Menu
Hastings & St. Leonards on-line community newspaper

Common Treasury logo_600The Common Treasury could be your source of inspiration!

Feeling overwhelmed, paralysed, fearful about the future and looking for a way to take action? The Common Treasury of Adaptable Ideas could be your source of inspiration. Nick Terdre reports.

In fact the launch event for the Common Treasury of Adaptable Ideas has already proved so popular it has sold out. A second event is scheduled for October.

The Common Treasury is a series of events designed to bring enthusiastic change-makers from around the country to Hastings where they will share their experiences with people who want to adapt them, or develop their own ideas, to bring about positive local change. It will also be an opportunity to promote local success stories.

Driving the project are two standard-bearers for community initiatives, Energise Sussex Coast and Jericho Road Solutions, while financial support is being provided by Power to Change.

The first Common Treasury event will take place on 25 April at Azur Restaurant in St Leonards. This will consist of a morning session of Inspiring Ideas from Elsewhere, followed by an afternoon workshop on Making it happen in Hastings.

In the morning five ‘inspirers’ will describe their great idea, how they put it into action, what lessons they learnt and how those ideas might spark off local adaptations. There will be plenty of time to ask questions and look at the nitty-gritty detail of how ideas became reality.

One interesting feature of the inspirational projects is how valuable the positive knock-on effects have been for the community – think local community wealth-building, say the organisers.

Time for hard work!

Then in the afternoon comes the hard work of adaptation. Each inspirer will share a table with up to eight people interested in adapting or developing their particular idea in Hastings. The intention is not necessarily to replicate projects locally but to plant seeds of inspiration through the sharing of stories and help evolve the process of adaptation to build something that works for this community.

At the end of the day, each group will pitch the outcome of their discussion to the whole audience.

Also at this meeting a digital platform will be launched for sharing and browsing ideas online. This will capture ideas for a local economy that works within planetary limits and make the links between people, place and planet – as pointed out by the organisers there are echoes of Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics concept here,

You are welcome to just come and listen, but if you’re hungry for new ideas and have the energy to work together to adapt them to the Hastings context, you can be part of the treasure, they say.

Following each Common Treasury event – the next will be on 24 October – a Taking-it-Forward period of three months will support the development of new ideas, with guidance and wisdom from the inspirers, a facilitator and a development fund of £6,000. The group backing each idea will have the opportunity to discuss what they need to develop and then negotiate with the others on how to allocate the fund.

Sources of inspiration

The morning session will be compered by Kate Tym, the inspirational co-founder of the Coffin Club, which is making waves by confronting taboos around the subject of death. The five inspiring speakers are:

Stella Duffy OBE, the creator of Fun Palaces

An ongoing campaign for culture at the heart of community, and community at the heart of culture, with an annual weekend of action – arts, science, craft, tech, digital, heritage and sports events activities – run by, for and with local communities. Last year over 300 Fun Palaces took place over one weekend in October in shop fronts, libraries, swimming pools, leisure centres, a ferry, schools, universities and dozens of other locations.

Maff Potts of Camerados 

For years Maff worked with charities for the homeless where he found that most people who ended up at the shelters were alone. So he developed the idea of Public Living Rooms, that have happened for a day, a week or a year, in libraries, hospitals and beach huts, offering a space where people can connect and find friends and purpose at the same time.

Melissa Mean from Knowle West Media Centre, Bristol

This is an arts centre on a housing estate in Bristol that supports people in using technology and the arts to come up with creative solutions to problems and explore new ways of doing things. Melissa leads on the We Can Make project, a new housing initiative unlocking micro-sites for development and empowering a community to build affordable housing.

Hazel Tilley from Granby 4 Streets Community Land Trust, Liverpool

A resident of an area that was condemned, Hazel fought for years to save her neighbourhood from the bulldozers, but the real change happened when she and her neighbours took control and began to shape the immediate environment – painting the boarded-up houses, putting plants and benches in the street and holding a regular market. Now they have renovated 11 houses and created a beautiful Winter Garden.

Alison Paule, development manager at Paxton Green Time Bank 

The mission for Paxton Green Time Bank is to embed an understanding of the impact of time banking in creating new mutually supportive relationships locally and its role in improving health and wellbeing, both for individuals and communities, and to demonstrate this through well-functioning time banks. Participants ‘deposit’ their time in the bank by giving practical help and support to others and are able to ‘withdraw’ their time when they need something done themselves.

Waiting list

Although the first Common Treasury event is already fully booked, you can go on a waiting list for returns, or ask any questions, by emailing hello@commontreasury.org.uk.

The Common Treasury of Adaptable Ideas Thursday 25 April, 9am–4.45 pm, Azur Restaurant, Marina Pavilion, St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex TN38 0BU.

 

 

 

If you’re enjoying HOT and would like us to continue providing fair and balanced reporting on local matters please consider making a donation. Click here to open our PayPal donation link. Thank you for your continued support!

Posted 11:15 Wednesday, Apr 17, 2019 In: Grassroots

Also in: Grassroots

«
»
More HOT Stuff
  • SUPPORT HOT

    HOT is run by volunteers but has overheads for hosting and web development. Support HOT!

    ADVERTISING

    Advertise your business or your event on HOT for as little as £20 per month
    Find out more…

    DONATING

    If you like HOT and want to keep it sustainable, please Donate via PayPal, it’s easy!

    VOLUNTEERING

    Do you want to write, proofread, edit listings or help sell advertising? then contact us

    SUBSCRIBE

    Get our regular digest emails

  • Subscribe to HOT