Posts tagged start

Community – what does it mean to you? Community is one of those words that has a different meaning to everyone, and everyone defines their community in a different way. That’s the amazing thing about community – your community is unique to you, because it starts with you and then reaches out based on your interests, the places that you go, the people that you see.

For us, community is what helps you when you ask and inspires you when you’re stuck – and you return the favour. It surprises you endlessly, and enables you to surprise yourself. We love community, and so we’re very proud that our You Can Check It Out Team founder member Ellie McKenny has been editing the Cambridge edition of the Community Lover’s Guide to the Universe – collecting stories by individuals about what community means to them, through the innovative community project they have been working on.

You can read the first stories here. Even better, you can come and meet the people behind the projects, share ideas and ways of working, and enjoy coffee and cake as part of a Community Lovers’ Meet Up during the Romsey Art Festival:

Wednesday 7th August

7pm to 9pm

CB1 Cafe, Mill Road, Cambridge

You Can Bike Too in the early stages back in 2011!

Our project, You Can Bike Too, is one of the stories captured and members of the project team will be going along, together with the people behind the other stories captured too. Anyone who is interested in any of the Cambridge stories, or who is interested in community and doing things collaboratively is welcome! If you’re planning to come please email Ellie to give her an idea of numbers: emckenny@hotmail.com. Unfortunately the venue isn’t wheelchair friendly.

Find full details of the Romsey Art Festival here (another great community event!). You can find out more about Community Lover’s Guide to the Universe and explore the other editions from all over the world here.

You can see what You Can Bike Too is up to lately here.

We look forward to seeing you at CB1!

On Throwing Your Hat into the Ring

Three weeks ago, on 4th June, I’d just got back from Fargo, North Dakota, for Misfit Conf – a tiny conference about making a huge dent in the Universe. I wasn’t supposed to have been there. This is how it happened.

Back in April this year, I was having a tough time. A year ago, my dad died two days before my 30th birthday in May. It was coming up to the one year anniversary of my dad’s death, and my 31st birthday. I wasn’t sure how to handle it; I just knew I felt pretty grumpy and emotional all the time. People kept asking me, what do you want to do for your birthday? And I couldn’t really answer. I didn’t want to do anything. I wanted to tell everyone to get lost. I wanted to find a cave to hide out in.

My dad at my wedding in July last year, two months after his death

In the past weeks and months, I’d been playing a lot with stories. I’d gained confidence with video and storytelling. And I was browsing Twitter one day when I saw my friend @martynsibley tweeting with someone called @ajleon. I followed the Twitter trail, as you do, and before I knew it I was reading a post all about the Power of Small (which you can read here).

It resonated.

A lot.

Especially in the world of social enterprise in the UK, when it seems that one of the first questions people ask you is, “Is it scalable?” (usually right after, “How are you funded?)

One thing led to another and I ended up here. A tiny conference in Fargo. I read the small print and it said, “All applicants will get access to the recordings.” I thought, this is amazing! A whole host of knowledge in one place, knowledge we know we need at You Can Hub right now. Crowdfunding, writing, creating a business that moulds to the life you want to lead, and makes a difference in the world. And I can fill in one short form with two questions, and get access to recordings and all that stuff? Win win! I filled out the application in quite a blase playful way. You can read the application in this post.

Cut to two weeks later. I’m sitting up in bed on a Saturday morning with a cup of tea. I write a little in my journal, the briefly check my emails. Something catches my eye – an email with no subject from someone called Melissa Leon. I recognise the surname but I can’t place it. I open the message. I turn to my husband and say, “Shit!” He says, “What?!” I say, “Shit, I’ve got a place at a conference in Fargo at the end of May.” He says, “What?!” This went on for some time. At this point is seems better to hand over to Melissa herself and her email to me:

Hey Lou it is great to see you here! Thank you for submitting to attend Misfit Conf: Fargo. I wanted to reach out to you because as we were sorting through and reviewing all the applications we received so far – yours really stuck out. Wow I am just blown away by your application and the courage that you are taking to make Misfit Conf Fargo a reality. As you said it is time to take the gloves off Lou! Needless to say we would love for you to come to Fargo! To confirm your spot at Misfit Conf please purchase your ticket by the end of the day next Tuesday.

No pressure then. Two days to work out if we could make this happen and if I could go – knowing that we didn’t have any money in the pot at You Can Hub to fund the ticket or flights…

I was gobsmacked. How had this happened? I wasn’t supposed to actually get a place, merely be unsuccessful in my application and then be able to access the recordings from the relative comfort of my own sofa. My husband and I talked it through over the weekend, and then I had a meeting of the You Can Check It Out Team on Monday. I presented them with what had happened and the aims of the conference. I told them I had worked out that if I got 30 people to each donate £50, I could do it – I could get to Fargo. They told me to go for it! And I got my first donor. And so, I was taking my first steps on my way to Fargo… and it was time for the fear to kick in!

So there you go – I’d thrown my hat into the ring for an off-the-wall conference in the middle of nowhere, and the You Can Hub team was now going to hold me accountable in raising funds to get to the conference and bring back some top-notch learning. In my next post, I’ll let you know how I ended up in a field full of cows in Cambridge wearing a cape, and what I learned about asking for help.

Excited to read the next step? Sign up for our mailing list to get a heads up when the next post is up – straight into your inbox!

**Update!** You can now read Part Two: Inviting People In by clicking here.

You can still make a donation to support our work by clicking here.

You can also listen to me talking about this on the social media show #TSMShow with Ann Hawkins and Eric Swain – and the great thing is my friend Martyn Sibley, whose nonchalant tweet led me to finding out about conference, features on the show too! Click the link!

On the eve of the launch of the Danger Lou trailer, it seems appropriate to talk about fear. I feel like I’m at the start of something and I don’t know where it will lead me. Putting Danger Lou out there and committing to taking more risks in my life and work. Committing to kicking ass and holding myself accountable, taking the gloves off… scary stuff! Hello inner chicken…

What does fear feel like? I find it pretty difficult to describe my emotions. I was discussing this with Ruth from You Can on Monday – that with big emotions, it’s just so difficult to find the words! Thankfully, I found the words I needed from someone else. Karen McMillan, Retreat Muse, and I had a conversation via email about flying by the seat of your pants, which she calls…

“Scary fabulous!”

This is such a perfect phrase! Right now, I feel like I’m at the start of something amazing. I’m doing a lot of new stuff lately; getting fit and learning to pitch and trying out a comedy workshop (more on these experiments later). And there’s more new stuff coming:

• Flying on my own for the first time
• Going to America for the first time
• Making the most of Misfit Conf where I’ll be at a tiny conference about making a huge dent in the Universe (warning – this is not a conference for normal people)

What I feel is a mix of excitement and apprehension. It’s like being a child in the run up to Christmas. Except in this version of Christmas, the presents will be so much better than material things like a Barbie house or an iPad or a Smurf doll or a Rubix Cube – they will be gifts of learning and skills and things I can’t even imagine right now. However, lurking in the background there is also a chance that when it comes to Christmas day, Santa Claus might turn out to be the Big Bad Wolf from Little Red Riding Hood… Scary fabulous!

Karen explained some more:

“Scary fabulous came to me a year or two ago while sharing with my then MasterMind circle (we’d been together 3 years and I was comfy). Now I still say it, and when things get really scary, remind myself, “It’s OK. Just lean more into the fabulous!”

Lean more into the fabulous.

I hope I’m going to remember this in the coming months, embracing Danger Lou, flying by the seat of my pants. What makes you feel scared? How do you put it into words? What do you do that helps?

Find out more about my journey to Misfit Conf here: http://theyoucanhub.org.uk/2013/04/18/the-art-of-being-asked/

Find out more about Karen McMillan, Retreat Muse, here: http://www.kdmcmillan.com

The Danger Lou trailer comes out on 1st May – tomorrow! Keep an eye on our facebook page for the latest… https://www.facebook.com/TheYouCanHub

Three years ago, we started something amazing with a small group of incredible people. There were five of us, all either at risk of redundancy, wanting a change, wanting something different. So, we came together once a month over a shared meal and called ourselves the Change the World Gang. We had big ambitions but we didn’t start with the world. We started small, with each other – supporting each other through a time of transition. Since then, we co-founded this very out of the ordinary not-for-profit.

If you know The You Can Hub, you know that we’re not your usual not-for-profit. That last year our first birthday involved making superhero capes. That most of us are overly fond of ginger beer, we share our secrets and our meetings often involve talk of The Hulk and Mission Impossible. That our registered address is the local community pub where the villagers came together to save it from closure and are now the shareholders – and where my husband and I held the music festival part of our wedding last year (and got shares in the pub as a wedding gift). You’ll know that we have passion and purpose and that we’re working out how to live a life we love while helping you figure it out too. That we include people who are excluded elsewhere and emphasize the power of community, connections and ‘doing’ together. That we look for the impossible and work out how to make it possible.

This Spring, I have been offered an incredible opportunity. I have been invited to join 29 other people who think like we do and to gain a whole host of new knowledge and skills at the Misfits Conference in Fargo. It’s ‘a tiny conference about making a huge dent in the universe’. With topics like The Economics of Crazy and Writing Your Own Revolution, I’m fairly sure I’m going to come back a changed person – revealing my inner super hero, Danger Lou. Check out my successful application here: Lou Misfits Conf Application 

This is where I get to be vulnerable. To make it there, I need your help. This is my impossible – I can’t do it without you. Think of it like enabling a huge amount of inspiration that will come back to you through post-event blog and video posts, in person socials and so much more.

Will you help me to reveal my inner superhero, and come back from Fargo dangerous and contagious? If you read my application, you’ll know that 30 seems to be a pretty important number to me right now. So I’m looking for 30 people to back this Misfit-Adventure by donating just £50. I want to be able to know you all by name and either physically / virtually give you a hand shake.

Will you be one of the thirty? Contact us as soon as possible if you want to be one of the 30 – use our contact form (scroll down) and put “Hell yeah Danger Lou!” at the start of your comment or tweet us @youcanhub with the hashtags #dangerlou #imin. I can’t wait to hear from you! Check out the full low down on the Misfit Conference here: http://aj-leon.com/misfit-conf/ Oh, and thanks to Danger Mouse for the inspiration! Watch out for more posts from me on revealing my inner super hero coming soon…

What would it mean to reveal your inner super hero?

**Update** There is now a donation link available here for you to make your donation directly. And if you’re a UK taxpayer, you have the added benefit of Giftaid! Click the button… and make sure to include the message “Hell Yeah Danger Lou” with your donation!

Are you a creator, tinkerer, or do-er of some sort? Do you like ideas and having fun? Are you well-connected in your area and do you know how to reach out to different networks? Are you ok with blagging stuff and do you like getting things done?

If so, You Can Hub needs you!

What are you on about?

We’re looking for potential co-organisers of a Cambridge group of Good for Nothing-ers – smart folk who would love to get the creative and tech communities of Cambridge collaborating for social good. Cambridge is a rich source of creative and tech types as evidenced by the sheer number of networking groups on these topics alone – which I’m sure I don’t need to tell you, as you probably go to most of them! We think it’s time these groups combined forces with the social innovators and change makers of Cambridge to get stuff done. Good for Nothing brings together creatives, tech experts and social innovators to collaborate on challenges with social goals. Challenges have clear specific outcomes, such as a web interface of video that supports a specific campaign that the social innovator is working on e.g. putting together a video that communicates the idea, such as the video that was made for DoNation, or putting together materials that will attract more corporate partnership for Only Connect at Future Youth.

Good for Nothing put it like this:

Good for Nothing is a community of thinkers, do-ers, makers and tinkerers applying their skills and energy to accelerate the work of cause-led innovators and change makers; it’s about diverse groups of people collaborating together, working in new, faster, fun and better ways by supporting ideas and people that are leading the way to what a flourishing 21st century society might look like.

If you still need convincing, here’s a little movie that explains a bit more:

Right, I’m on board. Who are you looking for?

We need at least three co-organisers in total:

1. someone with strengths in coding and tech
2. someone with strengths in design and communications
3. someone with strengths in social innovation and sustainability

One of those sounds like me…What do you want me to do?

If you’re interested in getting involved and you want to know more, come along to the You Can Hub Pub Social on 12th February. It will be an opportunity to meet everyone interested and chat through the idea and next steps some more. We can’t wait to see you there!

I’m interested in the idea but I don’t want to co-organise. Let me know when you’ve got a challenge ready and I can just rock up and do my thing.

No problem! Sign up to this mailing list and you’ll get the latest info as and when we get it.

Small firm from Teesside, UK, creates fuel from water and air… sounds too good to be true?

Air Fuel Synthesis, based in Stockton on Tees, was featured on the BBC website last week because it has found a way to convert carbon dioxide and water into a hydrocarbon fuel. And the process is carbon neutral. And they’ve already used the fuel to run a small motorised scooter. Pretty amazing huh? There are still tests to be done to check the energy efficiency of the process and to seewhat happens when production is scaled up. But we think it’s pretty amazing that they got this far.

They made the front page on the Independent and the Material World programme on Radio 4 will be re-broadcast today at 9pm. Makes you think doesn’t it… is it really impossible to create a future where we’re not dependent on fossil fuels?

So… what’s your impossible? And isn’t it about time you got started on it?

Nothing can measure someone’s potential. It’s impossible to tell what people are capable of once they catch fire

Carole Dweck

Here at The You Can Hub, we love upcycling. Didn’t we mention that already? Our friends over at Recreations Up are constantly wowing us with pretty and useful things they make from other people’s rubbish – so much so that when I got married, I chose them to make all of the decorations. Interest in upcycling is growing, but we think it’s more than just a trend, and it turns out someone else agrees – as Poor Pitiful Pearl says, it’s a lifestyle!

Shauna, the lady behind Poor Pitiful Pearl, was interviewed by Etsy about how she got started, and we noticed just a few aspects to her story that sounded familiar:

• desire for change often comes out of a crisis – in Shauna’s case, the loss of a close friend. Maybe this is just another type of upcycling – creating something positive out of a difficult experience!
• whatever change it is you’re trying to make, the most important thing to do is Just Start
• Shauna’s interest in working towards balance and flexibility
• wanting to make a difference – which Shauna does through choosing to donate 10% of sales to charity
• embracing imperfect beauty

We find these themes are coming up again and again for us, and people around us. Which of these themes resonate with you? What changes have you made that were inspired by a crisis?