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Our Approach

We connect with our values
and embrace storytelling.

01.

Our Live Values

Like a Compass.

We want to reclaim the meaning of values. We don’t view them as simply words. Words decided by a board to sound good and placed on a website to finish the job.

We nourish them and keep them live in our work. They are the compass guiding us on our journey. The 5 values we feel most connected with in this work are relational, transparent, inclusive, challenging convention and emergent.

Relational

We see people for what they are – a whole person. We aim to nourish relationships and build connections.

Transparent

We share our mistakes, our goals and our challenges because it won’t be the full picture without them.

Inclusive

Too many people have been left out of the big picture. We believe everyone’s stories need to be heard. We’re not adapting our previous methods, we are designing new ones with inclusion in mind.

Challenging Convention

We are pushing back on current systems and flipping power dynamics. We are not looking to recreate the current system models within our own work.

Emergent

We make space for ideas and approaches to present themselves when the time is right. You can find out more about emergence through the book The Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown.

02.

Storytelling

Because we believe telling stories
can make change happen.

A sculptural stone book with the writing Craigmillar Now. A Fine Place to Be. Women Tap the Creative Well.

How are we telling stories?

In partnership.

For every community we partner with they have selected a community storyteller. Someone who knows the community inside and out and can speak to the highlights and the struggles of doing social action.

The community also selects a professional storyteller. The professional storyteller is an trained expert who has experience capturing stories. The storytellers involved with the inquiry capture stories in various mediums and styles.

The community storyteller and the professional storyteller work in partnership (what we are calling the co-storytelling model), alongside the community to capture what helps and hinders their social action.

We have two approaches to storytelling – Depth and Breadth.

Depth

Under the surface of an ocean a set of rusted stairs can be seen dipping below the surface.

Working alongside our Guides we nominated 4 communities within Scotland and reached out to partner with them in a storytelling journey. We began our partnerships from August 2022 by building trust, meeting in-person and listening to the needs of the communities.

These communities have access to up to £40,000 unrestricted funding to use as they please, when they please.

With a focus of building relationships with these 4 communities, we are able to go deeper into what helps and hinders social action.

Explore the Stories

Breadth

A rugged edge of a cliff by the ocean extends into the horizon.

We are grateful to be able to dive deeper with the 4 nominated communities into what helps and hinders their social action.

However, we felt in order to represent social action across Scotland we needed to capture and share stories of the breadth of communities doing social action.

Beginning in April 2023 we are expanded our storytelling approach over 6 months to cover a further 13 communities in Scotland. Together with the stories from the first 4 communities, these communities (now 17 in total) have used storytelling to share what helps and what hinders social action for them.

Explore the Stories