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Not all stories need to be about posh men. Not all stories need to be about people shouting at each other. The 'we hate each other', 'divided Britain' story. I spend more than half of my working life on @funpalaces #funpalaces. I talk to people across the UK all the time. 1/10
They live in villages & towns, cities & countryside. In 2018 Lead Makers (those who take the lead on #FunPalaces) were most likely to live in the most deprived third of postcodes. 56% of Maker teams incl people from an ethnic minority. 2/10
They are all ages: 40% #FunPalaces Maker teams incl people under 18, 41% incl people over 65, and 22% incl people under 18 AND people over 65. So they are the people in UK supposedly divided by age & by ethnicity. 11% of Lead makers have a disability or health condition. 3/10
NO-ONE is saying it's fine. Not at all. Most of the people we know making #funpalaces have struggled through the lie of #austerity and the problems it has caused them personally and locally. And still, they are working together, for their communities. 4/10
Still, they want to contribute & they want to work together & they want to make a difference. Still, they are DOING IT. They are getting on, with each other, with contributing to their own, local communities, trying to make a difference. And most of them do it ALL the time. 5/10
#funpalaces shines a light on the great stuff they do, always. Gives them a chance to be seen, be heard, step up, be noticed. Because this work, this work that goes on day in day out, does not get noticed. Parliamentary shouting gets noticed. 6/10
MPs/PM rudeness gets noticed. 'Ordinary' people being extraordinary, daily, does not get noticed. So 'ordinary' people can be dismissed as 'divided', as 'broken'. People contributing to tiny revolutions on a daily, local basis do not get noticed. Maybe it's time to look. 7/10
Time to put the focus on those who are doing the bloody hard work of making a difference in their own communities on a daily basis. Of course we need to hold those in power to account, but while they take all the focus with their absurd & dangerous excesses, please ... 8/10
can we also notice those just getting on with it? Not divided and not broken, just tired and fed up of not getting the support they need and MAKING CHANGE ANYWAY. Some of them make @funpalaces, they'll welcome your support on 5/6 Oct. Find them here: funpalaces.co.uk/discover/ 9/10
because not all stories need to be about angry posh men. 10/10
