Working with local champions

Reciprocity is fundamental to our practice. We are always thinking about how we work with people, rather than simply extracting from them.

Having worked in community engagement and development for over 15 years, we are continually struck by who gets to tell the stories of a place. Too often, organisations—public and private—arrive, undertake a short period of engagement, and then extrapolate long-term decisions from a relatively small set of insights. Whether those decisions are ultimately successful or not, what we repeatedly see is how easily they become disconnected from the lived realities of local communities without ongoing involvement.

This observation is not particularly radical, yet in practice engagement frequently happens in an intense burst at the beginning of a project and then tapers off. People are left out of the journey that follows. As a result, when we enter places where this has already occurred, we often encounter understandable skepticism about whether our work will genuinely benefit local communities or create meaningful impact.

In response, our approach focuses on creating immediate and tangible value for people and places. We do this through creative, short-term interventions, by creating paid roles for local people, and by prioritising project spending with local suppliers. All of these actions matter. However, the most lasting impact has come from creating roles, providing training, and leaving behind a legacy of people who are either in a post or equipped to continue paid work beyond our involvement. This is an outcome we are particularly excited by.

People want work. They bring valuable skills to shaping their neighbourhoods, and they also want opportunities to develop new ones. Recruiting locally into these roles is consistently one of the most rewarding parts of our work. Along the way, we have learned the importance of carefully structuring roles, providing high-quality support, and being clear about expectations and outputs. These principles are now embedded in our methodology wherever possible, alongside maintaining long-term relationships with our networks of local collaborators as projects evolve or are revisited.

Crucially, this approach means local people hold their own histories of engagement. They are active participants, not passive recipients. They can tell their own stories about change in their area—rather than having those stories extracted, reframed, or appropriated by others.

Finchley Local Curator

We recruited Finchley resident Stephanie for 2 days a week to build relationships with local businesses on Finchley High Street. Having Stephanie connected to the place and working in her local area meant she could react to people’s availability, follow people’s interests and maximise who she was speaking to so was better able to connect and bring opportunities together. Stephanie continues to run and work on projects with people she met through this project. 

Facilitators at The Dovetail

We recruited 8 local residents to run paid activities in a new community space, The Dovetail, on Carpenters Estate in Stratford. These opportunities gave people the chance to start careers and run workshops they had been thinking of for a while, in addition to providing much needed programming for local residents to attend and connect with each other. It was mutually beneficial, showed what could be possible in the future and also meant that the wider team had the opportunity to talk about the project development with residents who may not normally attend a more formal event.

‘After the lock down I felt so personally isolated and nervous for my business, I was scared at first when asked to do a class for the community. I was scared to start working again and be around so many people. But I can definitely say I’m so glad I didn’t let the fear stop me; the classes have helped me to feel confident again and connected to my community.’ - Rose Hayes

‘It has given us somewhere to feel proud of in our estate, somewhere to meet other people and feel connected to each other. Finally something is happening around here.’ - Adeel Nauyeck

‘It means a lot to me and I appreciate everyone who has ever taken part in the sessions and has left me positive feedback; it’s created more opportunities for me to collaborate with external organisations and I hope to expand the sessions in future.’ - Ivy Aubynn