What’s stirring beneath the surface?
This month we’ve been trying to prioritise time for deeper, slower work. Not because we have less to do, but because it feels like there is so much to digest, learn from and share about what’s been happening. Despite good intentions. It’s hard. An avalanche of tasks have backed up since mid December. And they are all shouting very loudly for attention. Often the least important ones are shouting the loudest. Refusing to listen to them creates an uncomfortable tension.
This dance between the fast paced energy of doing, and the slower rhythms of reflecting and sharing feels like one of the most challenging things we all need to get better at. Getting caught in the dissonance between these two competing rhythms, can feel a bit like standing in that terrible zone between music stages at a festival. Where you can no longer hear the music of either band and it just becomes a big mush of noise. Learning to dance with and between these different rhythms, whilst not getting lost in the gaps between, is a discipline. Inspired by winter, I’m determined to step away from the distractions and urgencies of doing and find time to commit to digging a bit deeper into noticing, digesting, writing and sharing.
Over the past few years I’ve tied myself up in knots trying to create and share information in different ways to meet different needs. Progress reviews and data for our funders, board papers for our consortium, reflection & learning logs for our external evaluators, blogs and social media posts for our peers, newsletters and emails for collaborators, content and stories for friends. This is all important stuff, but as part of a small team, its impossible to do all of this well. And it’s a huge distraction from being able to focus on where the real value is emerging and where we can make the most difference.
As we go into 2026 with the excellent news that we have three-years of funding now secured as part of Arts Council England’s Creative People & Places 2026–2029. We want to be braver about sharing in more open, less siloed and more emergent ways. Reducing duplication, honouring our full governance ecology and sharing in ways which support information & value to flow within and around the communities we’re part of, not away from them.
This image by Holly Doron speaks a thousand words about how we want the value to flow. It’s from the brilliant blog Stories of Place 2024–2025 Composting #3 | Co-creators as Earthworms | by Holly Doron | CoLab Dudley | Medium.
We’re still not entirely sure what this looks like. But we’re hoping to find a bit of rhythm and flow this year, inspired by the landscapes we’re part of and the seasons of the year. Sharing openly and responsively as we go. Both, in person, through conversations, gatherings, and events as well as digitally through blogs, newsletters and email updates.
Each season — in Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn — we’ll weave together threads of activity, learning and possibility from the previous season into an open newsletter, that we will share with everyone in our governance ecology (and beyond). Looking back at what’s been planted and looking ahead to what’s emerging.
This is the first of these newsletters. Written at the end of a rather damp and heavy January week here in Derbyshire. On a morning when it feels like sunlight might never break through the low, thick clouds. And, on a day where the green shoots of snow drop, crocus and daffodil remind us that it can be done.
Looking back
Common threads from Autumn 2025
Community decision making — investing in grassroots governance
In September & October we came back together with the Movers & Shakers Community Panel to launch the third round of the Movers & Shakers Community Fund.
It has been such a joy to spend time with this group of people. Learning alongside them and grappling with all the many ups and downs of co-design, deliberative decision making, consensus and generative disagreement. The generosity and care that they have extended to each other and to the process has been glorious to witness and fills me with hope about what’s possible when the right conditions are in place.
For this round we welcomed three new panel members John, Jules and Cristine to join Gemma, Milly and Tony who have been involved since the beginning. Jules and Cristine both received funding as part of round 1 of the fund, so they both brought vital insights about their experience of applying into the group. This resulted in lots of rich conversations and quite a few changes to the application process.
This was the final round of decision making for this phase of the Movers & Shakers Community Fund which felt a wee bit sad. But at the final session we started to open up possibilities for what the fund might become in its next iteration. This threw up some exciting ideas which we’ll be digging into more over the coming months.
Nomination Models — distributed ways of working
For this round of the Movers & Shakers Community Fund we decided to take a slightly different approach to sharing the opportunity. We had seen from previous rounds that most people who applied had been encouraged to do so by a trusted peer. So rather than spending lots of time and resources on traditional marketing approaches (flyers, posters, social media etc) and sharing the opportunity through centralised channels, we focused on spreading information through trusted relationships.
Sharing the opportunity more deeply rather than more widely also felt more aligned with the size of funding pot. Recognising that only 10–15 ideas could be funded each round (with a total of 10k per round), and not wanting to glorify receiving loads of applications that could not be supported.
The Community Panel worked hard on the language of the invitations and we held our nerve sharing the opportunity in more invisible and less performative ways through our networks. Inviting people to share the opportunity with someone who might not think it was for them and offering lots of support.
This relational way of sharing information has definitely spread the opportunity more deeply into communities. Now, as we begin to work with the 12 people who were selected, one of the questions we’re grappling with is how we can continue to respect this distributed model as they start to bring their ideas to life. It feels really important to be supporting and strengthening the essential role that trusted mentors and connectors play within the community rather than by passing these relationships and going direct. We’re not quite sure what this looks like yet but we’re sitting with the question:
“How can we resource and strengthen existing relationships between people rather than weaving direct relationships with Make/Shift?”
Equitable finance — bridging the gaps between institutions and communities
Listen here Paying People Fairly: Building Trust and Equity
We’re continuing to explore the powerful role of fiscal hosting through our relationship with Social Change Nest. As well as using the Open Collective Platform to get rid of some of the structural barriers that get in the way of paying individuals and non-constituted groups in equitable ways.
This “boring infrastructure” has unlocked new possibilities for us as a non-constituted initiative hosted within a large university. Since 2023 we have distributed £185,000 to 95 local people and groups through 36 different community managed pots. This isn’t just about payments. It’s about distributing power. Those 36 pots are managed directly by local people, giving people the autonomy and trust to manage how they spend money on projects ranging from £300 to £5000.
Chatting with Esther Foreman CEO of Social Change Nest really brought to the fore the need for us to be building bridges across “the messy middle” ground between large institutions and small, unincorporated community groups, in order to support more equitable collaborations.
You can read the full blog here:
How ‘Payment for Involvement’ Bridges the Institution & Community GapAnd listen to the full podcast here:
Paying People Fairly: Building Trust and Equity
Community-Led Action — creating space for people to do what matters to them
From walks to workshops, meet-ups to open mics, local people from across Amber Valley have been bring their ideas to life through #sewing #growing #poetry #printing #music #felting #bowling #making #nature #art #conversation and more.
12 new ideas funded in 9 different villages and towns across Amber Valley as part of round 3 of the Movers & Shakers Community Fund. You can read more about them here Amber Valley Movers & Shakers — Open Collective
Neighbourhood Creative Agents from cohort one have been tying up their activities and budgets.
Neighbourhood Creative Agents from cohort two are starting to test out ideas and build relationship with their neighbours.
As part of Home Truths — Lise and Jemma have been hosting workshops and collecting audio histories relating to Stevenson’s Dye Works in Ambergate, Somercotes Textiles Factories and Alfreton Lido.
As part of Riddings Flax Project — Amanda has been learning how to make mini baskets from the flax she has grown ahead of hosting workshops and sharing seeds as part of Derbyshire Makes Festival in Heanor on 2nd May.
Peer Learning - sharing and learning together
Overview of Neighbourhood Creative Agents Programme, bringing together a 9-month peer learning adventure with neighbourhood action.
We’re passionate about the role initiatives like Make/Shift should be playing in nurturing the conditions for people living and breathing the realities of their neighbourhoods to create opportunities, take action and spark creativity in ways that are embedded within and responsive to their community.
Working with Platform Thirty1 on the Neighbourhood Creative Agents programme we’re learning more about what this might actually take and how different ways of working can open up more possibilities than traditional top down approaches.
This year, six local people are taking part in the Peer Learning Adventure. Meeting regularly for group workshops, reflect & review sessions, group shares and 1–1 support alongside taking action and stewarding a neighbourhood funding pot. This mid point of the journey can feel quite hard. The initial excitement of being involved has started to fade and the path ahead can still feel quite murky and confusing. Over the next few months we’re looking forward to seeing what emerges for each of them and what learning they’re taking away from the different ups and downs of working alongside their neighbours over the past year.
Jemma and Lise from the first cohort of Neighbourhood Creative Agents are now working closely with Jodie from Platform Thirty1 to dive deeper into some of the local heritage themes they uncovered during their peer learning adventure. Regular “Welfare Sessions” see them coming together to learn from the amazing work that has been happening in Blackwell as part of Home Truths and exploring together what might be possible where they live in Ambergate and Alfreton.
As a team we are part of a national learning enquiry called Understory looking at attachment as a means to mobilise communities. In October we welcomed teams from our three partner places (Onion Collective in Watchet, Minehead Coastal Trust in Minehead and Co-Lab Dudley in Dudley) to Amber Valley to share and learn together. Over the next three years we’ll be exploring how to take an ecosystem approach to our work; acknowledging the interconnected and interdependent relationship between people, place and the wider systems we’re part of. Thanks to funding from Understory we have also been able to bring local resident Andrea Kemp in to work as an associate, looking at how we can invest in local network weaving skills, and use network maps to help weave together deeper connections between people, landscapes and possibilities here in Amber Valley. You can find out more here:
Understory; exploring attachment as a means to mobilise
Spaces to gather - convening and connecting
Conversations & activities taking place in the “Making Parlour” at Open House in November.
Monthly peer support: Movers & Shakers meet-ups took place in Ripley, Langley Mill, Belper and Alfreton on the third weds of the month. These sessions have been developed with people from the Movers & Shakers Community Fund as a chance to think aloud through project ideas, try things out, and generally have a supportive chat.
Seasonal peer learning: Autumn Sharing Supper took place in Oct Amber Mill in Oakerthorpe. The suppers have been developed with Platform 31 and the Neighbourhood Creative Agents as a space to develop a collective understanding of different community-led practices. In Oct we heard from Blackwell Parish’s Greater Creatives about their approach to sharing the difference they’re making on their own terms.
Yearly celebration: Open House took place in Nov at Amber Mill. Creating a pop-up “home from home”, with activities, conversations and displays hosted by friends and collaborators from across our emerging network of makers, doers and connectors. Beth from Maison Foo hosted the Story Lounge, Jodie from PlatformThirty1 hosted the Ideas Kitchen and Lizzie and Ian from Make/Shift hosted the Making Parlour. You can find out more about all the brilliant people who shared their work here Open House — 15th Nov 2025 and have a look at some of the photos here. As part of the Ideas Kitchen we also started to stir up ideas for how we might want to work together into the future.
Looking forward
Emerging threads for winter & spring 2026
As we come to the end of phase 1 of Make/Shift and move into a new phase of funding. We’re seeing the next six months from Feb-July as a bit of a transition phase. With a focus on coming together in lots of different ways to take stock and learn from what we’ve been doing together over the past 18months and to create space to shape what comes next.
We’ll be taking inspiration from nature. Using the seasons to help us find a bit of a rhythm whilst we let go of some of our current programme delivery and create space for new ideas and iterations to emerge. As we move through this transition phase and towards the autumn, we’ll work together with collaborators to shape, weave together and share a tapestry of new invitations, opportunities and formal programme strands that people will be able to get involved in. Pulling on the work that has already happened and stretching us into 2027 and beyond.
Seasonal rhythms and themes:
Each month we’ll focus in on a theme that has shown up so far in our ways of working. Each theme will connect with the season and what’s happening in nature, seeing the landscapes we’re part of, as a source of inspiration and guidance, not just as a backdrop. Taking time to notice & nourish different forms of value. Not speed, scale or efficiency. But relationships, imagination and care.
Make/Shift transition phase Feb-July 2026
For each theme we’ll pull together information, resources, questions and invitations to dive a bit deeper and get involved. Starting to building up a collective understanding of how we might draw on these themes to inspire what we do next together.
Winter:
Rest & reflection (Jan)
Taking time to slow down and go deeper. Noticing, digesting and learning from what’s stirring beneath the surface.Wayfinding (Feb)
Bringing together key collaborators to connect up learning and possibilities across different areas of work. How do we find our way and take meaningful action together in a world that feels unceasingly uncertain and complex?
Spring:
Relationships — Seeds of Connection (March)
Thinking about the “social soil” of our place. Opportunities to connect and learn more about network weaving and relationship mapping and discover some of the tools and ways of working we’ve been developing as part of our collaboration with Understory.Imagination — Seeds of the Future (April)
Stretching and strengthening our imaginations muscles. Including “How To Fall In Love With The Future” training with Rob Hopkins and “Spring Sharing Supper” focused on imagination.Stories — Green Shoots of Possibilities (May)
Noticing patterns, connections and possibilities that show up through peer to peer story sharing. Learning more about Story Telling Evaluation and most significant change. Full Story Day bringing together people from across Movers & Shakers Network and opportunities to find out more about neighbourhood story gathering with Maison Foo and heritage stories with Home Truths.
Summer:
Co-creation — Active Hope (June) … more info soon
Ecosystems — Learning from Nature (July) … more info soon
