Over 10 years ago, I worked as part of the team leading on The Wales We Want National Conversation that helped to shape the Well-being of Future Generations Act for Wales. The idea of a national conversation wasn’t new, we were following in the footsteps of the United Nations’ global conversation on ‘The World We Want’, with the aim of replicating this conversation across Wales. For over two years Cynnal Cymru worked with the Welsh Government and the former Commissioner for Future Generations, Peter Davies, to ask the Welsh public to respond to the question ‘I want a Wales where…’
In the first year we held three launch events (including one with Michael Sheen ), organised 20 events, recruited 150 Futures Champions that helped to bring together 6474 individuals, who took part in over 100 conversations across Wales resulting in almost 1000 responses in the form or reports, videos, postcards, drawings and surveys.
The Wales We Want, National Conversation Report cover to illustrate some of the conversations held by our network of Futures Champions.
But how did we ensure we captured every conversation?
It certainly wasn’t easy, and my challenge was to figure how we ensured every voice, every conversation and every individual was accounted for. As well as the more formal conversations, we even counted and categorised a huge bag of handwritten wishes on paper leaves!
So, what did I learn from the conversation:
- Placing people at the heart of the conversation was key – from the branding to featuring real people from across Wales, to the recruitment of a community of Futures Champions holding conversation in their own communities, people were at the heart of the conversation.
- 6474 individuals, every voice matters – real numbers were key to demonstrating we were listening to everyone who responded. From a handwritten wish on a postcard to more traditional round table discussion, every response was captured and recorded. Throughout the campaign we shared as many of the responses we could in real time to bring the conversation to life.
- The Wales We Want brand belonged to everyone – an unexpected outcome of the conversation was when individual communities began to take ownership of the logo and branding, evolving the conversation into ‘The Llanelli We Want’ or The Wales Woman Want’ – this was exciting!
- It needed champions! – we knew early on that something this big needed trusted individuals from within the community and this is where our network of Futures Champions came in. We started the conversations, but the real magic happened when people signed up as champions and held conversations of their own in the local community centre or place of work.
- People need a conversation starter – Asking people what kind of Wales they want is a big question, and while some had clear ideas, we learnt early on that people needed prompts and inspiration to start their own conversations. The ‘I want a Wales where… / Hoffwn weld Cymru lle…’ video was played at every event and luckily our community of Futures Champions were already starting to show the way, so we simply shared these ideas and encouraged people to hold a conversation in a way that was important to them.
- You need to be flexible and take a risk – This wasn’t a traditional consultation and from the start the team at Welsh Government gave us the freedom and flexibility to take a less conventional path. My favourite unconventional conversation was the ‘stand up for the Wales you Want’ comedy gig for young people at Bridgend College. Which leads onto the next point….
- You need to dig deeper and actively listen – One young person wanted a Wales where Bridgend attracted world class DJs. On face value this may seem frivolous, but what would it take to create a place that could do this and how does that fit in with the Well-being goals? How might we create a place with a rich Welsh culture and what would it look like? What would the community benefits be? And how might this lead to other positive changes….including more local jobs perhaps? Or young people feeling more connected and involved with their local community?
So, 10 years later – how have we applied these lessons at Cynnal Cymru?
- We are people centred – as a sustainable development charity we are curious about what people need to thrive in a better future, try and start from where people are at, and provide the tools and support for people to create and own the future they want.
- We help start meaningful conversations – we still use conversation starters, such as postcards from the future, pictures, animations, videos, poetry, a story, speakers, or warm up questions.
- We create champions – through our training and accreditation programmes, members and partners we have created thousands of champions in their workplaces, communities and homes promoting carbon reduction, nature creation, fairer working practices, and other more sustainable future solutions.
- We view culture and heritage as part of a sustainable future – the resulting legislation from the national conversation included having culture as part of the seven well-being goals. That young person from Bridgend was on to something.
If you want to find out more about how to work with us for the next 10 years, please email shwmae@cynnalcymru.com (or send us a leaf).
Lynsey Jackson, Head of Communications and Membership
