If someone put me in charge of running a community space:
We’d have free/affordable tea and coffee and a place to sit and drink it. I’d spend too long thinking about how to deal with waste and plant milk options.
Everyone who worked there would talk to people who come in, learn their names and stories. It would be the most important part of their job.
Anything that overstretches and stresses the people running the space is not sustainable.
We’d ask people what they need, what they are missing, what they miss, what would bring them joy. I couldn’t promise to deliver it but I could listen and try.
People could stay as long as they wanted and they wouldn’t have to buy anything. They would have to leave eventually when everyone needs to go home.
There would be a tavli (backgammon) board.
We’d measure our success in busyness despite a low profile. We’d accept publicity to support growth.
We’d measure our success in the number of people who come back rather than number of people who come.
We’d measure our success in how many things are initiated by the interaction between the people that come not us.
We’d measure our success in sighs of relief as people walk through the doors and take a seat after a hard day.
We’d measure our success in long hard conversations about how to support one specific persons needs.
We’d measure our success in people asking for more from us and the space. We’d deal with having to say no sometimes but try to offer solutions.
Addendum: The Election and Community
The 2024 UK election results were just announced. Labour won but lost a lot of votes to low turnout, Reform, the greens and independents. I’ve felt for a long time the need for community spaces and third places. I tried to create one many years ago with a regular night called Turbulence. My recent work has focused on encounters and conversations that aim to bring people empathetically together. I think we need to be worried about the rise of the far right, and the disillusionment and pain that is fueling it. I think we need to offer care, solutions, change, fairness and love to combat it. We need to imagine better futures than the one it feels like we are coasting towards. Spaces where we can come together are a core part of that.
For a more eloquent detailed argument for this, check out Andrewism and particularly this video: