Impact Stories: Practices of Working Together
The Art of Networking with Passion & Purpose
The purpose of Community Gathering? The process of stirring the movement towards an event. The lead up, build up, fullness of activity, hosting, delegating, teamwork, trust, clean up, pack away. All parts of holding space.
This is something I’ve always enjoyed and done very naturally. It takes effort but the weave of connections and points of collaboration along the way makes it worth the investment in time and energy.
There is an intangible feeling of when people gather and sparks move in mycelium networks around the time and space. What might pop out to impact positive change down the line? What support could flow and which power-filled person could be grounded into nourishing action? The best ingredient for the collective compost of possibility in community gathering is definitely diversity.
If we can hear the elders, make space for the children, give youth the platform and spark everyone else to get with it: make participation a part of ‘always life.’ Then maybe there is a way for urban communities to grow stronger and weave together a fuller sense of what can be.
Our SA multiplier event on 7 Nov 2025 had all the sparks of spontaneous combustion needed to plant little seeds of reminders in us that it’s all worth it and that each moment of gathering layers up a multi-coloured spectrum of a big possibility cake.
Claire Homewood, Amava Oluntu, South Africa
Writing workshop
In early December, our mystery novel, the result of writing workshops held at the Aniane library this year, will be published. We are fortunate to have English texts in this book, written by our European guests. The story revolves around a mysterious investigation set against a backdrop of unresolved family conflicts. Participants used local myths to create a collective historical narrative. During their visit to France, we opened the workshop to volunteers to demonstrate one of our educational methods. The goal was to create a mystery story collaboratively over several
months. This exercise develops skills in teamwork, group creation, sharing speaking turns, and respecting boundaries. Our guests were able to observe the workshop’s pedagogical approach as well as its institutional structure. The Aniane library network provides free and open access to all
activities, allowing for broad and intergenerational participation. For the French participants, the presence of international students fostered a new perspective and sparked curiosity about languages and cultures.
To preserve a record of this experience, the English writings were kept and included in the
published book.
This experience allowed us to appreciate how fortunate we are to have cultural programs funded by the public sector. The completion of this book inspires me to continue this experiment on a larger scale, and perhaps even with several countries.
Milena Lachmanowits, L’Engrainé, France
Youth Worker
Did you have an amazing time in Germany?
Do you want to move to Germany?
I Loved my time in Germany, it was so interesting, all the experiences. I branched out to new networks, made new connections. But, the experience pushed my roots in deeper. Deeper into my love for home, our land, people and context.
Everywhere has challenges, and I love ours. It’s wild, but wildness gives gaps for freedoms you don’t appreciate until you witness the loss of freedoms people never knew they had.
For the longest time I’ve been making my own path up as I’ve gone along. Why do I feel I need to pursue a project? Because I just have a feeling I need to. Not sure why – just felt important. And that’s how I’ve woven together the fabric of my professional life. Always been super inspired to involve young people along for the journey, so they can benefit from the spaces, places, people – just as I have through the amazing mentors I’ve had in my never ending learning journey as an artist, facilitator, co-creator, collaborator and changemaker.
I got my eye set on an awesome vision of the future and for me collaboration and group work is the key. This means inter-generational learning – love working with elders and love working with youth. Through meeting my ‘youth worker’ colleagues on our Seeds journey, something has come into focus for me: the context, structure, supports, potentials of framing my own understanding of the work I do.
What Germany taught me was that being a youth worker is a real thing – in a place where structures are secure and things seem tangible I found I could better see myself. It took leaving my home base to figure that out.
Claire Homewood, Amava Oluntu, South Africa
Hard Work
In May in Mannheim, we met with various professionals involved in social and community work, and sometimes in cultural and artistic practices. What jumped out at me during one of these meetings was the same difficulties that I’ve seen many people face in my country as well. The same questions. That is to say: „How can my activities reach the people I want to reach?“ This is a question, in terms of mediation and cultural action, that doesn’t take place in all environments. For example, the South African association that was with us told us that this wasn’t a question for them. Why don’t free and participatory cultural offerings reach their audiences?
Following this exchange, I believe, even more than before, that mediators must take the time to create connections, in countries where people are not always well received (racism, discrimination, etc.), in countries where people are afraid of being downgraded, where people are afraid that their neighbors will take their places, as if there weren’t enough for everyone. In countries where integration, even assimilation, is advocated. How should we react then when cultural mediation proposals invite us to be who we are in all our specificities and to expose it to the light of day? Perhaps we haven’t learned to live this way. To be included, and not inserted or assimilated. To have a place that doesn’t take it from anyone and that doesn’t put us in danger. Perhaps the proposals of cultural mediators are coming up against barriers that have been built up for a long time and that it is not just a question of proposals that are out of touch with needs, but of learning that has not been implemented in a society, and of links that do not exist, of trust that do not exist between institutions and people.
Laurelou Pelletier, L’Engrainé, France
Upcycling
Team B, the extra team, the bonus team, the one that didn’t feel like trudging up the mountain, decided to launch an activity. The day before, the buffet was still full after the networking event. Our fridge was overflowing with salads, carpaccio, hummus, and other cold, hearty dishes. We then set about transforming all these leftovers into new, more delicate dishes. Through my eyes, sparkling with the desire to find myself undoing, making, mixing, surrounded by chefs, I will tell you the story. The transformation is underway, here is its story.
I almost forgot to introduce the team! Surgeons: Paola, extraordinary, a Madame Z who doesn’t know it yet. Balance of flavors. Zaid, for whom everyone stands up, the man who recovered everything, and the magic happened. Assistant chef Sergio Leone. Calm and rigorous. And finally, the rigorous, talented, helpful, and discreet Marion, the event photographer.
THE METHOD. It was almost a high-level operation, a meticulous dissection that took place in the kitchen on Albert Road. First, we laid out all the leftovers on the table and found their names. It was all about perspective.
The operation was delicate.
Every gap was filled with finely cut pieces. What to do?
Step 1: DISASSEMBLE
What a mission this was! Skillfully orchestrated by Italy, the team meticulously separated each element. They removed every spice, yes, every spice. It took over two hours, and I’m not exaggerating. For the containers, we didn’t use sterile bins, but ceramics to collect the molecules, vitamins, and other condiments.
Our bodies were put to the test!
Step 2: THE RECIPES
Everything needs to be transformed, but what to do?
Who wants to take care of the feta? The raw onions? Who will get the butternut squash? The chopped parsley?
The decision is made, the die is cast, the pairs are formed, the ingredients are scattered.
Tonight’s menu will be:
Gluten-free Japanese gnocchi
Butternut squash gnocchi
Beetroot salad
Beetroot and peanut hummus
Mushroom pasta salad
Spicy fritters—our own version of “throw everything in”—with Master Zaid’s sauce.
Step 3: THE MIXTURES
Feel the novelty being created under your fingers, bringing it back to life. Recycle, take action to revive, reanimate, breathe life into it.
Blend the butternut squash, mix in the feta cheese and mushrooms, mash the potatoes. The new dishes take shape, the smells mingle.
Step 4: ADDITIONS. EXTRA GRAINS OF SALT
The secret touch.
We had to add a few new vitamins to reignite the spark. Condiments, eggs, and spices to bring life back in a big way, with boldness, richness, spice, flavor, chili, and a pinch of salt. In short, with panache!
Step 5: MANUFACTURING AND ASSEMBLY
To complete this step, you need patience, agility, and flexibility. Whether we were comfortable or not, we rolled, flattened, and shaped each gnocchi.
Step 6 COOKING
Everything was used! Ovens, frying pans, saucepans. Everyone pitched in to perfect the cooking!
Final step: TASTING
Gluten-free Japanese gnocchi: 500g potato/100g cornstarch + salt
Gnocchi: Steamer + flour + 2 eggs + salt
Salad: Beetroot, olive oil, salt, garlic, peanuts
Cooked pasta salad + cheese + garlic mushrooms + 12 eggs
Zaid’s fritters: Pasta vegetables + tomato onions + hummus Ginger + ginger + onion + chickpea flour + cumin seed, coriander + fennel + 3 eggs
The dishes were reshaped and reformed, and the traveling ingredients were found. The guests figured out who was who, but Marie Ange Nardi was missing.
The final result was devoured too quickly. There was no time to photograph the event. The cycle continues.
Mission accomplished.
What a day!
Marion Aube, L’Engrainé, France