Time for Change
Time for Change: Developing an Anti-Racism Strategy for Weston was developed as part of the Weston Community Hubs project, funded by the Government through North Somerset Council and delivered by RENS.
With increasing levels of challenge to existing systems, globally and nationally, there is a growing focus on the need to use a Complex Systems approach to address ‘Wicked’ problems (complex social problems).
In May 2022 the UK Government issued advice to Civil Servants on systems thinking and complex systems, and it is anticipated that this approach will increasingly become the standard in many areas.
Using a methodology derived from Complex Systems theory, ‘Time for Change: Developing an Anti-Racism Strategy for Weston’, proposes a way that Councils and Communities might work more effectively together to deliver positive change
Wicked Lab’s Tool for Systemic Change formed the basis of explorations. This encourages the development of an ecosystem that includes all initiatives seeking to deliver a desired change.
The ecosystem approach encourages collaborative working, and the Tool provides ways for individual initiatives to be developed independently while still being mapped within the overall system.
It offers a framework for initiative design that increases the likelihood of sustainable change, and the visual approach makes identifying gaps in actions being taken a natural part of the process.
The overview can be easily shared and, if desired, embedded in a webpage, providing transparency, clarity, and accountability on initiatives in progress and organisations involved. This helps to build trust and the understanding of wider context also generates a greater desire to act. This is particularly important for Wicked problems, which, of necessity, require Councils and Communities to work together.
Following experimentation through the Community Hubs project, RENS is recommending that the Wicked Lab Tool be used at a strategic level in Weston and be used to map Anti-Racist initiatives across all sectors, to help deliver the much-needed change.