On the 24th July we held our first ever event and it has to be said - we had an absolute blast!
We were so happy to see such a mix of people come together. There were folks there that we knew, and some we didn't. Plus, we had a huge amount of expertise in the room.
Introductions
The event began with an introduction to York Together from Anjelica (our Development Lead) and one of our members, Abigail. They broke down what our aims are:
empowering communities
increasing equality
redistributing resources
encouraging new thinking
Anjelica Finnegan introduces York Together
They also went over how we plan to work together, our values and our behaviours.
Interactive activities
Throughout the event, attendees were invited to get involved in interactive tasks, such as a adding themselves to a Connections Map and sitting down to talk at a Collaboration Table. We were especially delighted to see the Connections Map grow as the event went on, which was a real example of how intertwined we all are in this work.
Various stalls were set up along each side of the room and a big shout out goes to The Teapot Collective, YorCliConnect, York in Recovery, Planet Southbank, York Travellers Trust and York Energy Advice for providing information and generating such interesting conversation.
Workshops and Activist Talks
Jon Dorsett joined us and held a workshop on what it means to design spaces for participative processes which really got us thinking. Fawzia Ehsani and Abi Perrin spoke about what got them into activism and the emotional load that comes with this. This opened up a wider conversation amongst attendees about the emotional work inherent in community organising and activism. Thank you so much to all of our speakers.
Poetry
We were delighted to have Henry Raby of Say Owt fame performing his anarchic, passionate and playful poetry. If you weren't able to join us you can listen to Henry perform on his website.
A massive thank you goes out to everyone who joined us and a big shout out goes to Yahala Mataam for providing some absolutely delicious food and cake on the day.
Gallery
Have a browse through the rest of the event pictures here:
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