Getting Started

This is a ‘pick up and think’ resource. It’s an explanation and exploration of where ‘changes’ is coming
from in our work around community development, community empowerment and community influence. It brings together 25+ years of our experience – and many more from those who have inspired us – into something which we find helpful in our quest to interpret the world around us and the complexity of the power relationships between people and organisations.

The people we work with have decreasing opportunities to spend quality time discussing concepts, throwing ideas around and making links between what they do and the bigger picture out there. Here, you will find ideas, some theory, as well as a series of prompts about what you think and your experience.

This can all be quite complex and we wanted to make it as straightforward as possible. The ideas here are not necessarily ‘new’, we have created a space to put the products of our thinking, make connections between different aspects of our work and share them with other people. We hope that others might also find it useful to reflect on these concepts and ideas, think about their own interpretation, their own experiences and what these might mean for the ways that they work with others.

Changes’ vision is a fair society.  Our values and purpose are about equality, social justice, human rights and a belief that different ways of working can achieve these things. We are interested in the right to democratic involvement and accountability, policy of and for people, and the politics of citizen involvement.

We wanted something which would help the people we work with to identify, question and make sense of their own experiences – whether they are individual citizens, clinicians/professionals, community group leaders, Social Landlords, policy makers, board members of a local group, G.P.s, voluntary sector officers, Elected Members, public servants or anyone concerned with improved wellbeing.

Read on to find out about the changes’ approach