WORDS: Ursula Ostuni
Often, the most effective changes come from the grassroots, not the top down. If you’ve ever thought of creating a community-driven initiative within your neighbourhood, Ursula Ostuni from the Friends of Study Street Community Hub shares her advice.
If there is one thing that isolation has taught humanity, it’s that decentralisation is the default state of a successful civilisation and without doubt its most innate state of being.
It is no surprise that we internalised and came to our senses when the neon lights were no longer distracting us – it would be a moment in each life when everything stood still, just long enough for us to become grounded and observe in silence the big picture revealed and the mark we unconsciously had left on it. The downward curve of centralised financial, social, and political systems would simultaneously be a nightmare and evolutionary dream come true.
And yes, dreams do come true.
Taking the time to truly connect with who we are and allowing for our intuitive and creative ideas to rise to the surface in a moment of silence is how great ideas take root and dreams are realised.
About the friends of Study Street
The Friends of Study Street Community Hub is a self-regulated and governed community action group that is transforming an abandoned space in Flamingo Vlei into a thriving centre for the community that will support the area with training and skills development, job creation and a safe space to reconnect and learn.
The building blocks
When designing the Study Street Community Hub, the small assembly of Flamingo Vlei residents were inspired by permaculture, the agricultural practices that work in harmony with nature, and applied the 12 permaculture principles to achieve self-governance and sustainability.
A successful community project is relevant and impactful when it supports the needs and empowers all involved. Existing social organisations reflect a community’s needs perfectly – and when your project assists them to fulfil these needs, while their members assist with the creation of your project, then this is considered a closed loop design in permaculture.
Sustainability on the other hand is achieved when your system mimics nature and your design works in harmony with it. Biomimicry is used to develop green technology, and the mimicking of an eco-system would make the obtaining of a profitable yield in business as easy as a community hub’s yield in produce.
Not enough can be said about the value of diversity when designing a system. It is the amalgamation of everything that your system is made up of, to benefit everything or everyone within and beyond the original design. A truly effective design grows, adapts and is resilient against inevitable changes, because it is inclusive of all diverse ideas, skill sets, needs, beliefs, and future aspirations.
How to realise your own community hub
A community hub is made great when it is abundant in the needs it fulfils, inclusive in its design and in harmony with nature and all involved.
- Talk to those around you about your idea and support the gathering of likeminded individuals with diverse skill sets
- Put the big picture idea on paper and plan
- Market research within your larger community to establish potential challenges and brainstorm their solutions
- Amend and add more detailed information to your big picture plans and proposal
- Start small and allow for an organic growth of your project. Create stability with set benchmarks, lay down and agree on a sturdy foundation of ethics and principles upon which the project committee will measure progress and build relationships on.
- Approach local organisations, funding initiatives and businesses with your project to build a network of professional/experienced skill set providers to assist with the implementation of your project
- Create awareness within your community and keep them regularly updated with progress, challenges overcome, needs fulfilled, and how to participate in the growing and eventual implementation of the community-uplifting project
- Maintain your working relationships with your established businesses and organisations, and assist them to fulfil their needs in exchange for their assistance and contribution to the community project. Mutually beneficial relationships are the only ones that persevere through challenges and evolve successfully
- Support the upliftment of individual community members and of the managing committee members. Individual personal and professional growth improves the rate of success, longevity, and resilience of the project.
- Regularly review and amend the project with new ideas and skills that feed seamlessly into the project objectives and upliftment of the larger community
- Respect every community member’s voice and rights by implementing a voting system into your project. Vote regularly on issues (via social media, email, or phone) to always be in tune with the community’s dynamic diversity and transformation.
