I was recently part of a very interesting one- day event held at SOAR Works/Knutton Road Studios in Parson Cross on 13 June 2012.   I came away very inspired and want to support the development of small change projects/work via our Programme in Parson Cross.  

This event - hosted by Kate Genever and Steve Pool, Nabeel Hamdi and Multistory in association with the Centre for Development and Emergency Practice (CENDEP), Oxford Brookes University - looked at how small change community development practice can be applied and adapted by local stakeholders in SHeffield to develop small change projects.  

In a nutshell the Small Change approach is based on the common sense assumption: to achive soemthing big, start with something small and start where it counts  

The day brought together interested local residents, community artists, academics, local councilors and officials, arts organisations and community located activists to discuss Small Change, its ethos, partnerships and future actions.  The event introduced the main ideas and principles of Small Change practice to the group.  We discussed ways of mobilising a regional Small Change Forum Network in Sheffield.   Important to this process was identifying next steps to uncover existing resources, skills and knowledge which could be used to bring about positive change in the community.  Ideas buzzing around on the day included mobile gardens, community beehive and (controversially) carnival floats but importantly it made people who were there want to talk to people who weren't present to generate other relvant ideas.  

Information from this event including the report is available at: www.smallchangeforum.org

For more information, please contact Jeni Burnell, Chair, The Small Change Forum: jburnell@brookes.ac.uk

Thanks to: Steve & Kate, Nabeel and Karl at Multistory for bringing a bit of Small Change to Parson Cross - I for one am certainly interested to see what happens next.