January 10, 2025

Gabriela Lipska, District Manager Westmorland and Furness, talks to Laura Goad, Director of Cumbria Development Education Centre (CDEC) based in Ambleside, as part of our Beyond the Edge – Inspiration and Innovation interview series:

GL: Welcome Laura – tell us a bit more about CDEC, who you are as an organization and what do you do.

Laura: No problem at all. My name is Laura Goad, and I am the director of Cumbria Development Education Centre based in Ambleside. We are part of a network of organisations across the country that are focused on developing global perspectives in people that live locally. Traditionally, we have worked a lot with young people, but more and more, we are working with the community. We are looking at the concept of global learning. Our vision is that through our global learning experiences and actions, we can build a fairer and more sustainable world.

GL: Thank you for accepting my invitation Laura, you are inaugurating the series Beyond the Edge which aims to introduce ideas and practice supportive of the community power idea, capture what is happening, tune in, listen, and then share the already existing, or just emerging, good practices. Interviews with Cumbrian organisations who practice community power are part of this offering.

Laura: Thank you, Gabi. We are always interested in things that develop our own thinking, develop our own understanding of who we are as an organisation, what we do locally and how we do it and this interview is a great opportunity for us to explore and look at who we are, what some of our organisational values are, the way in which we work, the way in which we have conversations and build our vision. I am always just really interested in having the opportunity to talk them out. This develops our own understanding of who we are as individuals in the organisation and the organisation itself.

GL: Perfect. In your introduction I hear resonance with the concept of the Beyond the Edge series: curiosity, opportunity, exploration, vision. They encompass a certain way of thinking and working. You are clearly a values driven organisation, a curious organisation that looks for opportunities and constantly explores, visions new ways of doing things, using conversation as a vehicle for change. Is that fair to say?

Laura: Yes, we just like to have a bit of a conversation about things that we feel are important. We are talking about and thinking about ourselves as part of this connected whole. As Development Education Centres, we were set up as a radical voice to challenge some of the Western perspectives on development, and on our relationship with the global majority, the global South, the World. So, we came from a place of that radical change, rethinking and reimagining justice, equality, fairness. We employ that mindset when working with communities locally.

Our work is about connecting with people. We embrace the abundance mentality, like: Let us look at what we do have. Let us look at our assets and how can we build on those and how do we make sure that those are shared with everyone from an equity perspective. We have a lot of that curiosity, a lot of that critical thinking and unpacking messages, looking at why we think the way we think, is there another way to think, who is the owner of that message?

So, all of that really shaped who we are as an organisation and we have been developing that thinking and growing for the past 40 years. At the core of who we are, we have a set of values of equity, justice, responsibility, integrity, and hope. And because we have those at our core, that is how we work as a team. That is how we work with our trustees. It is also present in how we work with schools and communities.

GL: Can you tell me a bit more about what it looks like in practice?

Laura: It is about creating spaces where everyone that chooses to join feels they have an equal space, a voice that will be valued and respected. And of course, there will be challenges, but there is a welcome there. There is a sense of belonging, safety, appreciation, and that is an important foundation of working with justice, whether that’s social, environmental, or racial justice. We ask ourselves: how can we enable the conversations and the actions that will lead to addressing those issues of justice so that we can affect that fairer and more sustainable world. We are always thinking about what is possible and who else might be interested in that piece of work, who else could we be connecting with? What opportunities are there to think and do things differently? We want to close the box and leave it to one side and completely forget that there is a box and do all that thinking and working outside of the box. If we want to achieve the things we say we want to achieve, we must start doing things differently.

GL: Collaboration is another feature of CDEC approach, and abundance mindset you mentioned, we increasingly hear about co production and collaboration, but you seem to know how to do it. Can we talk about your take on collaboration?

Laura: We have all done chasing contracts and being in competition, but that has not worked. Pitting ourselves against each other has not worked, so let us try something different. We can combine our capacities, we can be looking to work more collaboratively, more in a proper partnership, in a collective collegiate approach. That means we have also got a louder voice, with that collaborative approach, we have a stronger voice and respond better to needs. We are pulling more evidence into a space to say this approach is working, with these combined resources, we will have greater outcomes. If we want different outcomes, we must do different things differently. And we must be a bit braver.

When you talk about collaboration – doing something together we are united by a shared vision and purpose.

GL: Can you tell me a bit more about what genuine partnership and genuine collaboration looks like in practice, as an end goal not just as a means to achieve something. I am asking this question because you are an organisation of practitioners. What are you doing that makes a difference?

Laura: Intentionality is particularly important. If we are setting out with a vision to do something new, a new project idea, or there is a new opportunity, there’s intentionality to bring others on board at that very start. Before anything has been laid out in terms of ‘this is what we are going to do’ we are asking: are you interested in joining us? Here is the opportunity, is this something you would be interested in? We might not have all the answers, and we might not have the right idea about how it would best work, so we are open. It is about constantly asking: what, how, who else do we need? Who else holds some wisdom that can feed into a conversation that could develop into something even better?

And you know, there are lots of things that get in the way of that approach: time, skills don’t always lend themselves naturally to that but even if we don’t get the funding, we then have this great idea and we’ve built relationships and I think that’s the key. It is about that relationship and trust and trying not to rush it, taking the time to build that trusting relationship with the individuals in other organisations, in the communities, you know, whoever is part of that partnership. Putting the time and effort into getting to know each other, really getting a sense of where we are connecting, do we share values, what it is we want to achieve? It is a shared responsibility of all partners.

So, that’s probably part of the way in which we work. And as I say, we do not always get it right, but we are trying to do better next time.

The other thing is trying not to put ourselves into a space where someone else really feels it is theirs. If we can add value to what someone else is doing – that is great, if not – let us cheerlead. Let us support that organisation.

GL: Sounds amazing. I love the idea of being a cheerleader and shared responsibility and shared enquiry. But what would you say to people who may think this can be risky? How can we let everybody decide about vision, purpose, aims – what are the qualifications, what is their expertise, what is their experience that makes them credible, gives them the mandate to do that and will not jeopardies the whole thing?

Laura: I do not see it as risky. I do recognise that there is a risk in people having different ideas, opinions, that can be conflicting. So, you do not avoid risk, you look at ways to mitigate it together in a safe space you create and hold for the people. It is a hosting type of approach, an idea that you create the right environment, structure of the process, that will enable those conversations to happen, you enable that growth to happen. It is not entirely chaotic, but chaos is good, you know, at certain points, because it sorts of shakes things out. There is a power in that collective voice, in difference, it means we can end up stronger because we do not fall into group thinking. And we gave time to listen, really understand and show up.

There are pedagogies and approaches that enable good conversations to happen. One thing underpinning our work from the start is Philosophy for Children or that enquiry-based approach. In a P4C setting we are in a circle. Again, there is that equity of sitting in a circle, that reinforces idea that we are all in this together with same voice, same responsibilities.

There’s a question or a provocation/stimulus that begins conversation and our role is to facilitate the process, support everyone to think, enable digging deeper, building on other people’s ideas or disagree respectfully.

Another approach we use is called the Art of Hosting. It is about helping people have good conversations that matter to them. It enables people to be as honest or as open as they want to be. It is a process of deeply listening to each other, having the time and the space to do that. It invites personal and emotional connection and focuses on the content. As a result of that, you know, we walk away with a better understanding of each other, better understanding of a situation, a problem, or a solid action plan. There are a lot of tools you can use in this approach at CDEC. We have used a World Cafe, Conversation Cafe, and Open Space. Cumbria CVS used Open Space at your last AGM, so you know what I am talking about.

So, co-creation is about conversations, learning and exploring together. It can generate solutions or ideas, or next steps or new connections between people that that then just continue to create that fairer, more sustainable world.

At CDEC we know it is possible to collaborate, it is possible to trust and to be in a deep, generative relationship and rather than looking at what is missing, focusing on what works, what is good, seeing difference as enriching, stimulating thinking.

GL: You definitely are an inspiring, brave organisation with a great vision and practical experience for a more collaborative, equitable Cumbria so I am really pleased we could have this conversation, thank you for your time. Is there a way people can learn more about what you do and how you work?

Laura: Thank you, it has been a real pleasure. Yes, we have our website www.cdec.org.uk where you can see what type of projects and initiatives we do, also if you are interested in our facilitation, finally I would like to mention our newest creation: the Stepping out podcast series on Spotify where we talk about global learning –  about what it means for us locally in in Cumbria, what it means for lots of different people and organisations. It’s another opportunity just to talk and to explore concepts and perspectives and values that we hold. Just have a bit of a bit of a conversation about things we feel are really important.

 

Read more posts in our Beyond the Edge – Inspiration and Innovation series here