UNION 23 Weekend 4 in Sheffield

This fourth weekend was organised in collaboration with the Sheffield participants Emily Thew, Lora Krasteva, Louise Arnold, Monika Dutta, Natalie Chan and Zorazelda King.

“Another full, fun and thought-provoking @union_activism course last weekend in Sheffield ✌️??”
Ola Wilson: UNION participant from Belper.

Day 1

Friday evening in Sheffield was a lovely opportunity to catch up as a full group about how the summer had gone for us. As well as a time to check in about the schedule and themes for the next few days.

We started at Soft Ground with pies for tea and then headed out for a pint!

Day 2

Saturday was also located at Soft Ground, exploring the theme of co-creation.

UNION facilitator Sara welcomed the group with an embodying co-creation exercise with music and dance.

We discussed models of co-creation and where our work sits in these, as well as pros and cons of different approaches. We also looked into what are the value sets beneath them and when might you use them.

Here are a few of our own ideas of how co-creation works…

Lunch was an explore of the amazing choices at the Moor Market before heading into an afternoon of Legislative Theatre.

The session was led by John Organ who used his experience of Legislative theatre to take us through a practical, hands-on session to enable us to practice the values and methodologies that constitute co-creation (as opposed to thinking or discussing meaning).

We rounded off the evening with Burritos and Back-Catalogues! A wonderful evening for participants to share music, words, visuals, films and movement.

Day 3

On Sunday we headed out of the city centre and into Hillsborough Park for a day at the Pavillion with the theme of  Power and My Practice.

We began the day with some embodied exercises from Sara to find our anchor, a place of pride and power that we could go back to in times of anxiety.

Anisa and Chris led discussions around different types of power which led to an exercise in Relationship Mapping; looking at colleagues and others in our lives—how do we consider the following values in our relationships?

• Trust
• Ability to fail and not be judged
• To be challenged in a safe, healthy way.
• To be open and honest.
• Ability to be creative together

Our weekend in illustration…

(Please note: no actual ambulance had to attend the session, this was an imaginary part of a legislative theatre scene)

Sunday lunch was catered by Open Kitchen Social Club. Special shout out for the tastiest Mohamara!!!

 

The next and final UNION 23 weekend is heading to Blackpool. We can’t wait!