Are you looking to connect with people who share your values, in social and climate action? Do you want to make positive change happen within your neighbourhood or community? Are you in search of inspiration to develop your ideas, projects or actions?
This five month informal peer learning ‘Fabric’ could be for you!
We want to hear from people who are actively interested in the future of Dundee and want to share, reflect and imagine how collective action and creativity can shape a better tomorrow.
What is Fabric?
Fabric is an informal peer learning journey which will bring together a mix of 20 creative practitioners and community organisers to:
connect and share their knowledge, inspirations and ideas;
meet with doers, connectors and leaders in and around Dundee;
discuss how we can collectively make our place even better!
Fabric is led by Creative Dundee and this year’s journey is funded by and delivered in partnership with Dundee Changemakers Hub.
“We believe that it's in our collective interest to take a proactive approach to nurture the talent and values that will lead us to tomorrow.” – Claire Dufour, Creative Climate Producer, Creative Dundee.
Who is Fabric for?
Fabric is open to anyone who has made their life in and around Dundee and is actively interested in social and climate action.
We want the Fabric group to reflect the social, economic and cultural fabric of the city. You can apply regardless of the demographic you identify with, your job role, your creative practice or your role in your community – you might be a worker, volunteer, resident or leader in your community.
We will bring together 10 community organisers and 10 creative practitioners, developing shared knowledge and capacity to explore the potential of groups of people coming together to imagine and build the places they want to be a part of, beyond fixing what’s broken and seeking new horizons, new worlds, and new ways of doing.
What is Fabric offering?
The focus will be on community climate action and collaboratively shaping a better tomorrow – giving creative practitioners and community organisers the knowledge, skills, confidence and connections to fuel future work, actions or projects.
Throughout a series of four day long sessions, from November 2024 to March 2025, this informal peer learning journey will:
create a safe(r) and inspirational space to meet, discuss and explore with other changemakers locally;
offer time and peer support to reflect on your own strengths and ideas, and vision for the future;
bring you on field trips to exciting places, to learn and get inspired from others projects;
facilitate opportunities to better understand Dundee‘s strengths and challenges, and create new connections across the city.
“It could be that the neighbourhood, not the individual, is the essential unit of social change. If you’re trying to improve lives, maybe you have to think about changing many elements of a single neighbourhood, in a systematic way, at a steady pace.” – David Brooks
What are the practicalities?
This is a peer learning journey, meaning we’ll work as a group and co-create some elements as we go. But the structure we’ll use is:
Four day-long sessions – these are opportunities to come together and hear from others on different topics, including examples on how creativity and collaboration play a vital role in creating spaces for communities to reimagine a future rooted in justice, care and collective action.
During each session, we’ll also carve some time to share, create, play, explore and reflect, as a group and individually, through guided activities and provocations.
Lunch will be provided for all in-person sessions.
The four day-long sessions will also include behind-the-scenes tours to various community gardens, and a field trip at the Scottish Crannog Centre.
Between the sessions, we’ll also have optional opportunities to deepen connections with each other through one-to-one informal chats over a warm cuppa – we’ll pair people up randomly and invite the pairs to organise an informal meet-up at their convenience.
To maximise the individual and collective impact of this journey, we’re asking applicants to ensure they can attend all sessions – please check the below dates against your current commitments before applying.
Fabric is free to attend. Your time and energy is what you will bring to the journey.
Session 1: Play and collective imagination
Date: Thursday 21 November 2024
Times: 9.30am - 4.30pm
Location: Hapworks_00, 7 Castle Street, DD1 3AA
Session 2: Bring a chair, create the table
Date: Thursday 23 January 2025
Times: 10am - 4pm
Location: online
Session 3: Gardening for the future
Date: Thursday 20 February 2025
Times: 9am – 5pm
Location: visits to various community gardens
Session 4: From Dwellers to Changemakers
Date: Thursday 20 March 2025
Times: 8.30am – 6pm
Location: field trip to Scottish Crannog Centre, Dalerb, PH15 2NX
How to apply?
We recognise that application writing is unpaid labour – this is why we have aimed to keep this process to a minimum and offer applicants to answer the following questions in various ways, including: in writing or audio/video recording.
To apply to take part in the Fabric journey, simply complete this short application form by (9am) Wed 30 October 2024.
The main application questions (which can be answered in writing or audio/video recording) include:
What will you bring to this Fabric journey? We’d like to hear more about you and how your work, creative practice or community involvement contributes (or would contribute) to climate and social action within your neighbourhood, community and/or Dundee. (250 words or 2 minutes max)
What do you hope to get from this Fabric journey? We'd love to know a bit more about your motivation to join and how you imagine this peer learning journey will benefit your work, practice, or actions in the future. (250 words or 2 minutes max)
Please share some words in support of your application from a friend or a colleague. (250 words or 2 minutes max)
Application deadline: 9am, Wed 30 October 2024
Application form: https://forms.gle/FLyxtHfBxuGc5dJ68
EDIB form: https://forms.gle/n99i2JFYDMchMt299
We want to ensure that our application process does not present any accessibility barriers to potential applicants. If we can provide any assistance to support you through this process (or if you want to discuss alternative ways to show your interest), please get in touch with our Fabric Host, Claire Dufour: claire@creativedundee.com.
About your host
Claire is a Dundee-based people-lover, proud mum and deep thinker!
Passionate about collaborative working and placemaking, she has dedicated her work to providing safe(r) and brave(r) spaces where we can learn from each other, and imagine and shape a better future together.
Claire was the project lead for CULTIVATE, a pilot project which supported and explored the role that creativity plays in unlocking imagination and agency for change, and the necessary conditions that create spaces for communities to reimagine a future rooted in justice, care and collective action.
She’s been developing and delivering Fabric since 2016, which aims to equip, connect and inspire people who want to make a positive difference in Dundee. This is the fourth edition of this collective journey, and many past participants are still actively connected with each other.
"I was new to Dundee when I joined the Fabric programme in 2019. It was such a great opportunity to meet other creatives and shakers in the city and beyond. We had a dedicated time and very special spaces to listen, share, reflect and dream together – and this sparked many friendships and collaborations for me. If you want to shake things up, in your practice or community, meet fantastic people, tap into collective power... I'd really recommend going on the Fabric journey with Creative Dundee." – Manuela de los Rios, Garden Coordinator, The Maxwell Community Centre and Garden.
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