Today we've been hearing lots of really great stories of civic impact, and from lots of different perspectives and lots about arts and culture, how universities can help kind of bridge people together, convene different actors in place.
What I'm really hoping to get out of today is build some connections and network with people, because places like this really bring together that sense of, a kind of community of practice around civic. And making those connections is really important for driving this work forward.
We learn a lot from each other, and I think we could do a lot more that. What civic, CivicLab means to me is networking. It is connections. It is connected knowledge. Essentially.
CivicLab is really important to me because it was about finding a way to create something that could be a literal and metaphorical vehicle to bridge the gap between the university and the public realm.
CivicLab has been absolutely instrumental in some of the work we are doing on extreme heat at Barnet Council, so working with Rhiannon and Callum and the team, we've been doing some engagement with communities across the borough to really kind of understand how extreme heat affects them. But more importantly, what we do with that and help them and sort of overcome some of the vulnerabilities that they might have in this weather.
CivicLab is important to me because, CivicLab really gives us an opportunity to connect with the local community to make sure that the work the university is doing is relevant, and to make sure that we're really giving the best to the area that we work in, that we live in, and that we operate in.
The way that Civic Lab brings together, kind of research, a new thinking, with institutions, manufacturing, local organisation is so plugged into that local ecosystem of, of industry and organisation, but also in dialogue with, people, a place so that deep commitment to the civic.
So for us, it was, truly a pleasure to be here, be selected to present, our participatory project called Young Urbanist, which we developed in our Erasmus Mundus, Emir. Together with Emir students and, Czech students and, to see, so much of a good practice. It was really enlightening and also it's amazing how much, how many connections you have created.
It's always interesting to come across the different good practices, how you actually build a resilient community.
If you really believe that, then you empower the locals in the way that they understand how the local politics of, how the city is organised, they might fight back the rights to that of the city.
And, they will themselves see, actually, that there is a common humanity, which is, to be cherished rather than allow us to be divided and blame others for our hardship.
At Barnet, we're a borough that cares for its people, its places on the planet. And one of the things is part of that work is really underpinned by, communities and community engagement and community participation.
We recognise how important it is to hear our residents’ voices in everything we do. And then parallel to that is the work that we do at Socitm. Socitm is very much about place-based approaches and people make places, communities make places.
So, actually listening to them and doing that engagement work, and especially the stuff that CivicLab does, is really important, because that helps us really sort of define and develop our outputs for our residents.
I think the highlight for me so far has been watching an amazing production. It was all about baby loss and a really fascinating example of how, we can connect communities through powerful stories, even if they are uncomfortable.
Yeah, I mean, I've had loads of brilliant side conversations and also just been very inspired by the talks so far. Lots of the work around participatory action research. Both herein the UK, but also in the Czech Republic and other places, have just been so inspiring and fascinating.
One key takeaway, I'd say today is on one of the tables I was sat at for the roundtable session. One particular conversation on that table struck me was that one person who is doing a project in Derbyshire. They've not been to the university. They don't really come to university. And they came in and they actually made a connection with a researcher around heritage, which linked to their project, basically.
And I think CivicLab, to me, that's about fostering those connections, bringing people outside of the University into the University who wouldn't naturally think that's a place for them to come.
I think my main takeaway from the conference has been one, how much incredible work there is happening across the country and beyond. We're blessed that we've had speakers from many different organisations, universities and institutions across the UK, and we also had some speakers and guests from, from Europe, from Africa, from lots of different countries.
So I think it's really heartwarming to see sort there the absolute level of work that's going on, across the world, and also how varied civic work is.
We've had a wide range of topics, from community gardening to baby loss, to how we help and support students with connecting to their local area. So, I think the real breadth of work has been a takeaway and has really made me think about what is the civic work we do and what we can influence and change through this kind of work.
There's been so many rich and beautiful discussions that have taken place, examples of practice, lessons that have been learned, challenges and opportunities that people have been sharing about working in the civic and community space.
So I think the whole event has been really, really brilliant and important.
It feels like, I have renewed my enthusiasm if that was needed to really make sure that everything we're doing at CivicLab is absolutely serving people and place.
And I think one of the things that I probably can say as a takeaway thinking about it now, is that it's absolutely got to drive forward with purpose. And I think we are all in agreement with everybody who came today that their work is critical, is crucial, and this kind of work really matters.
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