Last night we met with members in Oxford to share good food and plot for growing the participatory grantmaking movement. First of all, thank you to our fiscal hosts, The Social Change Nest, for organising and picking up the cheque for this really inspiring evening. As anyone who is doing community-led work can attest, good conversations start with good food.
I’ve loved being part of the PGM Community Of Practice for 6 years, it’s always been the place I go to when I need optimism, be that at online sessions, in-person meet-ups or chats with friends I’ve met through the community. The PGM Community is a completely unique space in my working life, It’s informal and real, last night was no different. I left the dinner with 3 bits of optimism that the PGM Community is bringing to me.
- Participatory processes are going far beyond local communities. Participation works really well in local places, connecting neighbours and building friendships. It’s more challenging to do internationally, but funders are finding ways, connecting for in-person retreats, or learning to facilitate online grantmaking. Participatory work in the health space has always seemed like the final frontier, but increasingly healthcare practitioners are realising that clinical expertise alone is not enough to make people healthier. Last night I loved hearing about the work the Robert Carr Fund is doing to build networks in inadequately served communities in the response to HIV.
- There’s impact in the process and the good funders are moving resources there. Undeniably it’s been a hard year for community-led movements across the world, funds feel tight. But the good news is that participatory processes foster community power and citizen voice even when the grants are small. Rather than viewing the process as a drawback, funders are seeing it as part of the work and it works even if the size of grants pots have been scaled back.
- There’s nothing emerging about Participatory Work anymore. When the PGM Community was setting up, you had to hunt for practitioners, but now there are lots of us, all working with generosity so others can learn. The PGM Community provides a perfect place to start sharing and learning from others. As more and more funds move under the control of the communities who are closest to the challenges, the PGM Community and its members can carve out a future beyond participatory grantmaking where resources are truly liberated for everyone’s benefit.
- Laughter and friendship is part of the work. We laughed a lot last night and asked each other what we needed. Many of us are dealing with humanity at its hardest in our day jobs, pausing to laugh and hear about people’s favourite coffee shops, what their children are doing and swap film recommendations is part of the work.
Thanks to The Social Change Nest for paying for a table and food for us to gather around.
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