Our approach invests in relationships and networks
Launch of 'Supporting Minoritised Communities'. Photo Credit: Adi, ACCN
As a small team with big ambitions, our approach is inspired by the power of networks to achieve more than the sum of their parts.
Our values
Relationships are infrastructure
We’ve learned that the most important part of a project isn’t the content—it’s the relationships, and a culture of inclusive decision-making.
We prioritise equitable working relationships for both philosophical and practical reasons. As a small organisation, we rely on partnerships to achieve more than we could alone. That much is widely understood. What’s often overlooked is how to work in partnership effectively.
We’ve learned that a partnership is only as strong as the relationships it's built on. From a practical standpoint, this means ensuring our relationships—with colleagues and communities—are equitable and open. If we want to make good decisions, we need good information. And that means being inclusive: listening to other voices, challenging assumptions, and welcoming different ways of seeing the world.
But our interest in partnerships goes deeper than that. Working equitably with others reflects one of our core purposes: to be a supportive network for the community and voluntary sector.
More broadly, we believe that how we work should mirror the kind of change we want to see in society. We can’t build inclusive communities through exclusive practices, or encourage participation from minoritised groups while working in non-participatory ways. We try to practice what we preach.
This is why we see relationships as practical and ethical infrastructure, not just in community work, but in any setting.
Launch of 'Supporting Minoritised Communities'. Photo Credit: Adi, ACCN
Challenging our own thinking is an integral part of our approach. We structure critical reflection into all our work, for several reasons:
It helps us to do better work.
Communities keep changing, so should community-work.
It grounds us, and reminds us of our purpose.
Mutual, not extractive
We strive for mutuality and shared ownership, and believe communities have a right to own their development.
We're opposed to extractive practices that treat the community like a source of stories, data and credibility, but without benefit or ownership. Instead, we think community work should be mutually beneficial to everyone involved.
Our work with the Ideas Fund underlines this commitment. Through supporting community groups to work with researchers, we've recognised that sometimes traditional practices can have an extractive effect on communities. That's why we've established the Community Research Collective to help unpick this, and explore more mutual and participatory models of research.