Gathering with the Community Katie Pathak Poole, Dorset
My journey started when I went out door-knocking and met
Community gathering
some residents who are very passionate and became my volunteers. We found it very hard to get people engaged, or even open
We found some of the residents who came to the event were
the door, so my volunteers and I came up with an idea to
neighbours but had never met before. They had the same
put together a community gathering. We sent out flyers and
concerns and would not have found one another if it wasn’t for
advertised in shops and churches and told the friends and family
the community gathering. We now have eight residents who are
of volunteers about it. We weren’t sure how the day was going
putting together a Resident Association so that they can tackle
to go but it turned out to be a really amazing day.
all of their concerns in a group and have more power to tackle networks. The residents who met at the community gathering
There were free drinks and food and we arranged the tables to
have become great friends. They said that they would never
face into the middle of the room so everybody could see each
have met nor have the opportunity to do the things that they
other. We had 34 people come to the event and we got all the
are doing, if they hadn’t met community organisers in their
residents to talk about their loves and concerns in groups on
community.
the tables. We then collected all the ideas discussed and found the common loves and concerns of the whole room to help
This is one of the best stories I can tell as a community
come up with project ideas. We also did individual listenings for
organiser as putting together the gathering gave me great joy,
people that wanted to talk about it in a one-to-one basis and
as did making Newtown a better place and working towards
they went really well.
having a happier community.