A changing landscape, and the need for complexity-informed approaches

We are delighted to invite you to our Coastal Community and Creative Health (CC&CH) workshop. This free session is open to all project team members, project partners, voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise (VCFSE) organisations, creative sector practitioners (e.g., community artists), and those working in health and social care.

A changing landscape, and the need for complexity-informed approaches

The VCSE sector is increasingly involved in shaping public policy and the delivery of core public services, with volunteers filling gaps in the system and helping to provide essential services. The language of collaboration, lived experience and community engagement has now moved to centre stage in the delivery of public services.

There are undoubtedly positives with changes in progress, but ways of working are struggling to keep pace with the speed of change. We are all frequently left trying to tackle complex problems with the wrong tools, adding to exhaustion and frustration, and limiting our chances of success.

For the past three years, Race Equality North Somerset has been running The Other Place, a space for community-led experimentation and action, on complexity-informed principles. This workshop will explore some of the challenges and outcomes.

• What are wicked (complex social) problems and why do they need a different approach? A brief introduction to the theory
• What would a complexity-informed approach look like? Beyond targets, doing what we know works
• Useful language - Concepts that legitimise human-centred approaches
• Creating a solution ecosystem - A practical checklist for effective collaboration
• Addressing power dynamics - If it’s not equitable, it won’t work!
• Meaning and mattering - What might a shared monitoring, evaluation and learning partnership look like?

Facilitator

The workshop will be led by Alison Bancroft, a co-investigator on the CC&CH project from The Other Place and Race Equality North Somerset (RENS) and a consultant at Redport Ltd. The Other Place is an innovative, inclusive and collaborative space for community-led activities and experimentation in Weston-super-Mare, launched by RENS in 2022. Alison has extensive experience in regeneration and development projects at a senior level, with expertise in strategic review, effective implementation, and fostering productive cross-sector communication. She is particularly interested in how agile approaches can support innovation and project growth.

Who Should Attend?

This session is ideal for VCSE organisations, community artists, local authority representatives, and professionals in health and social care who are keen to explore new approaches to collaboration and problem-solving in a rapidly evolving landscape.