Sense Making Together

The learning not only gave us the opportunity to feel into what it felt like to belong or not, it also helped us put faces to names and roles as we recognised it takes interconnection across sectors and pay grades for really useful conversations

We used the metaphor of mycellium to help participants recognise that their service or experience could not be held in isolation. Wide invites went out across the city to invite people to spend 2 hours together exploring what it means to "Belong in Plymouth." Workshop participants were put in table groups where they may not have known each other well and leaned into some deeply personal fragments of conversations. These were fed back into the room, copied and shared via our communication network, groups.io and used to help us imagine scenarios which might support citizens better using a Round Robin Exercise.

Some of the sense making only attracted local people, some only attracted services. It was hard to get the right mix in the room. However, when it did, as in the case of sense making with young people it had a profound effect on the determination of those working in services to increase space for young people's voice, and on the young people themselves who became increasingly articulate and aware.

We learnt that by inviting people to begin the workshop by " nesting" meant people were more able to bring their emotional selves into the conversation. We learnt about over and under control as we facilitated rather than led sessions as a team.

We brought together diverse table groups ensuring people from different points in the system were sat next to each other and that anyone coming into this kind of space for the first time was suitably prepped, especially those whose voices might be quieter.

We wrote up learning and reflections and posted onto our groups.io communications site, enabling us to learn together and allow others who could not make the event to keep abreast of what was being talked about.

We learnt about uncertainty as the inevitable question after the session was finished was, "So What Next?" This fed into the work with young people and the co creation work in Barne Barton and St Budeaux