Last week, I had the pleasure of visiting my good friend Emma Gouverneyre who works at the "Jardins de la voie romaine ". The NGO operates a brewery, restaurant, rose garden, organic farm, and a guest house that supports individuals struggling to enter the workforce by helping them develop their passions and valuable skill sets. They produce organic and buy their products locally. In addition, it hosts various communal and cultural events that unite locals and visitors, young and old alike. I had the joy of participating in one such event—a communal gardening morning at the Relais des Trois écluses with some lovely ladies from their knitting club, along with some workers and locals. Here's what this experience taught me:
1. Working together takes anxiety and awkwardness out of initial social interaction
When you work together in a garden, you can always talk, but you don’t need to. In settings such as neighbourhood supper clubs and so on, you sit face-to-face, and the main activity is socialising; therefore it can be uncomfortable if you have nothing to talk about. Hence, active co-creational activities set a safer, more relaxed base to build a social groundwork for a new community.
2. The more you contribute to a community, the more you will feel part of it.
All attendees were given the freedom to select and plant different flora, collectively transforming the landscape and thereby integrating themselves into it. Through their active involvement, they established a stronger bond with the space, which fostered a sense of belonging and familiarity.
3. Trading services creates more value than trading money for services.
There were multiple forms of exchange that did not include money on that day, and it struck me to see how much value these exchanges created. All the helpers got a free tasty lunch and some veggies in exchange for doing an activity they enjoy anyway: chatting and gardening. The cooperative enhanced their garden, showcased their products and strengthened the bond with their clients. We all left with a common sense of gratitude and respect for each other. In a classic customer-supplier relationship with a money-for-product-exchange, this dynamic is different.
Furthermore, we found out that a few of the helpers have a surplus of plants in their gardens and would love to bring them by rather than throwing them away. This was a classic win-win situation, illustrating how bringing people together can create synergies that promote a sustainable lifestyle while increasing overall value.
If you want to organise, participate or learn more about communal creation. Like, follow and fill out our cooperative-housing-matchmaker-survey.
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