This year’s Festival was built around three interconnected questions that have emerged repeatedly across our network of funders, practitioners and community organisations in the last year. What does it take to strengthen justice, solidarity and social cohesion at a time of rising division, economic uncertainty and declining trust? How do we build genuine community wealth and power in a new age of devolution? And how do we create a funding ecosystem that is more connected, data-driven and collectively responsive to what communities need?
Over two weeks, we brought members and colleagues together across more than 20 sessions, including panels, workshops, online sessions, place-based visits, film screenings, and even an escape room (kindly led by Camden Giving). We explored ideas, challenges and practical approaches to build a stronger, more coherent understanding of where funding practice needs to shift to keep supporting communities through increasingly challenging times.
These summaries capture some of the key learnings and conversations that shaped this year’s Festival across the three strands and set out where we go next.
