Humans maybe aren’t that complicated after all. Making an extreme generalisation here – we all kind of want the same things. Somewhere to feel safe, to belong, feel valued as well as having our more basic physical needs met. Put simply – community.
One of the absolutely best things about being a B Corp is the amazing community of other businesses who want to change the world. It’s a group to learn from, to leverage, to share inspiration with, to lean on, to collaborate with. Community is also one of the five pillars in the B Impact Assessment itself. To be a positive force within the community that you operate in, everything from local and inclusive hiring, pro bono work and volunteering, donations and prioritising local suppliers. It’s all pretty lovely stuff. And the beautiful thing is that apart from having a positive impact on the community it also makes our business more resilient. Community works for businesses in the same way as it does for individuals. Making us more resilient and connected.
Places Called Home
The social isolation so many experienced during the pandemic, inspired IKEA and The National Lottery Community Fund to come together to support thriving, resilient and sustainable communities across the UK. The Places Called Home programme explores the idea that communities can become as important to us as our homes. It aims to inspire and help people get more involved in their local community as a positive, homely place to be and meet other people. Together they offered £1.5m in funding, support and learning to 300 community groups and projects across the UK in 2021. All in all, reaching 100,000 people.
IKEA brought Leap in after seeing the work we did on Barnardo’s LifeLabs, to create a film championing the importance of community and celebrate the success of the Places Called Home programme.
The film heroes people from five of the projects that were supported and was planned, concepted, scripted, managed and art directed by the Leap crew. We worked with set designer Phoebe Tonkin and filmmakers Reuben + Jamie to bring the vision to life. It takes a community to make a film as the saying goes*
Participants from the five community projects come together in front of the camera around a large crafting table. The table shows a big map of the UK and they start placing pins across the whole of the British Isles to mark the locations of the 300 groups. The pins are joined together in a web of string crisscrossing the map to create a visual representation of connectedness.
Communities and social change
“I’m proud that we are playing a small part in bringing people back into their community again. We’re all working together to make the world a better place to live in.
In Wales, we’ve got this word ‘Hiraeth’. It’s a sense of longing for one’s community, for one’s place but it’s not necessarily a place, it’s a feeling you know. It’s love and warmth, culture, heritage and just feeling cared for.” – Nina Finnigan, The Listening Project
Matt Harper from LGBTQ+ and disability-led theatre company Next door but one described taking part in the project as a chance to step back and see that we are part of this huge ecology of change.
And we here at Leap are super stoked to have had the opportunity to work on this wonderful project. The logistics of getting everyone together from all corners of the UK for the shoot days certainly required some project management gymnastics but was well worth the effort, seeing the final result. And I think we ended up creating a new little community of people making places to call home in the process.
“Social change requires that we rewrite our communal narratives. Social change is change in community.
Our communities shape our understanding of the world. If you’re looking to create change in the world, it is these meanings and understandings which have to change.”
– Toby Lowe, Professor of Public Management at the Centre for Public Impact
*ok, no it doesn’t – but it’s true!