"What we all need to do is find the wellspring that keeps us going, that gives us the strength and patience to keep up this struggle for a long time. Let us be the ancestors our descendants will thank!" - Winona LaDuke

COMMUNITY-makers programme

Kin’21, Bristol, April-November 2021

We were just about to launch our first 6-week programme for Bristol community/youth workers, mental/social health workers, environmental/social artists and activists in March 2020 when the first lockdown drew everything to a halt. Fast-forward to 2021, we retained all but 2 of that first cohort – a massive achievement in its own right. We flexed and changed the plan to work within the lockdown restrictions and jump in whenever opportunities opened up for small group in-person meet ups between lockdowns. Our brilliant and committed ‘Kinners’ stayed the course as our ‘6-week’ programme ultimately straddled 7 months – from the launch zoom sessions in April ‘21, to small group meet ups April-July in Bristol and finally gathering together for the first time as a full group for a restorative weekend residential at Asha Centre at the end of July, and completing with a ‘harvesting the learning’ session in November ‘21.

OPEN PROGRAMMES

Creative Mentoring & Intergenerational Communication
2 day workshop, Bristol, Spring 2020

Growing eldership, creative mentoring and intergenerational communication in our towns and cities, this workshop was open to anyone 18+ who wants to develop or refresh their mentoring skills and support people in their lives, whether family members, colleagues or client groups.  

Nature Based Coaching & Mentoring Skills
2 day workshop, designed & delivered with Outdoor College, Somerset, Spring 2022

For outdoor education practitioners to deepen their practice and make positive changes for themselves, their communities and the environment; stretch their comfort zone and learn new skills/tools to use and share with others.

Widening Circles 2024 - extending kin’s impact in BRISTOL communities

'Widening Circles' is Kin's public facing event programme led by Kin Makers (the people that have taken part in the Kin Community Makers programmes) with the Kin Team on hand to support and promote the event.

The project came from the Kin team recognising that our more open, public events were working. Kin's simple and adaptable formulae work in various settings and with different intentions. They keep the Kin community engaged and growing. They keep our doors open while we work to get funds and partners to deliver longer and more committed programmes for emerging community leaders, community makers and place makers.

 Sensing what’s needed on the ground

What Widening Circles events also vitally and easily do is kick up evidence and anecdotes, stories and insights into what is happening on the ground, or what is being felt in a community from different perspectives. This is a vital skill for us all in changing communities – developing the art of not just surviving but also flourishing through making opportunities to pause, sense, feel, and becoming more aware and observant. 

We planned the Widening Circles events to be centred around a variety of communities / places in Bristol:

• light touch, and easily accessible events

• with meaningful social and learning opportunities for and with a diverse group of people who care for their places and each other

• creating opportunities for more people to benefit from being part of the growing Kin community

• widening the impact of Kin

• strengthening social cohesion and individual & collective wellbeing

The formats, like most Kin events, involve a check in, engaging activities, peer to peer conversations with practical and sharable take aways.

The connections that come from Kin events are generative and ripple out in unpredictable and positive ways.

3 Way Walking Football, 22nd May 2024, Netham Park, Bristol, a Widening Circles Event

Despite the strong possibility that a big storm was going to cancel the event we decided to go ahead. Chris (one of the Kin Makers involved in Kin's 2021 programme) who led the event was nervous beforehand. We all talked the event through to define how it could work given the mix of ages attending. Chris did a brilliant job navigating all the different people, ages and abilities during the event and conveyed a lot of contextual information. Nabil (one of the Kin Makers involved in Kin's 2022 programme) assisted with the game and Trace and Chiz enjoyed facilitating the Kin session a lot. In practice the event was delightfully light touch to run on the day but with huge direct positive output.

The theme that Chris wanted to focus on was non binary thinking, playing and attitudes. Three Way Walking Football showcases this and invites people to find new alliances and solidarities.

I don’t think we can overestimate how empowering it is to be in a city park with a bunch of random people and decide to play together. Netham is a Bristol park that doesn’t get much attention or a great deal of love. It’s surrounded by big skies, hi-rise flats, trees, views, dog walkers and a few kids. To simply muck around and play a game with people of all ages and abilities with little organising, a small amount of kit and some snacks and drinks was strong.

A few Kin people held the space and welcomed people into the event, and we added a Kin check-in and check-out at the end of the game.  This allowed newcomers and those suspicious of sport to feel welcomed, and everyone was given the chance to involve themselves as they wished. Group competitive games can make people slightly guarded. there can also be a low-culture stigma of being associated with mainstream football and sport and that can be hard for some people.  That said, and despite the forecasts of storms, the weather held and the event attracted a lot of interest. In all we had 25+ people of all ages showing up on the day.

The game was fun and players’ spirits were lifted by it, leaving them sweaty and happy. People who never played football before had a go. One woman played in wellies, a young person took part with his Mum watching on the sidelines, and a whole family of four were walking past and decided to join in.

Some of the queries and comments that came up: What is Kin, can you tell me more? What is the history of this park? 3WWF, it’s easy to do, I can’t believe I liked it! Can you make it a bit more accessible? I loved seeing my children talk and hang out with other adults. Why are the Council thinking of privatising parks? Are city parks our commons? Why is no one using the pavilion? Can I bring my friends next time? Can you make it easier to find out about?

To find out what 3 Way Walking Football is, how to play it and why it works for a very broad range of ages and abilities watch HERE.

Midsummer Nature Connections, 27th June 2024, Stokes Park & The Old Library, Lockleaze/Eastville, Widening Circles

Led and devised by Jody (from Kin's first Kin Maker programme in 2021) in Lockleaze, this event centred around some of the co-created themes the Kin community felt was needed by their communities in Bristol:  activity, being outside, health, community spaces, time to think and play, and space to learn, challenge and trust.

In this case some went on a woodland walk with nature connection activities along the way. Meanwhile another group met at the arrival point and together had a cooking session. Two parties. Both held a Kin check in and a question that we mulled on and talked about..."What does it mean to live well in your place?" In the cooking group, also known as the Welcoming Party, we also considered variations on the theme "What is needed in your place to live well? and "What does your place need to live well?"

Splitting the group into two offered people different ways of being involved in the event. it also meant that when the two groups met it was a bit awkward. Amazing how quickly we humans form bonds when we become a group. We noticed we could have done with more time together at the end for this larger group to bond.

Kin is not designed to be a networking organisation but we certainly don’t deter it when the time is right. There were lots of plans and flyers and ideas being swapped. Takeaways from the event included:

• How the intergenerational and activity led nature of the event really works well.

• We missed some of the deeper, conversations that occur at the Kin programme events.

• That some of the younger people regarded 'their place' to be 'their head' and that’s what needed care and attention.

• That some of the Lockleaze people where focused on how to react and adapt their communities and places in a way that accommodated the local changes they’re facing (new housing developments, new residents, growing population, cost of living, isolation) and more global ones including war and migration.

We Are Interstellar, 9th November 2024, Boiling Wells, Bristol, a Widening Circles Event

Inspired. Nourished. (Re)connected. These are some of the words that come to mind when I think about We Are Interstellar, our KIN day travelling through grief and joy; past, present and future. In the wake of the US election, and against a backdrop of wars and ongoing destruction of nature, the day felt like a much needed tonic for our times.

We went in without the pressure to solve or fix anything, rather to craft an experience that felt like sanctuary - preparing to meet the darkening nights in a good, clear way.

Through simple practices and guided conversations, we developed our sense of interconnectedness with each other, the more-than-human world and the people who have gone before us. We ventured out amongst Boiling Wells wild gardens and orchards to greet the season, lit candles for our ancestors and imagined what it might be like to be ancestors ourselves. I wondered if these practices would be too simple but it was in their gentle simplicity that room was made to to breathe deeply and let feelings arise – whether of love and loss, or despair and hope – the difficult feelings our busy lives rarely make time or space for.

With our inner space swept clean, so much vibrant conversation and new solidarities arose, together with a renewed vitality and faith in the basic goodness of life, despite the inevitable challenges that will come to each of us in our lives.

People spoke of their gratitude for:

• the kindling of a renewed sense of connection and belonging

• a welcome chance to slow down and drop some of the pressures and responsibilities of everyday life (even just temporarily)

• wandering in Boiling Wells Autumnal beauty

• feeling lighter and more resourced to meet the coming of winter

• having a held space to express sorrow and joy, loss and love

imagining positive futures for humanity and for our more-than-human kin.

The Afrikan Caribbean Legends of Martial Arts,16th November 2024, Easton Community Centre, a Widening Circles event

This film screening & community dialogue, including Q&A with filmmaker Clive Smith (Kin 2021 Community Makers programme) and Winston Williams who started the martial arts club; with community leader Judit Davies (also Kin 2021 Community Makers programme), and Trace Mulzac & Chiz Williams, both co-founders of Kin CIC.  

There was an air of excitement as some 40 people arrived at Easton Community Centre, the hall arranged café style with a chilled vibe, low lighting and music playing, to see Clive Smith’s documentary The Afrikan Caribbean Legends of Martial Arts, a story of the ordinary and extraordinary men who formed a martial arts club in the heart of Bristol to support black communities and mentor our youth at a time when they were targeted for abuse.

The legacy of these community mentors and elders -- some who are still with us and came along on the night -- and the impact of the club, is an inspiring story of care, imagination, pragmatism and a community coming together in times of need.

With racial abuse sadly on the rise again in the UK, these times we’re living in are times of need too. Kanada interviewed Trace, or T as she is known, to get her take on the night. “The length and intensity and focus of the conversation we had after the film - people were so into it! The film is short but the conversation after was long and far reaching. It was one of those events when no one wanted to leave.

“People were speaking of what happened to them –   being chased, beaten up, having to fight to go to school. Someone came along with a book on martial arts that he wanted to share showcasing famous black martial artists. Saleem with ‘Knives Down Guards Up’ came along.  Glen Douglas was honoured, he was in the film and has since passed. And Lloyd Russell was there, who is campaigning now about prostate cancer awareness.”

“Judit asked ‘How many people do you think this club has affected in the world?’ Some said 500, some said half a million or a million and everyone talked about why they thought that number. Winston who ran the club and was in the film was so humble and just counted up the number of people who came to the club.” 

Clive’s film is a powerful testament to the importance of mentoring, taking care of the young people, having a space to bring people together. The teachers opened the school up to young people of any colour not just black youth. It became a unifying hub for all in the heart of Bristol.

T spoke of how the event touched her personally. “I recognised faces I saw when I was little but I didn’t know then that they were making a stand for black people in Bristol to have a space. I hadn’t realised how important martial arts was for black communities in Bristol – for self-defence, unifying the community, and for young people to develop strength and confidence.   My mum sent me to martial arts and I hated going, felt like torture! But now I think she must have heard that it was helping our youth.

“What they did back in those days hadn’t really been shared down to the next generation and the next. Without Clive’s film we still might not have known what they have done for all of us. They paved our way. ‘You aren’t alone – this happened to us too.’

“I thanked them because they paved the way for people like me and Judit and people older than me, and younger than me, who do a lot of work to look after the youth coming up. That’s what they were doing, looking after themselves to protect themselves, but also guiding the youth and providing discipline. ‘We’re here with you and for you’ was their message, like a good fathering figure.

“Clive’s film showed me how important it is to show up as a mentor, a brother or sister, a mother, father, auntie, cousin, friend, or even as an elder.

“Who knows why the youth came to the martial arts club — to boost them, to come together and be with someone who looked like them, was in the same position of them, to find some strength mentally or physically to get through. It was a much bigger impact then I thought when my mum sent me and my two sisters to the club. Back then, folks were going to Concord Cinema to watch the big martial arts films that were coming out – Bruce Lee, Enter the Dragon. I remember going to that cinema and there were rats running around the floor!” 

If there was a film made now about T and Judit and so many others working to lift up their communities today, I imagine that in 20 years time there would be people in the audience saying ‘Oh, she taught me, or she ran that holiday club. I didn’t know how much they had done for us.’

T said “I guess we never do know the impact of what we do. You just humbly go about doing what you do. I don’t know what the young people might be getting from the holiday club or other things we do for the young people.

What was your biggest takeaway from the evening? T said, “This is how you can give back to your community.” Definitely, that is a big one – keeping the community going, keeping the cycle going. We can all do it if we want to. There are still people out there who want to help and carry that baton. We’ve got to pass it on, definitely, or our communities would come to a stand still.”

We can hand-tailor our open programmes for you or your organisation.

Get in touch to arrange a chat.

HAND-TAILORED PROGRAMMES

Future Seeds, Outdoor College, Somerset, 2020-2022

Mentoring and coaching the core team in their own development, in peer mentoring and in developing programmes for both outdoor education practitioners and for their local community. 

Mentoring the Mentors, Watershed Bristol, Jan 2021

Online workshop with 13 industry mentors preparing for their work as mentors for young Creatives.

One to one coaching / mentoring programmes, on-going

Get in touch with Kanada to find out more.

“So grateful – I feel in the flow now – Kanada, you are a magician!” Jazlyn Pinckney, Head of Workforce Development, One Dance UK