afri-co-lab
ADVISORY GROUP

FINDING CREATIVE SOLUTIONS TO THE ISSUES THAT YOU CARE ABOUT THE MOST!

We want to work with you to get better at what we do in our community!

We know there are many areas of local life that would be better with more creative solutions and we think Afri-Co-Lab could help make some of these happen. But we need your help!

JOIN the Afri-co-lab advisory group!

MORE INFO

FAQs

If you need more info, want to chat or can't make the potluck, drop us a line.

how

We’ll host a FREE monthly supper club for our advisory group members! These gatherings will be a chance to come together and chat about what’s happening on our streets and find creative ways to tackle issues.

We also plan to take some trips to visit other coastal communities that are doing amazing work, helping to create a stronger sense of home.

At the supper club, we’ll gather around a table for 10, focusing on specific topics or challenges that matter to us. We’ll spend one or two suppers diving into each topic, generating ideas, and figuring out our next steps. We’ll switch up our dinner guests with each new topic, and we’ll co-select the topics together.

We hope to spark new ideas for activities and projects that can really make a difference, with everyone’s input helping to guide us. It could be ideas for new activities, projects, or collaborations and different groups.

We hope the advisory group will guide Afri-Co-Lab and our community.

WHAT WE HOPE TO ACHIEVE:

Identify and discuss the community challenges and priorities that Afri-Co-Lab can get involved with over year 2 -3 of funding
Discuss what the communities think is possible with Afri-Co-Lab
Find out how different parts of the community, including under-served, would like to work with and engage with Afri-Co-Lab
Devise methods of engagement with the community
Measures of success - developing evaluation framework for the group and organisation
We will host monthly dinners for the advisory group to discuss community issues and brainstorm creative solutions.

WHY?

We want to be in conversation with our local Global Majority communities and allies about barrier reduction, racial diversity, representation, artistic offers for professionals, access for the community and participation within the arts ecology of our town, and where and how Afri-Co-Lab can respond with our communities.

We also want to learn from other Global Majority coastal communities and share experiences and knowledge about nurturing healthy communities through creativity.

Our community goals and actions will be developed through provocations and discussion based on the above themes. The advisory group will support Afri-Co-Lab's medium- to long-term plans.

the deets

WHEN

The advisory group will meet on the following dates: Tuesday 11th March - Online group intros Tuesday 18th March - 1st supper club meeting Tuesday 15th April - 2nd supper club meeting Friday 31st May - #1 road trip to … Tuesday 17th June - 3rd supper club meeting Tuesday 15th July - 4th supper club meeting Saturday August - #2 road trip to… Tuesday 16th September - 5th supper club meeting

WHERE

Supper for the advisory group will be served at the Lab - 3 Marine Court, St Leonards-On-Sea, TN38 0DX We also hope to visit other organisations and groups, we share those details later.

TIMINGS

The timings for the session are: - Doors open at 6.15 pm. - The session starts at 6.30 pm sharp, and supper will be served as soon everybody is seated. - There will be some time to eat before an opening exercise and topic picking. - We will have 1 hour of discussion before a round up and next steps at the end - The session will end at 8.30pm - The Lab will close at 8.45pm

COST

Nothing but your time and contribution. Dinner is on us! If you need assistance with transport or caring responsibilities, please get in touch.

CLOSING DATE

Deadline for signing up to the Advisory Group is Sunday 9th March. We will get back to the selected people as soon as possible. Selection will be through random selection of eligible applications.

who

We want to make sure the voices that don't usually get a chance to be heard have a place up front and centre in the discussion. We want the people that already know the ‘Lab’ and also those that we don’t know yet. The advisory group will be led by a spectrum of Global Majority voices that include multiple marginalised identities and supported by allies.

We are looking for a cohort of 20 people who would like to meet up once a month and come up with creative solutions over a meal. You should be:

Aged 16 and older
A local resident - Hastings & Rother

You can be

Global Majority folks and allies who support racial and social justice, and willingness to get creative.
Low-income folks
People with a lived experience of being marginalised by society’s ‘norms’

who

sign up

Feel like you know enough and want to join the advisory group? Sign up here and register your interest.

We have limited space, so we are very sorry we may not be able to fit everybody around the dining table.

MEET YOUR ADVISORY GROUP HOSTESS...

Hello, I’m Deanne, a Black African and Caribbean Londoner born and raised, who has lived across the UK and landed in St Leonards.

I enjoy oscillating between the ordinary and the fringes of creative spaces, where fun, expression and making meaning of being human collide to make transformative experiences.

I've been called many things from engagement practitioner, communicator, relationship manager, to facilitator and more recently a creative wrangler.

I’ve worked in museums, cultural organisations and universities but I’m most attracted to people and places that make room for whole people or for people to become whole. Doing what I can do to support these spaces and developing the skills to sustain them is what gets me moving, which takes some doing because I love my bed.

afri-co-lab ADVISORY GROUP