Weeknotes, 24 Feb 2025

Citizenship, participation and barriers.

Two really interesting conversations this week, one with Jon Conradi of Wild Mosaic, and the other with an arts and culture Comms professional considering going freelance. Both chats evolved into sharing reflections on the efforts for people and under represented communities to be able to participate - either in cultural organisations or in accessing nature and the landscape.

I consider myself to be a recent newbie to the sustainability and ecology sector, having explored via different networks and desk research while supporting a small handful of clients working in this space. Its really interesting to note the overlaps between the culture and health charity sectors, where there has been a real push for better participation in access and decision making from the communities being 'served' by institutions or organisations - working on behalf of, rather than with those they seek or purport to serve.

A key touchstone in both chats was the issue of social barriers - the perceived and real secret codes and in the arts and landscape space - for groups who with low levels of participation who don't feel like they belong there or worry they may not be welcome. Its clear that there is a huge importance of democratisation, access to culture and the environment and a shared belief that these should be for all to enjoy, and not those privileged enough to have the confidence to enter and navigate these spaces. A huge amount of thoughts, studies and ideas to explore here - will add it to the growing list of blog posts to be written in 2025 (Substack content plans are happening in the background).

I also found time to do some research on burn out and how procrastination can be a big indicator of approaching the red zone with the familiar freezing or overwhelm response. Useful reminder for anyone at risk out there. Link to the Frazzled podcast here: https://www.kellyswingler.com/podcasts/frazzled-the-podcast

Inspirations and ideas:

Rare Disease Day 2025 - A big week for HBA Support next week - 28th February marks Rare Disease Day. Thousands of rare disease organisations from around the world will be taking part representing the nearly 300 million people living with a rare condition globally.

Skip the Queue podcast - co-CEO of Birmingham Museums Trust Zak Mensah touches on some of the invisible barriers in accessing cultural venues

https://skipthequeue.fm/episodes/innovation-in-the-cultural-sector

Wild Mosaic - Become a rewilder: adopt a plot of land for rewilding. https://www.wildmosaic.eco

The Right to Roam in England - interview with Jon Moses from Right to Roam and YouTube British landscape and history enthusiast Paul Whitewick

Frazzled - a podcast exploring the management and recovery of burnout. This episode on why you should ignore the High Performance gurus and starting the day your way is great: https://www.kellyswingler.com/podcasts/frazzled-the-podcast/episodes/2148979280