Fancy a walk, and a better world? Meet RSA Central’s Fellowship Councillors

When people connect great things can happen - what could have been mundane is suddenly the highlight of the day. We are Clare Gage and Rachel Sharpe, the RSA Fellowship Councillors for the Central region. We’d like to introduce ourselves and tell you about what we hope to create with you over the next two years.

Our ambition is to bring people together to create meaningful connections which enable Fellows in our region to build the better world they hope for. Sometimes that might mean finding a collaborator to help bring your idea to life, other times that might mean finding the supporters that give you the energy to keep going. We’d like your help to build a space to support these connections for real change within our region, a place to meet, collaborate and do! There are over 4,700 Fellows across the Central region who engage on a wide variety of issues. The potential for change is breathtaking.

We’ve come a long way in the last two years, but we’re asking for your help to design ways of connecting and collaborating for the future. We want to bring people together to unlock ideas and innovation in the areas of society that must thrive so we can all live well - to identify how the world could, and should, change after this pandemic. We’re calling this our Bridges to the Future. 

In the Central region we began conversations with Fellows in July. Over 60 Fellows took part in a ‘Street Wisdom’ walk and met online to share ideas about how as a community we connect to each other and the diverse communities we advocate for.  In the session we worked with an artist (Merlin) who captured collective ideas within these illustrated minutes: 

We learned that Fellows want to work with intent, slowdown to refocus and nurture creative ideas. They want to find new ways to stop prejudice and inequality using conversation, to learn about and grow collective community action through the power of collaboration, and small acts of intentional kindness to make largescale change possible.

We’d like to take this conversation further with you, by taking a second solo 'Street Wisdom' walk to answer these questions:

• As fellows how do you want to build a network for positive change?
• How do you want to meet?
• How do you want to work?
• How do you want to connect?

If you’d like to help us build ways of working for the future in the Central region, we’d like to invite you to take a second walk and meet us afterwards for an online session to share your ideas. We’re holding two online gatherings in the hope that we will get to meet as many of our local Fellows as possible, they’ll take place on Friday 30 April 1pm-2pm and Wednesday 5 May 7pm-8pm and you can do the walk any time before either session you attend.

What is Street Wisdom? 

'Street Wisdom' is a dynamic mix of psychology, creativity, mindfulness and cognitive science, based on the simple idea that wisdom is available all the time when we know how to look. It’s simple, innovative and effective!     

In normal times, it is a three-hour experience in three parts: 'The Tune Up,' 'The Quest' and then 'The Sharing.' Whilst we are all still working together remotely, we have an audio guide which you can download onto your phone and take with you on your daily walk. Founder David Pearl will talk you through the process allowing you to access the wisdom of the street at your own pace.

Then take to the streets with the audio guide in hand and aforementioned questions in mind: How do you want to build a network for positive change? How do you want to meet and work? How do you want to connect? 

Download the ‘Street Wisdom on your Smartphone – RSA’ audio guide. 

Visit the 'Street Wisdom' website.