Projects
Projects
Learning, inquiry and action around questions that matter
About projects
Our projects bring people and organisations together around real questions, concerns and possibilities. They provide a practical setting in which community learning, participatory enquiry and action can become part of the same process.
How we develop projects
We do not begin with the assumption that every place or organisation needs the same intervention. A project normally begins with conversation. What is happening? Who is involved? What questions matter? Whose knowledge needs to be part of the process? What might people want to understand, develop or change? From there, we can design an appropriate process together. Projects may involve workshops, community engagement, facilitated dialogue, research, evaluation, organisational learning, practical experimentation or a combination of these.
Projects as praxis
We do not see a project simply as a sequence of activities leading to a final report. Our aim is to create opportunities for people to: experience → question → investigate → act → reflect → learn A community learning programme may generate a research question. Research may identify a need for action. Action may create new questions. A project can therefore develop over time rather than ending once its initial activity has been delivered. This reflects the prospectus methodology in which learning, inquiry and action form a repeating praxis cycle.
Develop a project with us
You might already have a clear idea. Or you might simply have a question that you think deserves further exploration. We are interested in developing projects with: communities voluntary organisations colleges and universities public bodies foundations partnerships and networks
Featured project
What Matters?
What matters to people in our communities, and what can we do about it together? What Matters? is a participatory community learning project inspired by the work of Paulo Freire. People begin by sharing photographs, stories and experiences about the things they value, the issues that concern them and the changes they would like to see. Our facilitators then work with participants to identify the themes emerging from those experiences and turn them into a process of dialogue, critical reflection and collective inquiry. Rather than arriving with predetermined answers, facilitators begin with people’s own knowledge and experience. Together, participants explore why things are as they are, what could be different, and how they might act . The process moves through Share – Learn – Act , with action followed by further reflection and learning. The aim is not simply to consult communities, but to strengthen people’s capacity to understand their circumstances and participate in changing them.
