Well Whaddaya Know?

Well Whaddaya Know? When I was growing up I was often greeted by an older Lincolnshire man with this phrase and I would always, very sheepishly reply, ‘not a lot’ and he’d just nod and go on about his business. This week I have been thinking a little bit about what we don’t know and how we often close our minds off to those things and continue to build our view of the world and our work on our existing knowledge base.

Two main reasons for this – firstly, last week I went to an event organised by Charlotte Brooks and LocalMotion , the Lincoln Poverty Truth Commission, which brought together a variety of voices to share what they know so that a more equitable future for people living in Lincoln can be built. Secondly – Lincolnshire Voluntary Engagement Team (LVET) have been working with Sue Fortune at the fantastic Lincolnshire Community Foundation to distribute funding made available through an NHS England funded programme that we manage. The steering group have used some of this money to set up a fund for community-led health and wellbeing research projects. The response was huge and the panel sat this week to review the proposals. I was filled with excitement and enthusiasm by the ideas and the thirst to find out more about how we can live healthier lives and how we make sure that the people most affected by a health condition or lack of access to support are enabled to have a real voice in research that leads to change.

The point of sharing this? Well for a while now I keep dipping my toe into what a Wellbeing Economy is - and if I am honest I am not really any the wiser but I do think that it might be central to a new way of thinking about the world, about ‘growth’ and how we make a systemic change to people’s health and wellbeing. SO I am committing to learn more about it this year and I wondered if there was anyone out there, in my network and beyond, who might also commit to this?

I have a question - Who wants to join me on a Wellbeing Policy Design course, for Free? It is an online course put together by The Wellbeing Economy Alliance, together with? the?Doughnut Economics Action Lab,?ZOE Institute?and?Partners for a New Economy, that can be done independently.?

However, I thought ‘wouldn't it be much more fun if some other people that I know were learning alongside me’ and of course it might make me a little more accountable and I might be more likely to see it through!

No strings, no binding commitment, a bit more like a book club where we say we will do Module 1 by a week on Thursday (or whenever) and then meet for coffee and a chat (virtually or face to face) to talk about what we learnt and what we think that means for a creating a Wellbeing Economy in Lincolnshire.??

Take a quick look here?https://wellbeingeconomycourse.org/

Is anybody interested? If so do get in touch.

#LincolnAgainstPoverty?#LincolnPovertyTruth #WellbeingEconomy