Blog

This year Just Ideas turns twelve years old! As we celebrate heading into our teenage years, we’re glad of this opportunity to take stock of where we are and where we want to be. We have been exploring how Just Ideas grows and evolves, and have worked with a number of new clients and partners as well as continued to develop existing partnerships and relationships. We’ve invested in some really helpful business coaching (thank you Charly Cox) to reflect on how we work as a team, and on what the future might hold. It’s a work in progress but has reinforced the value of carving out space to reflect and enter into this next phase consciously with our newly expanded team and freshly articulated mission:

We believe in supporting people to realise their power and voice. We value connecting people so they can create positive change locally and globally.

We are still a small core staff team but excitingly have begun to develop the Just Ideas Collaborative: working with a team of associates who are taking more of a developmental role – contributing to seeking out opportunities and taking a lead on projects. We’re working hard to consolidate this ‘offer’, making it a fun, fulfilling, flexible and nurturing space to be in while expanding the Just Ideas team and capacity. We are still all about working in partnership – currently working with WSA Community Consultants developing our health engagement and patient voice offer, and with IVAR supporting learning about community leadership. Watch this space! If you are interested in working with us, get in touch.

At the beginning of 2019 the team (with the support of partners, clients, associates and friends and family) coped amazingly with the challenge of Helen being out of action for a while following a brain haemorrhage. Helen is pretty much back to full capacity now but we think the experience has had a positive impact on the way we work – as individuals and a team, with people stepping into new and developing roles, and stepping back from others! The experience reinforced the benefits of the way Just Ideas works and the way this attracts clients and partners with shared values – working in partnership, strengths based, grounded in reality, valuing the people at the heart of everything.

 

A big thank you to Natalie Ganpatsingh (Nature Nurture) for the amazing artwork summing up our year.

Click here for a full summary of some of the things we’ve been up to.