Background

Introduction

3 Min Read

Our core purpose and the reason we came together as a group is equality in Gloucestershire, or more specifically inequality in health and health outcomes that mean people have disparate experiences, impacts and life chances. We knew that health equity could not be solved by one sector alone, and we had to go on a journey that was both collective and new - something we couldn’t yet see happening.

Our guiding light throughout has been “building trust for fairer health” and we have worked deeply over four years on what that could look like in Gloucestershire.

Throughout that time we have seen first hand the extraordinary value of collective working. We have experienced the flow, the exchange of ideas, the building of shared commitment, and can see the possibility of real change.

We recognised that learning was a core part of this work, and so we are sharing what we’ve learned as a stepping stone for people who recognise the same challenges and are interested in a different way of working. It feels important to say that this learning has happened as we have looked back to understand our experience. We did not follow a prescribed path, methodology or toolkit, and this is not presented as one. However, we hope that by sharing it - wherever you find yourself - our learning can fall in step alongside your own curiosity, accompanying you down the paths you are travelling.

For people interested in this journey we are sharing how we got here, what a more collective way of working could look like, what enables it, and what stands in the way. We are offering some practices and prompts that have worked for us, our shared hunches about what structures are needed to make this work for the long term, and the questions we are now holding about the future.

We know that inhabiting this way of working will be different for everyone. It’s happening in many other places - we’ve been inspired by those we know about, some of which are referenced here, and of course there are countless others for whom this has always been a part of their community’s practice.

We know that everyone’s journey is different, that there is no failsafe process, and that our experience is unique to a specific group of people. That’s why we’re sharing the learning as a kind of ‘choose your own adventure’, where you can follow your own curiosity and take what you need. Each page has different options for where you might go next depending on where your thinking is right now - feel free to follow or ignore.

So this is not a ‘how to’ guide, but it might be a ‘why to’. It might also be an invitation, a provocation or companion. To borrow one of Myron Rogers’ Maxims*: start anywhere, follow everywhere. We hope to see you on the path.