At our recent event we considered how to look after our colleagues in 'broker' roles. We share our thoughts in this blog on the importance of support and wellbeing in helping brokers navigate their roles.
In our first blog sharing thoughts from our Role of the broker event, with Roisin McLaughlin (North West Community Network), Laura Steen and Helen Featherstone (Public Engagement Unit, Bath University), we reflected on the importance of local connections, community experience and the wider context for brokers.
In this second part, we focus in on the ways in which care and support enable brokers to be most effective in their roles.
The importance of support and wellbeing
Our learning cycle unpicked some of the challenges for both the Development Coordinators in their role and the wider programme itself. Working across multiple areas, we needed to be mindful of the tension between keeping things consistent across the whole programme, alongside the need for things to work slightly differently in the different regions, such as the structure of local communities of practice.
We’ve also seen how important it is to consider the wellbeing and capacity of the Development Coordinators - their commitment to the work and their communities sometimes comes with the risk they’ll try and do too much.
Helen Featherstone reflects on the ways in which they’re mindful of wellbeing for their Community Connectors:
“We did some work to look at Participatory Research at Bath, during the first phase of our ParticipatoryResearch@Bath project I was concerned that we weren’t talking about the emotional labour that comes with what we now call relational work. So we commissioned some work to help us understand this more. At the time we commissioned the work, we didn’t have a name for the work that Laura does - we do now: relational work, or relationship centred practice. And a key aspect of relational work is supporting welfare and wellbeing.
A key element is to ensure that Laura’s welfare and wellbeing is fully centred. Well, we do this for everyone to be honest, but I think we are more intentional about this now and are more ready to recognise that working in this way can be very challenging. And remember that I’m not particularly talking about doing anything that on the surface appears difficult but there are challenges when you are building a relationship with a “work hat” / professional hat on, while others might be in an individual or volunteer capacity. The power differentials are real and need to be handled carefully.
Or you find that when you are off work (at the park with your kids, or in the swimming pool) the people you’ve been working with are still in their role so they will come and talk to you about work stuff. Finally, remember that Laura could have any topic come up in a conversation, because that’s what people lives are like so she’d been involved with events on difficult topics such as loneliness and addiction through having these conversations.
It’s worth noting that looking after welfare and wellbeing is already very common in some areas such as youth development, social work, overseas development, mental health etc. It’s also well acknowledged and supported for researchers studying difficult topics. But for people in our roles (those who sit in the Professional Services job family) welfare and wellbeing support is largely overlooked.”
More about the work can be found here:
Within The Ideas Fund, we’ve found the importance of trust and care within the team – which includes Development Coordinators from across the four different locations. We come together regularly to share, plan and provide support to each other as a group as a foundational way of sustaining momentum and also paying attention to wellbeing.
Roisin McLaughlin, one of The Ideas Fund's Development Coordinators reflects on her experience of working closely together:
“I know that I have learned so much about partnership working through this structure. It’s very much about openness and honesty and coming to this as humans first. Everyone’s voice is heard, we talk things out, even if we have an agenda, and things we plan to discuss – we give time when it's needed to have deep conversations – I feel like it’s important to be flexible in this way.
There is a unique genuineness within the team which has helped to create a trusting climate.
We were recently reflecting on what it means to work ‘with care’. I think this means listening, properly listening and being able to bring challenges/issues to the group and to discuss solutions together in a non-judgemental way.
Honesty, compassion and a selflessness, particularly in making the most of this opportunity to come together to make a difference. We encourage each other and I feel this happens most when we come together in-person.”
Though working in different contexts, we found through our discussion that there were a lot of synergies in the way broker roles could be effectively established and supported and had all seen the immense value of the role.
Jill Cornforth, Grants and Learning Manager at The Ideas Fund sums up the value everyone saw in the broker role:
“We’ve all seen that these roles enable grassroots organisations and community leaders to take a bit of a leap of faith into new partnerships with researchers, and often they create spaces to celebrate successes and challenges openly and honestly, connecting groups with support at the right time.”
We’re always interested in hearing from others about their reflections on supporting more equitable or community-led collaborations with research – you can contact The Ideas Fund team at hello@theideasfund.org