Reflections from my second week as an intern at Care City
Sarah’s been here two weeks now. Her blog shares last weeks experiences of meeting the team IN PERSON (!) & connecting with the amazing participants of Shedlife.
Week 2 has continued to be an eye-opening experience here at Care City. You can read about my first week here, but for those that haven’t, a big hello to you and a recap – I’m Sarah, a student from the UK’s newest university The London Interdisciplinary School (LIS) and two weeks into a five week internship at Care City exploring how we might bring lived experience into the Connect project: a one year trial of relational working to address social isolation in Barking and Dagenham.
My second week began with a deep dive into my earlier research where I’d spent time learning about Human Learning Systems (the conceptual framework underpinning the Connect project). I went hunting for case studies where other organisations have successfully brought lived experiences into their work. Whilst this exercise was somewhat enlightening and gave me ideas as to the various approaches that could be adopted or adapted in my project, it has also shown that many organisations are stuck in a somewhat transactional way of bringing lived experience into their work, leaving me feeling motivated to co-create something that feels authentic and meaningful to residents – not tokenistic.
With this at the forefront of my mind, by midweek I was making the journey from Dorset to London for our fortnightly team day in Barking and Dagenham. Given many of the team at Care City (including me) are working remotely most of the time, these days are a lovely opportunity for everyone to get together and collaborate face-to-face. It was a wonderful opportunity to hear a bit about the team’s projects, from remote health monitoring in domiciliary care to helping care homes become more veteran-friendly.
As fantastic as it was to come into the office and meet the lovely lot of Care City in person, the highlight of my team day was undoubtedly my visit to ShedLife, a local community project run by Humourisk CiC (one of our VCSE delivery partners on the Connect project). ShedLife provides residents of Barking and Dagenham with a non-judgmental space to get to know other people in the local community. The project is resident-led, and heavily influenced by the arts which are used by residents to express themselves and learn new skills.
On my visit I was struck particularly by a few things. The ShedLife group is incredibly diverse in age, cultural background, ability, interests, and personalities, yet the members have over time formed a brilliantly self-sustaining network of relationships. They recognise each others’ strengths and are sensitive to each others’ difficulties. They help each other out, and as a group have an absolutely wicked sense of humour. Most importantly, they get to know each other, demonstrating the power of relational working.
As the week drew to a close, I returned to Dorset and started to create a more detailed map of the various ideas I’ve been considering for the Connect project, taking into account the benefits and challenges that might come with each option. Balancing the need to come up with options that will be accessible, give freedom and flexibility to residents, and also provide opportunities for iterative learning between Care City and our VCSE partners is proving tricky. However, it’s also been exciting to see the possibilities taking shape. 5-weeks is flying by!
Reflecting on the week, I’m struck by several takeaways:
- How quickly this process is going by! Five weeks seemed like a long time at the start, I’m now acutely aware of how rapidly it’s passing.
- One of the amazing things about this project is the opportunity to work cross-organizationally and reflect together on how we’re working. I’ve realised this week that co-creation with our VCSE delivery partners is absolutely integral to how we bring lived experience into the Connect project as they will be the people ‘on the ground’ with residents.
- Given the short time frame and the fact I am working mostly remotely, I think I had underestimated the need to make the most of every second with my colleagues and wish I had started to book in some meetings with cross-organisational partners earlier. Next week I am planning on exploring ways to make the most of my limited time in meetings, such as by creating a plan on Miro beforehand so I can collaborate with colleagues in real time and retain a copy of our conversation.
- The incredible diversity but also resilience among those affected by social isolation, absolutely reinforcing the need for tailored ‘bespoke by default’ solutions.
As I look forward to the coming weeks, I’m excited to apply these insights to this project. Next week, I’m looking forward to the process of beginning to prototype some of my ideas with the help of Care City’s design researcher Vedika. I’ll also be workshopping with our delivery partners to see how they imagine lived experience being brought into this work.
Stay tuned for more updates on this journey!
Connect is for people who have recently spent time in hospital and might not have lots of people nearby to be in touch with them as they recover. If you’re interested in learning more about joining the programme or referring someone on to it, email connect@communityresources.co.uk
