the-BA : Workshops

sharing views at a community x-change workshop

The climate change community x-change workshops were run over four days, starting with the weekend of 10 & 11 June. The workshops were held in Norwich in the pavilion at Waterloo Park. Although participants were coming from as far as Lowestoft and Peterborough, it was felt that this location would be easy to get to in terms of transport links.

As well as the location, other aspects of accessibility were considered. Participants' travel costs were covered, including taxis for the infirm, as were child care, a contribution to loss of earnings and translation.

Despite the large size of the group, and with many people not knowing anyone else attending, relationships quickly developed, especially as people began to meet those who lived close to them.

Initial discussions focussed on people's local environment. In particular, this included issues the group deemed to be important to them, such as transport and crime. This enabled the group to feel they had ownership of the discussions and that no question or comment was out of bounds. The group also began to gel together.

On Sunday 11 June, a local environmental campaigner, Maxine Narburgh from Suffolk Connect, helped to facilitate the sessions. Since one of the aims of the meetings was to empower those attending and to enable them to feel that they could contribute to action on the issues being discussed, Maxine had also invited six environmental volunteers to attend - people with whom she works. These volunteers enabled the group to begin to think about issues around the environment and climate change. In particular, this helped the participants to relate the issues they had raised to climate change.

On the third day, Saturday 1 July, the participants delved deeper into the issues that they had begun to discuss over the first weekend. Part of the process involved the group looking at various scenarios, which were written to present some of the tensions there are in responding to a subject like climate change.

Participants talked about the issues in small groups, two of which decided to present their thoughts in the form of a drama. One drama addressed flooding in Norfolk and the other issues of exclusion and isolation. In both cases, the dramas brought a real depth and richness to the process.

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