Have you heard about the blobs and the squares? It’s a parable that explains how difficult it can be for communities to use public money to make things better for themselves.
It goes like this: people in the community, who cluster together informally, are ‘blobs’ full of the energy, knowledge and skills needed to deal with their own problems. But the money they need to do things usually comes from ‘squares’ who work for funders like foundations, CCGs or local authorities. Squares like things to be clear and organised and counted, whereas blob are a lot blobbier, so it can be difficult for each type to understand and work with the other. Here is a great six-minute video that explains it really well.
We are good at working with communities to help make things happen that are important to them. We are a bit square and a bit blobby too.
We know that how we do things works, but it’s always nice to have evidence backing you up. In November 2018 a research report into how community involvement in decision-making improves wellbeing revealed the most important ingredients for meaningful participation. They are:
- Power held jointly by all involved
- Active and full involvement in all decisions
- Barriers to access and participation are acknowledged and tackled
- When it wants to be, the community is involved in implementation
We regularly put these principles into action. You can find out more about this research by What Works Wellbeing here.