Understory is a tool for communities to map and explore the connections that lie between its different organisations. It is intended to build community strength by helping a community to understand itself better.
Since November, participants have been adding to the map and we are now inviting contributors to come together to explore the findings in more detail.
The map will enable us to see what goals everyone is working towards, how each of our organisations is connected, and whether we could be working more effectively by building stronger links in certain places.
It will also be a useful tool for organising community action and knowing who to talk to from each section of the community, to make sure everyone is represented.
We are also working closely with the North East Essex Health and Wellbeing Alliance Neighbourhoods Team to use this opportunity to help us better understand how people are linked in place and how we may be able to facilitate closer connections in the future. During this session, we will identify actions we can take forward together as a group.
This event is available online but we will also invite partners to meet at the One Colchester Hub if they would prefer. By registering you will be initially registering online.
We have been grateful to be able to develop this map with the support of Understory, which is a partnership between social enterprise Onion Collective (https://www.onioncollective.co.uk/) and design studio Free Ice Cream (https://www.freeicecream.co.uk/). The work has been funded by The National Lottery Community Fund.
