Imelda Havers - What, exactly, is the YoCo dream?
Mixed neighbourhood, Reykjavik, Iceland
We’re building a great team of local people to help us develop our dream co-owned neighbourhood to the next stage. Creating that vision and building a path forward has been the subject of much discussion over the past few weeks.
Following the lively discussion at our YoCo Vision event (see previous blog) we decided to run a second session, imaginatively called YoCo Vision 2. Here’s a flavour of where we got to:
YoCo Vision - what’s it about? To build from last YoCo Vision session, understanding the Vision, Mission and Aims and how we can communicate them and bring more people on board
Our Message: Still work in progress, which needs clarifying and refining. We need to ask … How is YoCo distinctive? How can we bring in more people, from a diverse range of interests and backgrounds? How do all the moving parts of this complex idea work together?
What is YoCo about, really? Combining new ideas, new spaces and new networks through co-creation. It’s the connection between all those strands which makes YoCo distinctive.
Permaculture ethics & principles - what are they and can we adopt them for YoCo? The 3 Permaculture ethics are: Earth care; People care; Fair share. Sounds perfect for YoCo, so let’s adopt them. More here https://ethical.net/ethical/permaculture-principles/ But! we need tell a story in language people can understand and relate to. The principles may be fine, but the language isn’t for everyone! Is it perhaps more about creating spaces, local economy and local networks, connecting nature, community and the wider City?
So how do we widen our circle? We need to communicate differently with different groups or individuals - local residents and businesses who may not normally get involved in something like YoCo - who and where is the community? How do we get people’s attention?
Ideas included:
· Pictures a great way to tell a story – use local artists
· A public piece of poetry based on post-it notes from My York Central engagement
· Activities – inclusive, light touch, via things that interest them e.g. park run, cycling, stuff for all ages
· Online community survey
· One Shared House (online engagement tool) www.onesharedhouse.com could be inspiration
· Each find 3 people who wouldn’t normally be involved in this type of project and ask them 3 simple questions
· Needs to engage widest possible group of people, short and poetic story to build up – not statistics!
But first our Vision, Mission and Aims: We need to agree these first. A small group agreed to work on discussions so far and work these up in more detail. Watch this space!
Where do we go from here? We’ll be posting updates on this website as things develop, and would encourage everyone to get involved in the project.
A couple of events for your radar:
We’re at York Festival of Ideas online on Saturday 6th June from 2.00 pm to 4.00 pm. Join us to help us shape YoCo for a Post Covid 19 world. Details and booking here: http://yorkfestivalofideas.com/2020-online/calendar/post-covid-neighbourhood/
Governance session: Will be coming up in the next few weeks, date to be announced on here soon. This will look at how we structure YoCo to take the project to the next level.