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Category Archives: Jericho Road Solutions
Thoughts in a crisis
I’m finding it hard to begin this but I want to share some thoughts and an update, so here goes: We are all reeling. We are what Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick called ‘Paranoid Readers’, desperately searching for information and meaning across … Continue reading
Posted in Jericho Road Solutions, JRS website, Thinking
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A working life as a community activist
Jess Steele talk to 200+ Year 7 and Year 8 students at Helenswood School, 25/1/19. 4 things that help you get ready for the future that you can’t see – all of them underpinned by READING Continue reading
How the money works
I’m going to try to explain the financial package that Friends of Hastings Pier put together as simply as I can. This is both an exercise in extreme transparency and a practice run for some workshops I’m planning about how … Continue reading
Posted in Hastings, Hastings Pier, Jericho Road Solutions, Piers, Seaside
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Investing Upside Down (ppt)
Here’s a link to the slides I showed yesterday at the Labour Party #NewEconomics conference in Southampton. Plus the narrative notes. Investing Upside Down – Jess Steele Investing Upside Down – narrative
1,000 Days
Jericho Road Solutions is 1,000 days old today, and I’m determined to carve out a little time to reflect on the experience and some of the lessons so far. It’s been an honour to work with ambitious, stubborn, creative leaders … Continue reading
Locality 2015
Jericho Road had a fantastic time at the Locality 2015 Convention in Liverpool. We caught up with old friends and made new ones, discovered some great projects and sold a lot of tea towels! We heard from some inspiring speakers … Continue reading
Posted in Jericho Road Solutions, Locality
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Colwyn Bay Pier – next in line and it needs your help
Victoria Pier, Colwyn Bay is *the* important pier to save next. The Pier needs your help, and fast! Continue reading
Posted in Hastings Pier, Jericho Road Solutions, Seaside
Tagged Colwyn Bay, Victoria Pier
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Developer Stress
My favourite definition of an entrepreneur is someone who sets out to do something without controlling the resources to do it. I’ve been an entrepreneur a long time. Since my dad got me to write a history of Deptford in … Continue reading
Ground Control?
The building at 49-51 Cambridge Road Hastings needs a new name. What about Ground Control? Continue reading
Posted in Hastings, Jericho Road Solutions, JRS website, Meanwhile, Uncategorized
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Roller-coaster week
It’s been a roller-coaster week here in Hastings. Since handing over the pier project to Hastings Pier Charity, the White Rock Trust has been focusing on the wider neighbourhood and on the second most challenging building in town – the … Continue reading
Sitting in a ditch watching stars
After a good start with weekly blogs I seem to have fallen into Abeyance. It feels like a ditch I want to climb out of. It’s been a stunning couple of months – which is probably why I feel like … Continue reading
Delinquent ownership – a PS about the council role
When it comes to dealing with derelict and disused buildings and land, Councils are in a practically impossible position (but that’s quite normal for local government!). They have a set of ‘powers’ that are theoretically available but technically complex. In … Continue reading
Posted in Jericho Road Solutions, Locality, Policy, Thinking
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Precious Buildings at Risk through Irresponsible Ownership
In this country we would never let someone drive a car that was uninsured or dangerous. That’s why we have the MOT system and DVLA to keep records of car ownership. Yet we allow hundreds of owners to keep buildings … Continue reading
Posted in Jericho Road Solutions, Locality, Policy, Thinking
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Tackling irresponsible ownership
Tackling irresponsible ownership Continue reading
No resting place but a challenge constantly renewed
“The Great Society is not a resting place… a finished work. It is a challenge constantly renewed, beckoning us towards a destiny where the meaning of our lives matches the marvellous products of our labor.” – Lindon Johnson Not a … Continue reading
A month on the Jericho Road
So it’s been a month since launching Jericho Road Solutions and I’m in reflective mood. I chose to leave a good job at Locality and start out on my own because I want to be directly involved in local transformations … Continue reading
The Spaces Between – Boundary Spanning 20 years ago
My biography always begins “Jess Steele bridges policy and practice to develop new intellectual territory, ventures and programmes…” I have always been interested in boundary-spanning – cross-sectoral, cross-community, inter-generational work; match-making between public, private and third sectors; travelling and translating … Continue reading
Posted in Jericho Road Solutions, Just Me, Thinking
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Pier-to-Pier peer learning
I think we just won a competition on the basis of a good pun. But my co-conspirators say it’s because what we’re doing is really important and worthwhile and brilliant. Could be both?! I’ve always been a believer in peer … Continue reading
Posted in Hastings Pier, Jericho Road Solutions, Locality, Seaside
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Manchester Greater
I just had the second launch of Jericho Road Solutions – this time in Manchester. Another basement of another pub, this time very informal and no high-heeled speeches on wobbly tables. But with great people – community organisers from cohort … Continue reading
Speech at the launch of Jericho Road Solutions, 15th May 2013
Welcome, and thank you for coming to wet the baby’s head. I’m going to revisit a speech I first gave in November 2010 which was the first time I used the Jericho Road quote. Goes to show you never know … Continue reading
Spinning Plates 