Way markers

Spaces of Hope is born out of Matthew's personal journey through complex social issues that have led to the deep reflection of how his beliefs and values relate to his life, his work, his social relationships and his capacity to live and work in a healthy and hopeful way.  We have provided an interview that Matthew has done, in Manchester in January 2019.  You can listen to that below.  

Also, as part of the Stories of Hope section of our site, we have shared some of our latest work, and our development, which you can spend time with below.  This includes a range of reports and insights into new thinking, including the New Spaces, Old Mindsets conference, and the Curating Spaces of Hope Symposium series.   We have also included stories from our gatherings and the podcast.  These share stories from local communities and give perspective from industry leaders from World Values Day, and the Greater Manchester Social Enterprise Network. You can catch them on the Curators Club section of our site.

New Spaces, Old Mindsets

Matthew's journey has been informed by a circulation of personal sense making, strategic dialogue, academic symposia and social action.  The strategic dialogues we have engaged in included the 2015 New Spaces, Old Mindsets Symposium, hosted by Link Up, University of Chester, Cheshire West and Chester and William Temple Foundation.  The report for this event is below.  This event was a dialogue between faith based organisations, public sector bodies from across the north of England, and Academics from University of Chester Centre for Faiths and Public Policy.

The event set out ideas including the post secular, progressive localism, and spiritual capital.  These ideas helped us to begin to understand how we might shape new faith based engagements in the public sphere.

We have developed on this dialogue in recent years.  We have shared these stories, among less academic and policy focussed bits and pieces, below. 

The Spaces of Hope eBook

Matthew's journey is one that has changed from a personal piece of reflection and sense making, to an iterative process that blurs the boundaries between personal and professional life and informs how Matthew, and more broadly we, might organise.  Matthew begins to set this process out in the Spaces of Hope eBook, with a journey that begins in 2009 as an unemployed graduate and bring it up to date through stories of personal experience of isolation, bridging into burgeoning spaces of partnership and connection across different communities in the North West of England.  The Spaces of Hope eBook begins to introduce some of the underpinning theories and ideas that are at the root of Spaces of Hope.

Spaces of Hope Gatherings 

Between 2016 and 2019, we were involved in 30 gatherings with groups from across the faith, public, private, academic and communities sectors.  These gatherings included exploration of personal narratives, the integration of public policy and public theology, and the potential for curating Spaces of Hope in communities across the North West of England, including city wide gatherings in Stockport, Chester and Manchester. We have included some details of those gatherings here and how they link into the Spaces of Hope story.

There are many stories that have emerged over the last 10 years that have fed into Spaces of Hope.  This section  of the website is where we have decided to keep them.  We have shared our stories in the hope that you might do the same, with yourself, with your friends, colleagues and those around you in your communities.  We have shared our stories in the hope that they might also inspire you.  There are some dramatic events that we share and there are some mundane every day things. This is the nature of our lives.  Sharing stories in Spaces of Hope is a process of discovery, an opportunity for new things to emerge, an opportunity for the things at the root of your lives to be expressed through the fruit of what you do.  For our part, we have tried to make this section as accessible as possible, to help you decide if Spaces of Hope Storytelling and Dialogues is something you might like to engage with.