Creativity and Community: Moving towards equity and away from ‘us vs them'
John Whelan is The Giving Lab’s (TGL) Community Outreach and Engagement Lead and a resident of Southwark. He delivers creative events to help The Giving Lab reach diverse communities in Walworth, build their trust, and unlock the issues that affect them most. “Drama-based activities are a really good way to engage people and communities because you get a much more honest conversation” he tells me.
When setting up a creative workshop, John aims to create a safe and democratic space where everyone has an equal voice. “Funders will often share a PowerPoint presentation that immediately creates an ‘us vs them’ dynamic that is off-putting and, by definition, not community engagement” he continues.
So, what can creativity contribute? And what makes it such an important tool when bringing people together? I am told that, amongst other things, creativity connects us to ourselves, and gives us a voice, sometimes bringing us beyond words. I am curious to explore these attributes further and learn how The Giving Lab uses creativity to connect with and build trust amongst the residents of Walworth.
Creativity is participatory and interactive
Wansey Street in Elephant and Castle is where The Giving Lab initially did a lot of outreach, and where John led a series of drama-based workshops around TGL’s 3 key themes – your money, your housing, your work. John tells me a bit about the structure of these workshops.
The first one, focused on ‘your housing’, kicked-off by showing the group footage of what the area used to look like – immediately evoking a reaction of living conditions then vs now. Participants were then invited to share their own housing experiences, including how reliable or unreliable local government and housing associations could be, waiting lists, and questions around permissions e.g. can I grow food and plants in my community?
Following the open discussion, participants engaged in a few improvisation exercises, namely one called ‘park bench’. This is where one person sits on a fictional park bench with no predetermined idea of who their character is, until a second person joins them on the bench and assigns them a character. A conversation then ensues, and in this instance, the conversation was about housing experiences.
Once warmed up, participants were divided into groups and tasked with creating small scenes around the theme of housing, which were then discussed as a wider group.
“Creative drama-based activities like these offer a practical and more ‘real’ approach that allows community members to open up and express how they feel about their housing truths. Instead of having funders talk at participants, they are given the agency to own the conversation amongst themselves.” John says.
Creativity nurtures ideas
Drama and arts-based activities are effective ways to stimulate new and creative ideas, encouraging people to be more solutions-oriented. Of the twelve people involved in the drama sessions John held, four or five ideas emerged. “If this model can be replicated throughout the community, there will be no shortage of idea generation” he assures me.
The Giving Lab recognises that creativity is a form of self-expression, and unexpressed thoughts can be very damaging – it’s important to let them out in a healthy way. For example, instead of having community members talk about their financial health – a very sensitive topic – The Giving Lab ran a creative session where participants were given a plain tote bag and asked to decorate it with their thoughts and feelings about money.
Not only can creativity help a person make sense of their feelings and put them into perspective, but it can help distract from destructive, negative thoughts and channel that energy into something positive.
Creativity supports resilience
Many of the community members that The Giving Lab works with have experienced hardships that shouldn’t be discounted by treating them like a news story or statistic. Their stories are bona fide and incredibly valuable. “If funders are genuinely interested in creating systems change, there needs to be a shift in power over to the people, as they are the ones who have the solutions” John tells me. “By taking a collaborative co-design approach, through things like creative workshops, and valuing their lived experience, funders can build up community confidence and resilience.”
The creative road ahead
“As The Giving Lab moves forward, we need to think about new ways to improve this formula of creative-based community engagement. Are there other methods we can onboard to open people up and unlock solutions-based thinking and connection?” John ponders.
“In terms of our own brand awareness, we need to continue layering in a bit of performance, like when we got TGL staff members to wear lab coats to a local event – it really made us stand out. You can’t rely on leaflets alone, marketing initiatives should be interactive and speak to communities in a way that will resonate and get them excited to participate.”
