A viable 9 step plan to develop a network for mutual aid hubs – accelerating spaces, resources, people and ideas…
Imagine, in your local area, there were places where you could get quality local goods, where people meet to share ideas, stories, art and knowledge. Places where space and resources for social businesses are readily available and where there is time and space to experiment with innovative ideas.
Places where nothing goes to waste, everyone is important, differences are celebrated and opportunity is limited only by imagination.
Now imagine thousands of these places linked, collecting and sharing resources between them; Spreading great ideas and innovations – and distributing the surplus for everyone’s mutual benefit: Tackling the huge social and environmental problems we face – together.
By using the abundance of empty buildings as a catalyst for change, we can make everywhere somewhere.
Benefit graph developed to show the value of respacing.
This is ‘the respace plan’. Its aim is, via a networked implementation of using empty buildings to create community spaces, to build a coordinated, community-led solution which can tackle the rapidly evolving combination of societal crises – pandemic, war, climate change, higher prices, greater unemployment, more empty buildings, an increase in homelessness and unprecedented mental health issues. This might sound like a depressing analysis of our current landscape but our system provides hope and enfranchisement – connecting communities, proving true sustainability is possible, believing in the power of localism.
Naomi Klein film screening at the Hive
We’ve been ‘respacing’ empty buildings for over eight years now – we’ve facilitated ten projects and inspired dozens more, winning awards and saving communities millions of pounds in space hire.
Most empty buildings stay as such for many years, but instead this resource-generating architecture can provide core social facilities and play whatever role local people need it to – whether it be food banks and communal cooking, hosting creative events and markets, housing refugees and the homeless, or supporting start-up businesses. Then, when these spaces connect and share, the impact will be huge.
For this model to realise its potential – and grow from strengthening communities, to impacting society – we need reusing empty buildings to now become the done thing.
You can be a part of this – the very nature of the logic of ‘respacing’ is to put the power in the hands of communities. Spread the word, identify empty buildings, join our alliance on Patreon. If you’d like to find out details about ‘the recover plan’, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Social enterprise students come to tour ZeroLDN
Click here to find out more about the alliance and how you can join:
https://uk.respaceprojects.org/rally/
Or
Visit our Patreon to show your support for this alliance and be part of building it :
https://patreon.com/respacealliance
For further information contact:
Freddie – freddie@respaceprojects.org / Gee – gee@respaceprojects.org
