Roots Community Conversations & Future Generations
After a longish period of feeling a bit apathetic about life in the UK and politically homeless, I was invited to attend an online event being arranged by our friends at Network of Wellbeing. It was an evening online call called ‘Building Wellbeing Together: Wellbeing of Future Generations’, which, at the time, seemed like an opportunity to share visions of what we might hope future generations may experience in terms of wellbeing. I had no idea what the evening may really hold, but all of us here at Roots love attending these kinds of events for inspiration and reigniting ideas and passions for the work we do and I was interested to listen and learn from the comfort of my sofa.
First up, and first assault on my apathy, was Amanda Janoo, a Vermont-based speaker from the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, who spoke at length about replacing our system and mindset, exchanging economic growth as the central thing our society values as a mark of success with the wellbeing of our planet and the humans living on it. Our second speaker was a woman the same age as me, I don’t know why this made her all the more interesting to me, still yet to figure that out, but it certainly added something to the mix. Sophie Howe is the outgoing, and was the first ever, Future Generations Commissioner for Wales.
Key to understanding Sophie’s story is comprehending the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. Rolling out in 2016, it set out seven well-being goals: i) a prosperous Wales, ii) a resilient Wales, iii) a healthier Wales, iv) a more equal Wales, v) a Wales of cohesive communities, vi) a Wales of vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language and vii) a globally responsible Wales. Which all sounded like lovely things to aim for, but I couldn’t imagine how these points could actually be achieved. The Act set out these goals alongside a small bunch of principles that new developments should be passed through the lens of before getting the ok.
Essentially, as I understand it, all new developments must be examined to ensure that they would allow future generations to enjoy at least the same levels of health and wellbeing that we do now, and if short-term thinking threatened the wellbeing of future generations, then pressure to veto such thinking could be applied. In this capacity, Sophie Howe advised the Welsh government against building a bypass around Newport linked to the M4 motorway because it would result in financial debt for the future as well as destroy local biodiversity. She argued that we were building capacity for extra road traffic we didn’t want. It happened, or rather it didn’t happen, the bypass was canned.
I love the idea that every development through government should be put through this lens. I thought about my son, who was sleeping upstairs as I took the call. My generation inherited a UK in which buying or even renting a house is far more difficult than ever before, Norway enjoys a society enriched through it’s sovereign wealth fund, whilst we sold off our gas to the highest bidder, oh, and older people disproportionately voted for Brexit. Suddenly, what we are creating right now, and the legacy we offer our children’s children, came very sharply into focus.
My son and I are a groovy, solid, single parent and child unit. Engaging in the capacity of putting myself forth as a local councillor is fraught with time constraints and having juggled for too long with a multitude of other things, clubs, sanity and trying to remain afloat financially, I am reluctant to try to go there, even if anyone would have me. Ruth Ibegbuna, Roots’ Founder, worked on ‘Community Conversations’ previously in Wales and then, with a few of us alongside her, in Scotland, partnering with the David Hume Institute. These conversations brought people together as equals for around two hours, online, and were not something I had previously experienced. The digital divide was bridged for these sessions by helpful extra partnerships with other organisations such as libraries and community hubs who supported participants with tech and know-how. The sessions I assisted with struck me, most notably, as really warm and friendly where the people turning up all felt their voice was equally worth listening to, like a chat across a kitchen table. Nothing reminiscent of Handsforth Parish Council whatsoever. Some participants represented local organisations and took their place beside very wonderful, ‘ordinary’ individuals from the community who knew it very well and had special insight, or were new to the area and had unique ideas for connecting the dots better. We had a chatty few hours and created a list of action points that people volunteered to tackle and report back upon.
The experiences of visiting parliament in London, the town council in Bungay, where I live, and the wonderful experiences I have enjoyed bringing together the voices of us, the Norman Normals of the area together to connect and talk, calmly and compassionately about what they want the future to look like in their place have led us to the project we are working on at present. Roots Community Conversations kicks off at the end of March in Bradford, the place in which our founder, Ruth Ibegbuna, grew up and we hope to continue into a community near you, neutral space holders for informality and the less-usually-heard voices.
Register to join us across the Roots kitchen table, online on the 22nd March at 10am to chat all things Bradford
