We were recently invited to 10 Downing Street, with some of our partners from Grimsby. It was an opportunity to share the work underway in Grimsby and what we have learned.
It was a real a milestone and recognition of the progress we’ve made together.
The group embodied the partnership, with people from the voluntary sector, business, social enterprise and the local authority. However, really this was about people who love their town. We could have filled the whole building with people who are part of this change. Maybe next time?
We were there to share what we have learnt to feed into the government’s Pride in Place policy.
A refrain that ran through the meeting was that trust has to come first. This work cannot be rushed. It takes time, relationships and people showing up consistently with no agenda beyond the good of the town. Without it, nothing else works.
The learnings that were shared included:
- The collective of people has to come before the money. People working together in the common good, building a shared vision and a sense of common purpose, has to be the foundation. Investment that arrives before that collaboration risks creating a hunger games scenario where people are competing for the money.
- Money must follow, not lead. The fund matters, but ambition, relationships and belief have to be there first. Grimsby is structuring its £20 million Pride in Place funding into a locally led fund that the town controls that can hopefully exist for the long term. That is a fundamentally different proposition from short term competitive funding.
- Local authorities enable this change by working differently. Stepping back, creating the space and backing citizens to lead.
This requires all of us to see something bigger than our own interests and grasp the opportunity to leave something we are proud of for future generations.
If you want to understand the model and what we are learning you can find out more by reading the Building a Brighter Future Together piece.
