Cormac Russell

This is great chat folks... weirdly uplifting.

I like the work on the Liberated Method www.changingfuturesnorthumbria.co.uk/rethinking-p... & Cormac Russell always speaks a ton of sense I think.

And let's also notice the (maybe rare) micro examples where we do manage to join things up with people.

"Often our definition of community says more about us than it does about actual communities." - Cormac Russell / Image by #BornFabulousPodcast

Exploring the Potential of Community-Centred Public Services - New Local This thinkpiece by the leading social explorer Cormac Russell focuses on how to realign the relationship between institutions and communities. He sets out how better understanding and working…

Exploring the Potential of Community-Centred Public Services. Cormac Russell for New Local.
www.newlocal.org.uk/publications...

- The Connected Community, Cormac Russell and John McKnight 2/2

It's not too late: Pick up a copy of The Connected Community by Cormac Russell and John McKnight today, and join us virtually on October 21 for a discussion of the book's ideas. localreturn.org/events/?even...

Citizen Network: Putting Communities First: 12 Recommendations Cormac Russell provides a clear strategy for the state to rebuild trust with communities.

Don't just tell communities help will eventually arrive.
But work with them, listen, empower them to develop real improvements with public support.
12 'Putting Communities First' recommendations: citizen-network.org/library/putt...
@cormacrussell.bsky.social

Our next book discussion will focus on The Connected Community: Discovering the Health, Wealth, and Power of Neighborhoods by @cormacrussell.bsky.social and John McKnight. Get reading, and join us on October 21 for conversation!

"It is a famine we could have prevented.. food stacks up at borders because of systematic obstruction by Israel. It is a famine within a few hundred metres of food.. a preventable famine sustained by complicity"

Tom Fletcher from the UN on famine being declared in Gaza City

Life expectancy: public health and politics Devi Sridhar's new book How Not to Die (Too Soon): The Lies We've Been Sold and the Policies That Can Save Us sets out her hope of living to the age of 100 years in good health “as a collective endeav...

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

@profdevisridhar.bsky.social:-

life expectancy “is much less about your own choices and is instead tightly linked to where you live and the political choices made by your government”.

Communities lead the way in Greater Manchester’s Live Well transformation - We're Right Here Forward-thinking councils and mayors are shifting to making decisions with communities rather than for them.

Greater Manchester’s Live Well programme is doing what more combined and local authorities should: backing trusted local leaders like Leah Chikamba-Mulando to deliver health and wellbeing services in a way that works for their particular community.

www.right-here.org/communities-...
#CommunityPower

At #StrongerThings, @cormacrussell.bsky.social urged us to make “good trouble.”

His latest think piece for New Local sets out how might we do that in practice & argues that certain things are best done with citizens in the lead.

Read the full piece here 🔗 buff.ly/ffiAs3D

It is not enough to discover assets; we must connect those assets with one another in new ways that multiply their contribution, power, equity and influence. #abcd

"Community is a verb, not a noun." - Cormac Russell / Image by #BornFabulousPodcast

I used to like Maff Potts but now he's written a book - Public World I first came across Maff Potts via a presentation in which he was dressed up as a chicken, or it might have been a duck. A lot of yellow anyway. (Watch it here.) His slides kept going wrong, which I a...

publicworld.com/news-blog/i-...

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Over half due to cold homes, plus damp and unsafe conditions.

When will social housing finally be treated as health policy?

Billions are spent patching up the NHS while ignoring the root causes — damp homes, cold flats, unsafe housing.

2/2

bregroup.com/news/bre-rep...

Exploring the Potential of Community-Centred Public Services - New Local This thinkpiece by the leading social explorer Cormac Russell focuses on how to realign the relationship between institutions and communities. He sets out how better understanding and working…

In a new thinkpiece, @cormacrussell.bsky.social‬ proposes 3️⃣ shifts for greater alignment between institutions & communities

Issue-based ➡️ place-based responses

Institution-first ➡️ community-first

Provision determined by public services ➡️ co-produced alongside communities

🔗

Stronger things - community power List of the books written by speakers at New Local's Stronger Things 2025 conference

One more thing from #StrongerThings 2025:

I'm really keen for library services to be actively present in this space, so here's a list of the speakers' books.

Obviously @hilarycottam.bsky.social and @cormacrussell.bsky.social there but a few others!

[links support @librariesconnected.bsky.social]

Interesting discussion on silos but shifted to community driven national reform.

Sahil Khan at Peabody on how we can shift to bottom up reform

@njdavies.bsky.social - how gov can put in place conditions for this - non competitive funding, ministerial remit, longer LG funding

#StrongerThings

Lots this morning about importance of what community facing organisations do in the face of increased inequality and volatility.

Big q for libraries is how do we recognise and maximise what we do through collaboration - & how we build the robust & resilient partnerships we need.

#StrongerThings

Cont from @indyjohar.bsky.social
Biggest risk we hold is loss of the social contract and impact this has on local and national functioning and security.

We as community engaged orgs have the agency - and responsibility - to transform the country to maintain this social contract.

#StrongerThings

A radically different civie future Indy Johar Director, Dark matter labs

Hearing from @indyjohar.bsky.social about increased volatility as we head to 3 deg warmer.

We exist at intersection of localism and planetary relationships.

Need to be able to think in terms of multiple beneficiaries of our actions - again back to measuring value across different stakeholders.

He’s arguing a strengths based approach - you can centre people but still have institutions operating on their weaknesses.
But centre people and give them agency to build on their strengths and access to services it shifts.

Again, libraries are the perfect framework for this.

#StrongerThings

Really good way to disrupt the usual “broadcast” model of keynotes - made us think about how we engage.

Useful tool to use in future - start with asking questions of *how* the audience will engage before even starting to discuss *what* they engage with.

#StrongerThings

Developescut Centering Community How valusbla do you plan on this keynote being? 2 How participetive do you plan on being during this keynote? 3 NI How much risk do you plan on taking during this keynote? 4 How much do you plan on contributing to the shared Jeering and wetbeing of everyone in this room during the keynote?

Ooh - @cormacrussell.bsky.social up next - he’s been brilliant at our seminars.

He’s starting very on-brand - coproducing his keynote!

#StrongerThings

@cormacrussell.bsky.social

‘not needy, but needed’ a brilliant reframing of our role as professionals

#StrongerThings

Nurture Development’s @cormacrussell.bsky.social joins us with provocations around community-centred renewal.

“What’s really exciting about what we’re seeing today in the UK is not just great micro practice on the ground, but a lining up of the micro and the macro”.

#StrongerThings

Nugget from @cormacrussell.bsky.social : "connect the gifts of an individual with the community" to mobilise
#communitypower . #communitydevelopment #communitybuilding #healthandwellbeing #StrongerThings

📣 @cormacrussell.bsky.social introduces six building blocks for wellbeing that exist in every community:

🟡 Contributions of residents

🟡 Associations

🟡 Local institutions

🟡 Local places

🟡 Local economy & exchange

🟡 Stories & culture

Thank you @cormacrussell.bsky.social for the inspiration!
#StrongerThings