Community Spirit, Community Power: Constellations of ‘Relationships First’ Practice
In November 2023 we held an event at The Glasshouse, Gateshead, called ‘Community Spirit, Community Power’. Members of the GCB team gave speeches about their experiences, their work and their ideas. These blog posts are drawn from those speeches…
From speech by Christine Frazer
Bonjour mesdames et messieurs, je m'appelle Christine Frazer et je suis une bâtisseuse de ponts communautaires. Aujourd'hui, je vais vous parler des habitants de Gateshead et des 13 personnes qui font partie de l'équipe de construction de ponts communautaires de Gateshead.
Pardon, pardon. Je ne parle pas la bonne langue. Vous avez tous l'air confus. Laissez-moi réessayer.
I’m going to stop there and pause.
I imagine many of you don’t speak French. Eric, one of our Bridgebuilders DOES, but for the rest of the Bridgebuilders who don’t speak French and for many of you here I excluded you from my introduction. It doesn't feel good. Exclusion due to not understanding is frightening and debilitating.
Eric uses his skills as a linguist to welcome, care for and communicate with the different communities of the Sub-Saharan African Platforms. With the care and support of The Comfrey Project, he has grown over the last year in confidence and knowledge and is now the person I go to for many things, most recently for signposting refugees and asylum seekers.
My name is Christine Frazer. I am a Gateshead Community Bridgebuilder. I work predominantly in Teams and Dunston with people on the ground to devolve decision making and create connection.
Sounds simple right?
I have to tell you, that Gateshead Community Bridgebuilders is something we have tried and tried really really hard at doing. It was not instantly, universally, wonderful. It is not perfect. We are a work in progress.
Last Christmas I was prepared to work out my notice and leave. The uncertainty of the work and the lack of instruction or formulated plans for the work scared me, made me feel uncomfortable. The traditional top down management led structure of work was all I had ever known and devolved decision making especially around funding and money decisions scared me.
Last night I sat with my partner Tony, he often asks me how my day has been. He listed five things I have done over the last three months in my role as a Gateshead Community Bridgebuilder:
Supported a team of people to organise a huge event at The Gateshead International Glasshouse.
Taken a group of local people on a bus trip to the seaside for fish and chips and ankle paddling.
Organised two Community Living Rooms, where local people can share what is strong and wrong in their communities.
Flower arranging and knitting, painting and learning to bake as part of different community activities.
Performed emergency first aid and rang 999 for a gentleman who had taken an overdose of cocaine and methadone.
All of these things sit well in my skill set, I did them and I was very good at them. But it wasn’t part of a work plan, or a funder-led three-month project.
Through the GCB I have been given the freedom to explore my skills and find my niche. I have had to trust myself and lean on the people around me to follow the voices of those who are not used to having a voice.
I work very closely with Paul Kerr, part of my role is that I walk alongside Paul and Afroz and support them with the work that they are doing. At the start of this work Paul, like myself, would ask for support with what to “do” in this work. I felt his frustration when he asked for greater clarity around what he must “do” in the work.
We have both worked with and for marginalised communities for all of our careers, yet it is our finely honed skills as excellent communicators, relationship builders and community weavers that makes us very good at our roles as Bridgebuilders.
After that first few months of frustration, fear and the feeling of “am I doing this right?” and finding his feet, Paul is now leading on several excellent projects (which you will read about in his blog post shortly), including a project, funded through the GCB team with a group of young deaf people, workshopping with local deaf artists to plan a “Creadeaf” festival in Gateshead and Newcastle for winter 2024.
Paul also leads on promoting deaf awareness and thanks to him, next week I start my level one sign language classes. Paul and I both wear hearing aids and part of our journey thus far has been to explore our relationships with the deaf community, we are learning to find solutions for the things we find difficult as part of a marginalised community.
I want to tell you about a meeting I had with Zahra, who is hosted by Gem Arts. I remember vividly the day Zahra, frustrated at how slowly change happens, was angry, upset and wanted to vent to us at a team meeting. She was on the verge of angry tears. When refugees and asylum seekers come to this country they have to wait at least 6 months until they can access free English language support from the colleges. Supported by the GCB, Zahra now teaches English classes twice a week for anyone at any point on their journey and anyone who wants to get the basics. She not only liaises with the hotels, but she links with MEARS, WERS, The Comfrey Project and is known as “Aunty” or “Sister” to the people she teaches.
I sat in on Zahra's class the other day and was amazed at the pedagogical wizardry that she performed, ensuring that every student was stimulated, supported and challenged. Zahra turned that frustration and anger into teaching relationships that those who she helps will never ever forget.
Through this series of speeches, in summary, we are here telling you a story of just how tricky this work is. We can’t predict which bits will be tricky or how tricky. We know through our own personal experiences that marginalised communities do not have the voice or the power that they deserve and thirst for. Together we are learning, celebrating, gathering sparkly points of light, Hakan’s NEDES team, Fozia’s passion for women’s health, Zahra’s education classes, Rich’s peer support groups, Afroz’s empowerment of women. Each of these points of light gather together and form a constellation of a ‘relationships first’ practice, which we are using to navigate our next steps.
We are so pleased that you have come here to learn more about Gateshead Community Bridgebuilders. I’d like to personally thank you for the time and energy you are already giving to your own communities and I look forward to us creating new relationships and learning about the work you do.
Merci beaucoup.