Kingston Konnected: A hub for Residents' Associations and Community Groups

We need to connect our communities. 
Our borough has dozens of resident associations (RA) and community groups (CG). Nearly all of them operate independently of one another, perhaps unknown to each other, even if they share aims and objectives. It would be beneficial to the community as a whole if there was hub - physical or virtual - where groups could meet, share concerns, discuss and create opportunities and better work with the council meet the needs and aspirations of our diverse community.

Ours is a large population in a large area and the focus tends to fall on the town not the borough as a whole. It could be a website, it could be a half-yearly meeting, it could be a room where information is available to submit and access. 

It might be better to seek funding for an external agency top manage the process. In Clerkenwell, for example, the Social Change Agency asked: In an age of social isolation and gentrification, how can we create neighbourhoods where people feel they belong and where people are connected to each other?

Community Centred is their answer to that question. They say "At its heart, Community Centred is a community development model. It connects disparate groups by listening to and working with local people. It brings people together to tackle the issues they face. It involves residents, the workforce, businesses, organisations, and institutions. When these players connect, communities start to thrive." 

The Social Change Agency is not free of course, and see themselves specialising in building people powered movements. Its core focuses are

• Creating social impact using communication, community organising, crowdfunding, peer networks, systemic and organisational change
• Combining tried and tested approaches with cutting edge tools and perspectives
• Offering consulting, programme design and delivery, training, and workshop training 

I am not advocating for the Social Change Agency in particular but rather a centralised approach to uniting our community groups where the sum of the whole is much more effective than the individual parts.

Collaboration builds communities.

Resident and community groups exist for many reasons, some RA's lie dormant until a perceived treat or major change looms up to galvanise them, others thrive through their social or charity activities, some CG's have specific aims - like the Queen's Promenade Friends or Hive the ecology group.  What is fascinating is the difference between the structured and mandated local authority and activities of individual and groups. 

A small group of volunteers make a huge but different contribution than a cash-strapped council. Councils are obliged to manage an entire borough's needs, a local group only its own concerns.  Our council works hard to create community engagement (this portal is an example) but it struggles and in reality engagement is poor even for crucial issues like the Local Plan. 

A Kingston Konnected hub would work because it allows groups to maintain their own (self-defined) focus whilst benefitting from the wisdom and strength of the group. All the evidence appears to point at an increasingly fragmented society, divisions are growing not reducing. A Kingston Konnected Hub would be a straightforward way of making things a little better for all of us.