Hawkwood: A gathering of community asset leaders and the birth of a new peer network

Written By Helena Cicmil

In September 2023, 25 experienced community asset developers from across England gathered at the beautiful Hawkwood Centre for Future Thinking for 36 hours. 

Why? To build relationships and solidarity, help shape what comes next for the community assets movement, and sow the seeds for an emergent peer network. 

The gathering was co-convened by Platform Places and Power to Change trustees. Here’s what happened and what we’re up to next:

Manifesto: The future we’re building

At the core of our work, we activate and steward land and buildings in our neighbourhoods. We do this with our communities, for the long term. Our work is deeply hopeful and determined – together we're demonstrating the inevitable future.

At Hawkwood, we set out a draft manifesto, starting with the values, motivations and behaviours that we already live and breathe in our places. 

All illustrations on this page are by Visual Thinkery

This means letting go of the old world too, leaving behind its damaging patterns that hold us back, like: systems of oppression (white supremacy, sexism, and ableism…); short-term thinking driven by political and funding cycles, and competitive mindsets that prioritize scarcity over abundance.

illustrations depicting patterns we're leaving behind like colonisation, culture wars, waste, party politics, funding systems and strings, the 'game'

Vision for a new peer network: A mycelial movement

At the heart of our way of working and our manifesto is the metaphor of mycelium, inspired by the work of New Constellations – whose deep research into fungal networks helped us think about how our own ecosystems might be more mycelial in nature.

Mycelium = a network of fungal threads or hyphae under the soil, which forge mutually-beneficial partnerships with plants and trees, and distribute resources to areas that need them.

Inspired by this, we wove threads between participants as a way to visualise the trust, mutual support and resources that will flow between us. We agreed that we’re stronger together, and can use our agency and influence as a collective in the face of power imbalances with funders, asset owners and local authorities – rather than facing struggles on our own.

Image depicting mycelium and the overlapping connections between each living thing that depends on the network, as a metaphor for our way of working

Now let’s get specific… what is this mycelial network in practice and how do we create and nurture it?

Our proposals:

Mission #1: Developing transformational long-term funding

A significant theme in our conversations at Hawkwood was the nature of funding that’s needed to support this future:

  • Long-term core funding as standard 

  • Different funds for emerging and maturing organisations

  • Funders come to community asset leaders – not vice versa – and trust us to know what we need

  • A combination of capital and revenue funding 

  • Democratically accountable and elected gatekeepers/ fund decisionmakers

  • Funding that is relational (involving a direct conversation), local, networked and understanding the whole (eg. West Mids Funder Network), while offering quality practical support

To get there, we want to:

  1. Map typologies of community asset developers and their different journeys and needs 

  2. Shape philanthropic money that nurtures us as a network – rather than leaving us fighting for crumbs

  3. Collectivise to try to secure aligned, patient ‘big money’ e.g. pension funds

seedling, larger potted plant, then large tree in ground, depicted with the words 'How do we invest in transformation... maturing the ecosystem'

Mission #2: Developing a resilient, resourced peer network

We want to:

  1. Set up a paid peer mentor programme, especially for earlier stage organisations that need dedicated peer support

  2. Set up a small fund to enable ‘go-sees’ and inspiring visits to each other

  3. Create a simple peer support system

An anthropomorphised mushoom, depicting a smiling lady, saying 'I am an aged mycelium and I bring nutrients'

Mission #3: Collective storytelling

We want to:

  1. Tell the inspiring stories of our organisations

  2. Commit to amplifying one another’s stories in support

  3. Tell the stories of public buildings under threat before it’s too late – to spark fire in bellies and anger that calls for change 

  4. Plan a campaign to position community asset developers as a ‘First Resort’, not the last

Image of an old church with a sign 'For sale: ideal development opportunity'. One person asks 'What about the young people?' The other responds, 'Young people? We need bats...'. The caption reads 'How do we safeguard our public assets?'

Our organising principles

We also agreed some organising principles that would guide how we move forward: 

  • We organise around the above ‘missions’, which we adapt as we test & learn 

  • We focus on practical action 

  • We pay ourselves for our time spent delivering the missions – and we pay someone to organise us to invite & sustain our collective attention

  • We act like mycelium – we give & receive according to needs & capacity

  • We take care of each other & our capacity – we host ‘design sprint’ days not ongoing Zoom calls, & we participate in what’s most relevant to us

  • We proactively design out (rather than perpetuate) structural issues eg. lack of diversity in leadership

  • We have porous boundaries – we connect with adjacent movements (such as We’re Right Here, Community Land Trust Network, Joseph Rowntree Foundation and New Constellations, among others).

Get involved

We're currently raising and accepting funds to be able to continue to organise and implement these missions – so if you're excited to read any of this, see opportunities for collaborations and/or want to participate, please get in touch!

To stay tuned about future opportunities, sign up to the Platform Places newsletter.

Appreciation

Thank you to Power to Change for funding the residential gathering. 

Thank you to Hawkwood Centre For Future Thinking for hosting us beautifully. 

Thank you to Bryan from Visual Thinkery for the joyful illustrations.

The mycelial metaphor that ran throughout the gathering was inspired by the work of New Constellations – whose deep research into fungal networks helped us think about how our own ecosystems might be more mycelial in nature.

Thank you to every community asset leader who attended, representing organisations and movements including: 

A final thought

What would be on your mycelium-inspired manifesto…?

Helena Cicmil
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