principles of co-design
relationships making the difference
We believe in the importance of relationships to create the conditions for change. Compassionate, humane relationships help achieve positive change in the worlds we can touch. That change propels wider social change when individual actions combine and are collectively felt. We are leaders with lived and learned experience, who believe that person-to-person connections can keep us from being stuck in complex social problems. We are the system.
surfacing power
We feel it is important to acknowledge that children, families and communities have power already and that the way we think, feel and act in human services can lift that power to the surface. We are interested in repositioning work, projects that help us to re-imagine sharing and surfacing power with children, families and their communities. Working outside of formal hierarchical lines, can give us opportunities to draw on leadership and knowledge from different places. There is power in the collective.
share and hold spaces
By hearing each other’s stories, we demonstrate a willingness to be vulnerable which leads to new power dynamics and deeper trust. We share space with others - it’s a fundamental of being. The pandemic has shown us this of course. We can hold space for others too, how we facilitate this, creative inclusion, is important and is a key part of the relational activist skill set. Circles are valuable.
trust people and build capability
The co-construction of services is a force for change. As relational activists we are not only participating in collective action and change projects, but we are working to connect with others in a call for justice. ‘To love is to act’ has become a slogan for our work on relational activism – a form of activism where our personal relationships are the locus for change. It is rewarding to seek out situations to learn together across the lines of experience and positions in our systems. Access to knowledge, lived experience in particular, is a privilege that should be valued. We pay back in, not extract.