summer Review 2024
/in Community development, Company information, Facilitation, Frontpage Article, Learning events, News/by MaryBringing diversity, creativity and lived experience
This year, we’ve committed to reflecting on our progress on a regular basis and sharing that with you. Here are our reflections on the work we’re doing in the spring of 2024, highlighting what we’re learning, and recognising with gratitude the contributions of everyone involved.
Covid-19 Inquiry – Every Story Matters
Working with Ipsos, in partnership with WSA Community, we’ve started Module 6 of the UK Covid-19 inquiry listening exercise – Every Story Matters. This focuses on the experiences of people with care needs and in the care workforce, as well as unpaid carers and loved ones of people needing care and support during the pandemic.
Our team will be doing 48 interviews between now and September, working to make sure we hear and support people whose voices may not be heard through more mainstream methods. Because of our specialism in this area, we will be supporting people with learning difficulties, and those that care for them, to share their stories.
We’ll be going into care homes, talking to the workforce, residents, loved ones and unpaid carers. It’s obviously very sensitive work. We’ve refreshed our trauma-informed research practice training and made sure that appropriate emotional support is available, for our team and for participants.
We’ve faced challenges in working out what’s appropriate in terms of ethics, and managing expectations as to the stories that we can appropriately capture. We’re working hard to make sure that conversations happen in a way that doesn’t retraumatise and that provides a positive opportunity to reflect, talk and be heard.
We’re really excited to be doing this work with a great team, including two new members who bring their youth and diversity of experience.
The Magpie Project
We were put in contact with this brilliant charity by one of our team. The Magpie Project provides a safe and fun place for mums and preschool children seeking safety, who are living in temporary or insecure accommodation in and around Newham, East London. They invited us to work on their Preschool Pathways Project, listening to the difficulties families are facing in meeting the emerging needs of their preschool children, and working with local health professionals to help them access support.
In the first phase, we’re providing specialist facilitation for eight workshops to support the mums in talking about their experiences, so they can be heard by a range of healthcare professionals, from speech and language therapists and special educational needs coordinators to health visitors, social workers, midwives and staff from children’s centres.
The second phase will build on what we know about the barriers these mums face, exploring what will help them get the specialist support they need for their children – identifying where there are missed opportunities. We’ll be supporting the codesign of pathways and tools that enable people in this situation to be looked after much better by the system.
One of our real strengths is the team that we’ve been able to bring to this work. It’s been really important to represent ethnic diversity, and to include team members with lived experience of some of the challenges these mums and children are facing. We’ve found a really good match with The Magpie Project’s values and person-centred approach, and are delighted to be working together.
Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy
Our engagement work on the Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) culminated in a webinar for Reading Climate Festival in June, updating people on our progress. Through this project, Just Ideas has organised and facilitated:
– six place-based community workshops, attended by a total of 235 people
– three workshops for farmers and landowners, attended by a total of 140 people
– an online workshop with 35 participants
– 400 responses to an interactive survey.
We’re delighted to have achieved such a successful level of engagement, making sure that community voices have really been heard. We’re proud to have created an approach that was informative, enjoyable and allowed people to learn from each other.
Again, our significant strength was in putting together a team of people who specialise in facilitating workshops and creating visual resources related to nature and ecology. Through our creative approach to workshop design and communicating information, we’ve seen people and nature really come alive.
New Local
We’re excited to be working on two projects with New Local. One is working with the council and communities in Ealing to codesign ways for communities to get engaged in influencing the council. Events so far have included our team getting involved in impromptu dancing, alongside some more traditional engagement and research!
We’re also working with Leicester City Council on a project called Leicester Changing Communities. The aim is to help the council understand what makes its local communities tick and what’s foremost in people’s minds, with a view to being better able to connect with those diverse, changing communities.
St Martin-in-the-Fields
We’re delighted to continue our long-standing relationship with St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity. Recently, we’ve been working alongside their senior leadership team, providing bespoke coaching and leadership support, and supporting managers in the organisation through coaching and mentoring.
It’s a dynamic organisation that has grown a lot recently and had some big changes in the senior leadership team. We’ve facilitated an interactive workshop with managers to identify their support needs over the over the coming year, and a codesign workshop to talk about their learning and development needs over the next month.
Connecting Health Communities
Helen is working with IVAR on Connecting Health Communities in Dudley, exploring how cross-sector partners and communities can work together to shift behaviours and help residents live healthily and happily. We’re looking at childhood and family obesity as both an outcome and a contributing factor to other difficulties.
We aim to help professionals working in the area to deepen their understanding of how children and families make choices about food and exercise, and the barriers to making choices that lead to greater health and happiness. We’re delivering interactive workshops with primary schools, involving asking, listening, imagery, activity and movement.
Helen has also been delivering webinars and training for the Connecting Health Communities Champions Network. It’s been really interesting to explore leadership in situations where people are tackling complex issues, as well as learning about spotting unconscious bias, and sharing practical tools for leading change collaboratively.
Local Trust and Big Local
Reflect | Recharge
We’ve reached the final stage of Reflect | Recharge, which has been a huge piece of work for us over the past two years, involving 15 Big Local areas. It’s been really valuable to reflect on the ten-year process of Big Local, which involved challenges like the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis, and to acknowledge the energy of so many community volunteers.
Richard has been working with groups in Manchester and Warrington, exploring the ongoing change that people want to see in their communities. We’ve focused on valuing people’s contributions to their communities, thinking through lasting infrastructure change, and supporting groups to become sustainable.
Big Local Area Profiles
Our work continues on researching and running workshops for Big Local areas. We are currently working on four areas, and will be researching and writing a further four area profiles from July. These area profiles will form part of the Learning from Big Local website.
Just Ideas Collaborative
Welcome new associates
Mike Ball has been working with our core team to support us with our systems. At Local Trust, he successfully set up systems on a much bigger scale, so we’re benefitting from all his knowledge. He’s been particularly helpful in unpicking the complicated processes needed to make the Covid-19 Inquiry listening exercise work well.
We’re happy to be working with new associates, some recently graduated, and broadening the experience of our team.
We’re looking forward to bringing the whole Collaborative team together again in September. Find out more about the Just Ideas Collaborative.
Work with us
If you’d like to find out more about working together, or talk about partnering with us, or just sign up to keep in touch and hear our news, please do contact us. We’d love to hear from you.
We look forward to updating you on our progress again, later in the year.
Richard, Helen, Mary and the Just Ideas Collaborative