Street Connector

I am a community connector, community animator and local resident in “FAB” town.

Through street connecting I go out to encounter my neighbours, build relationships and connections, find creative ways to bring people together, and have conversations where I seek to unearth what already brings a good life here, what people hope for and would contribute to, and what gets in the way of us all flourishing.  

We are a neighbourhood filled with promise and potential, hopes and dreams, skills and passion, but we also experience inequality and levels of poverty that impact our ability to have a good life. This manifests itself in areas of resources, relationships and identity. For resources we experience lower income levels, temporary, unstable and zero hours work, long-term unemployment, poor quality of social housing in our tower blocks and maisonettes, poor access to gardens, parkland and quality healthcare. This limits people’s opportunities and choices. We have pockets of isolation, loneliness and relationships under stress from hostility and fragmentation. We see lower levels of self-worth, self-belief and despite high levels of resourcefulness we do see lower resilience levels to deal with life’s challenges. We do experience poor mental health and see drug and alcohol misuse.

The pandemic shone a huge light upon all of this. It unearthed the beauty, the resourcefulness, the connections, the care and love for neighbours. But it also identified where the inequalities led to increased pressure on money, food poverty, isolation, stress, anxiety, fear and loneliness. It also made the housing issues and lack of access to gardens, parks and open space impossible to ignore. We are beginning to understand some of the economic fallout as some are losing work and fear for their jobs and livelihoods. Those out of the job market feel even further away from opportunities.

Through our stories we hope to communicate to policy makers and others with the power to change things, how resourceful, passionate, caring and skilful we are as a community and what we are already showing is possible when we come together. We are not a community that needs fixing, rescuing or aid, but we are in need of social justice. We believe there is so much we can do for ourselves if we had the resources, the permission, the support, the facilities or the opportunity to do so. We wish to re-imagine what is possible working together with statutory agencies, institutions, service providers and policy makers.