Bumping and chatting in your community

Yaz takes a look at creating spaces for people to talk and share ideas...

If you’re reading this, I’m going to make a wild assumption that you’ve thought about being part of a community group or, better yet, you’ve thought about trying to start up a shiny new group from scratch. Great! I propose that you act as soon as is practical and convenient to do so. In my recent adventures around Redditch and Bromsgrove, I have helped to set up and support three new community groups from scratch and I'd like to share with you one of the most important things for doing so - talking.

Let's say that there's a patch of mown grass in your neighbourhood that doesn't get much use. You'd like to create a garden to make a better space for nature and for the community. How do you get your neighbours who live near this patch of land involved? You've thought about what you want but what about everyone else? In order to find the people who will help you form your new community group you need to go to where they are – don’t rely on the internet or social media to reach people, not everyone is connected digitally. This is where bumping spaces are particularly useful. “But what the heck is a bumping space?”, I hear you cry! Well, it’s a space that creates opportunities to ‘bump into people’ (not literally – you'll struggle to set up a group if you just wander around knocking people over). A supermarket or local shop is a great bumping space but so are local schools, pubs, local parks or playgrounds and even local community events and fun days that are already happening.

Person in an burnt orange t-shirt standing near doors in a large shop and next to a board with some paper and post-it notes on — A bumping space in a shop

Anticipating your next question of “Okay, I’ve turned up outside the local shop, now what?!”, you need to get chatting to people but what that looks like is up to you. When I want to meet people in a community, I set up a listening station. Trust me, it sounds much grander than it is! A listening station, for me, is a folding table with a board and a piece of flip chart paper, upon which is written the ‘all-important question’. The ‘all-important question’ may differ depending on the whys and wheres of setting up the community group.

When I’m hosting a listening station, I normally ask “What could your community do to help wildlife?”. I ask people to write their ideas on a post-it note (or I can write it for them) and we take a moment to celebrate those ideas. Every person you meet brings a unique set of skills, ideas and motivations that can be of immense value and you can use those ideas as a springboard for commitment to action. Saying something along the lines of “That’s a great idea! Would you be interested in getting involved in a community group to do that kind of stuff?” creates an opportunity for you to potentially gather contact information, like an email or phone number, to let them know about opportunities and events to get involved in. Just make sure you keep that information under lock and key, or password protected if stored digitally, and don’t share it with anyone else without prior consent.

Every person you meet brings a unique set of skills, ideas and motivations that can be of immense value and you can use those ideas as a springboard for commitment to action.

By now, you've bumped into some people and listened to what they're saying. With any luck, you’ve got a long-as-your-arm list of people who want to get involved with your plans. It's time to organise a social. The purpose of this is to get all of the people you’ve met into one place so that they can meet each other, talk and listen to each other’s ideas. I like to keep this simple - meet in the area/street/greenspace that will be the focus of the group’s activities and bring a table, flask hot water, tea/coffee, cake/biscuits, and paper & pens. As well as inviting all the people you’ve met, you should also advertise your social on any local community Facebook pages. Send out invites and advertise your social at least two or three weeks ahead of the date to give people enough notice.

A piece of paper on an upright board with ideas written on based around "What do we want to do?" and "What do we need to do it?"

As well as creating an opportunity to connect people to each other, the social event provides an opportunity to ask questions, listen and document thoughts & ideas. I use the flipchart paper and pens to draw a thoughts & ideas cloud to answer the following questions: “What do you want to do?” (ideas for action), “What do you need to achieve it?” (tools, materials, skills, funding) and “How will the group work?”. The latter question will hopefully prompt some discussion about when, and how often, the group will meet (e.g. weekly/fortnightly/monthly) and how they will communicate (e.g. email/WhatsApp etc). The social is also a great opportunity to create a plan for the area/street/greenspace, to start to think about how the group’s ideas might work/look on the ground.

This process is especially relevant for folks wanting to start a new community group but it's also relevant for existing groups who want to reach out to find new group members, new ideas and to build collective power. Don't make the mistake of not listening to other people - it's a sticky trap to fall into as it reduces the sustainability and resiliency of the group. When you have a diverse group of people who feel able to talk about their own ideas and motivations and who know that they will be listened to, you create a group that can more effectively problem-solve, solution-find and will be more successful in achieving desired outcomes through the diversity in their approach. Listening also ensures a more equal distribution of power within the group and means that the group moves forward, towards a common goal, together, as a collective, rather than being driven forward by a leader or select few in a position of power. The latter has the potential to result in a situation whereby, in the absence of the leader or select few in a position of power, the group lacks the drive or motivation to keep going.

When you have a diverse group of people who feel able to talk about their own ideas and motivations and who know that they will be listened to, you create a group that can more effectively problem-solve, solution-find and will be more successful in achieving desired outcomes through the diversity in their approach.

Hopefully, this has given you a bit more impetus to act on your ideas and start thinking about how you can bump into people in your neighbourhood. In future wilder communities blogs we'll look at how you can resource your group (from who makes the cakes to where can you find funding for tools) but if you need any help in the meantime, we've got some help on our supporting your community webpage. Whether you're new to this or have been around for a while and are looking to build your collective power, get in touch via the form on our supporting communities page - we’d love to hear from you. You can also take a look at how other community groups are getting on or you can search our communities map to get in touch with other groups for help and support (don't forget to add your group to this map once you're up and running).