Recent Comments
jimbreeds on Whoever is Hastings’ new… Martin Newbold on Statement regarding Hastings… jesssteele on Statement regarding Hastings… smallactsbigchange on Statement regarding Hastings… Bill Webber on Statement regarding Hastings…
Category Archives: Thinking
Crisis, Recovery, Transition, Legacy
“Provide hope and inspiration for collective action to build collective power to achieve collective transformation. Rooted in grief and rage but pointed towards vision and dreams.” Patrisse Cullors, Black Lives Matter, 2013 “Hope offers us clarity that, amid the uncertainty … Continue reading
Posted in Hastings, JRS website, Policy, Thinking
Leave a comment
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
Leave a comment
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
Water OMG!
It was a fascinating day in Southampton at the Labour Party #NewEconomics conference on Saturday. What stuck with me the most was being presented with the evidence behind the complete and ongoing rip-off and harm done by the privatisation of … Continue reading
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
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
3 Comments
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
1 Comment
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
Stories as Community Action
Pier Campaign – story version Last week a couple of trustees of the Hastings Pier & White Rock Trust were filmed for a BBC piece to be shown in the autumn which may turn into a longer documentary. It felt … Continue reading
Posted in Community Organisers, Hastings Pier, Thinking
1 Comment
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
Leave a comment
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
Self-renovating neighbourhoods
The old regeneration is dead, or should be. New regeneration will be driven by local people as agents of neighbourhood change, connected through solidarity networks, with the state and markets as enablers. It will focus on the fine grain of the lived neighbourhood, abjuring all silos and proactively weaving new fabrics of ownership and responsibility for the built and social environment. Inspired by stories of ‘accidental’ renewal arising from the clear self-interest of groups of local people, this paper introduces the self-renovating neighbourhood. It defines regeneration as the unleashing of trapped resources to nurture transformational local change, and makes a call to action to unlock people, land and buildings, and common bond equity capital to rebuild Britain from the ground up. Continue reading
Posted in Self-renovating neighbourhoods, Thinking
Tagged neighbourhoods, regeneration
Leave a comment
Spinning Plates 