Join the Creative Community Champions Network The Creative Lives Community Champions Network is an online peer support network for people who lead, organise and host participatory creative cultural activities that take place regularly in social groups in England. To be part of this network we recommend that you join our FREE Online Peer Support Forum on Slack!This is a safe, private online space to ask for advice and help, and to give and receive peer support. It's free, and easy to use just follow this link https://tinyurl.com/CLChampionsSlackLink to join us on our new private online peer support forum on Slack. We've prepared a short video introduction to Slack and how to join, which you can view here: Follow this link https://tinyurl.com/CLChampionsSlackLink to join us on our new private online peer support forum on Slack. Join our next online event Peer Power: Co-Creation Peer Support and Sharing Circle - Friday 30 June, 12.30-14.00 | Register here Reimagining Recruitment? Whether we’re looking for new staff members, artists or project participants, recruitment can be painful – or at least fall short of what we’d like it to be! Join us to explore approaches to recruitment that are kinder to candidates, and help us reach beyond existing networks. Emily Churchill Zaraa, Community Engagement Producer at Midlands Arts Centre (MAC), will share learning and questions from two recent experiences: seeking to embed care within an artist open call, and going offline to recruit for a hyperlocal community research project. Discussion 1: Embedding care What might an application process look like that left even ‘unsuccessful’ candidates feeling valued and that their labour had been acknowledged? What if we saw recruitment as an opportunity to share practice and make new connections? Discussion 2: Reaching beyond our circles From job descriptions to outreach, which approaches to recruitment can help us engage candidates beyond our existing networks? About the group Led by Creative Lives and supported by guest hosts from across the sector, these sessions are lightly facilitated to allow attendees to steer the discussion. This popular bi-monthly session welcomes people from all backgrounds and specialisms to untangle the ‘messy’ world of Co-Creation. Discussing topics such as: How do we create impact in practice? How do we create balance in leadership? How do we welcome diverse participation? How do we leave a project in a sustainable position? And much more! These sessions provide a great opportunity to discuss challenges and developments in co-creation with peers from across the UK. We especially welcome first-time attendees to join this friendly, growing network of practice based knowledge. Show and Tell / Hive Mind We have two 7-10 minute slots available within each session for peer attendees to formally present a discussion point. These brief presentations could be about: A challenge you're facing that you want to bring to fresh ears Sharing learning with peers based on a project/ development/ discovery you've made A question you have about co-creation that you want to hash out in a group Anything else to do with co-creation! Please email [email protected] with your idea before putting a presentation together, so we can confirm your slot. Once we have confirmed, there will be £25 available to contribute to the cost of your time to do this. We'd also love to hear from you if you have any specific support you'd like us to include in these sessions or if you have suggestions for any other subjects you'd like us to cover. You can do this via the help-learning-suggestions channel on Slack or by emailing [email protected] More about the Creative Community Champions NetworkIn spring 2021 Creative Lives invited creative community champions across England to tell us who they are, what they do and what sort of support they need via a short survey. So far over 125 people responded. We analysed the results and have listened to what respondents told us, and in response we have created the Creative Lives Community Champions Network. We launched this new network in September 2021 on Zoom. The event started with an overview of the survey results, we announced our forthcoming Training & Networking Programme and introduced our new free bespoke peer support forum on Slack (see below for details). You can watch a short video that captures the highlights and key takeaways from this event here: We're still keen to hear from any creative community champions that haven't already completed the original survey. Get in touch by completing this online form to tell us who you are and what support you need, and one of our regional development officers will be in touch. Regional Development Officers England Team Contacts Midlands - nicola [at] creative-lives.orgSouth East and East - charlotte [at] creative-lives.org Manage Cookie Preferences