Community Unboxed

S1 EP1: What's Strong, Not What's Wrong: Discovering Hidden Community Assets in Norwich

• The Shoebox Enterprises CIC • Season 1 • Episode 1

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What happens when two strangers are tasked with connecting an entire neighbourhood? In this revealing conversation, Community Connectors Saskia and Chloe share their transformative journey working in Norwich's Mancroft ward over the past three years with The Shoebox Enterprises CIC.

Their story begins with hesitation and uncertainty, as they navigated unfamiliar streets with nothing but a map and a mission to discover community assets. What unfolds is a remarkable transformation – not just of the neighbourhood, but of the Connectors themselves. "This job has physically changed my whole outlook on life," Chloe reveals, describing how the role shifted her perspective from being a passive resident to an active community member.

The pair take us behind the scenes of their most challenging yet rewarding task: door knocking. Initially terrified of rejection, they discovered the profound impact of simply showing up on doorsteps with genuine curiosity. Through these conversations, they uncovered isolated elderly residents, hidden talents, and neighbours who'd lived meters apart for decades without ever speaking. Most surprisingly, they discovered that many people simply needed "permission" to take ownership of their community spaces.

Their work has sparked tangible change across Mancroft – from resident-maintained flower beds to thriving social hubs like the St George's Hotspot and the Arts Table children's group. 

With over 5,500 conversations documented across Norwich, the insights gathered now serve as evidence for community initiatives and funding applications.

As the project concludes, Saskia and Chloe don't see an ending, but a springboard for continued community action. Their parting wisdom? Inspired by the principles of Asset-Based Community Development: look for what's strong, not what's wrong. The most valuable assets in any community are often hiding in plain sight – they're the people themselves.

Have you noticed untapped potential in your own neighbourhood? What small connection could you make today that might spark a wider community transformation?

Hear more about the insights gathered in our neighbourhoods by visiting www.communityconversations.info

There's something for everyone at The Shoebox, get in touch today to see what's on offer. Head to www.theshoebox.org.uk and get involved.

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The Community Connector project was delivered by The Shoebox Enterprises CIC and supported by Norwich City Council, with funding from the UK Government's Shared Prosperity Fund, and Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board's Community Voices programme.

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Saskia Townsend

You're listening to Community Unboxed , the podcast that showcases the power of community by voicing the people that make it so . Each episode highlights our Community Connectors , who are appointed to do just that - connect communities . There are five episodes available : one from Mile Cross , two from North Earlham and two from Mancroft . Follow us as we drop in on our nearby social groups and discover what special item our Connectors and members of the community have chosen to put in our imaginary shoebox .

Saskia Townsend

Hi , I'm Saskia . I'm a Community Connector for Mancroft .

Chloe Laurie

And I'm Chloe , and I'm also a Community Connector for Mancroft .

Saskia Townsend

So I first became aware of Community Connecting when a flyer came through my daughter's door . She handed it to me and said I think you'd be great for this , Mum . And I cast a glance over it and went oh yeah , sure , I'll apply for that , because I was out of work at the time . Yeah , I got the job . It was initially for a part-time role for six months , and here we are , three years later .

Chloe Laurie

It is actually, exactly three years, which seems wild now looking back .

Saskia Townsend

I feel like we've come a long way .

Chloe Laurie

I think I got an email, it came up in an email from my daughter's school, like the flyer for the job , and I just stopped volunteering and working for a charity and that had come to an end . And I saw it and it was 15 hours at the beginning and it said chatting to people and I was like , oh , I love chatting to people and it was focused on people in the area and I was like , wow , this seems a bit too good to be true . So , again , I applied . That was my first job that I actually applied for since coming out of sort of having a bit of a mental health breakdown myself , so it was like the first job that I actually felt ready to get into and I applied for it and then I got a call literally probably two days later . It I was like , do you want to come for an interview ? And I was like , oh my gosh , wow , oh , um , this is actually happening . Um , and then I done the interview and yeah , got , got the job . And here I am three years later . I always say you know , I feel like I was really meant to meet Saskia in life and I'm happy that I have you .

Saskia Townsend

I feel the same . I think we complement each other really really well . I think your local knowledge is amazing . I've only lived in Norwich for three and a half years . Chloe's born and bred .

Chloe Laurie

Born and bred in this area .

Saskia Townsend

yeah , there's not much she doesn't know about Norwich City .

Chloe Laurie

When you actually really dive deep into it . I just love how many people actually want to do something in their community . I think before I got this job , I sort of knew there was community stuff going on , but I wasn't involved in it , which makes me think sometimes how did I get the job ? But here I am . But when we actually sort of delved into the nooks and crannies of the area , it's just phenomenal how many people want to make change and want to do good things , and that's normally on a volunteer basis, they're just doing it because they want to . And it's also , I think , made this job in itself has changed me as a person as well , like I now want to do things just because you can and you should , because

Discovering Community Assets

Chloe Laurie

I love this area I think it's so quirky , I think it's so multicultural . There's so many lovely businesses . There's so many organizations that are amazing in the area , whether that be , you know , mental health organizations , social supermarkets , just community groups , sort of like . Vision Norfolk is amazing as well . The list is endless .

Saskia Townsend

That's been amazing , but also the

The Door Knocking Revelation

Saskia Townsend

door knocking . That's just been incredible . We were so you know we were scared to do it , weren't we ?

Chloe Laurie

I can remember the first day like , oh gosh , this is going to be interesting ,

Saskia Townsend

but yeah , but then we just thought you know , in for a penny , in for a pound .

Saskia Townsend

Let's just give it a go um , and we did that with martin , didn't we ? The community conversations officer at the time in the mancroft area um , and I think you know very quickly , we decided to approach it with humor

Chloe Laurie

and yeah and I think you need that .

Chloe Laurie

When you're knocking on someone's door , and 90 , not 90 percent at the time , actually probably it's very 50 , 50 . They're like oh , you know , they're not , they're never going to be happy to see you . And they're like because when you knock on someone's door , it's like what do you want , what are you trying to sell ? And you have to flip that round really quickly , like , and so I'd always be a bit funny oh , I'm not trying to sell you anything , you know , we're just out here , you know , connecting

Saskia Townsend

yeah , definitely .

Saskia Townsend

They either think you're trying to sell something or that you are some kind of a religious person or that you want to hear you know the , the stuff , you know the terrible stuff that's going on and how can you fix the area , kind of thing .

Saskia Townsend

But it's like once you kind of change that narrative yeah um , and people are like oh , you know , I mean , people basically love to talk

Chloe Laurie

yeah , they really do , and often it starts on a negative level , but the amount of you know times that has just been flipped around and they start speaking about happy times in the area or things or community stuff that they do know of , and that is everyone likes to moan , don't they ? But at the end of it it was definitely positive .

Saskia Townsend

Yeah , definitely , but I think we have kind of come across a couple of areas where the people , where residents , do feel kind of slightly forgotten about .

Chloe Laurie

Yeah .

Saskia Townsend

And they'll say things like oh it's , you know , the area's not like it used to be . And we'll be like oh well , how was that ? You know , how did it used to be . What was good about it ? Um , and they normally say things like oh well , the council used to come around twice a week and do the yeah , flower beds , or something like that , and then we can start having a conversation about well , you know , is there anyone around here that might want to take on doing something with the flower beds , with a group of neighbors , or you know , people almost need to be given permission they don't realize that they can kind of take ownership of spaces that are around them .

Chloe Laurie

I think , yeah , a lot of it is giving people the knowledge that they are able to do these things , because a lot of people think that they're not allowed to do these things or it's really hard to set something up , whereas in reality it's actually really easy . But sometimes you just don't know and we're there to give that information and you know , support people to do that , and there was actually a patch that we did cover where you know a lot of people are like , oh , why should we do that when it's the council's job and and this ? And then we'd go back , didn't we ? We went back a couple of months later and they had actually started doing the community garden , so it is definitely as well like that ripple effect

Saskia Townsend

yeah , definitely , and I think , we, a lot of the time we sort of, people will kind of , you know , they'll put their coats on , they'll hurry through the area where they live and to get to the city and to use the shops there , and then they'll hurry back through their area and then they'll kind of lock the front door and it's it's like almost as if it doesn't exist outside of their front door . It's like people , um , you know , sometimes it's nice to have conversations it's like , well , this is all of your area you know , definitely it's to get people thinking a bit more community-minded rather than just

Chloe Laurie

And , like I said , until I started this job role , I didn't think that way , and sometimes you just need some inspiration to make you feel that way , because I feel completely different about my area , since I've become a Community Connector

Saskia Townsend

connecting changes you

Chloe Laurie

it really does it really does like it's just opened so many , so much my life in a positive way , though , I feel , and it's helped me personally as well . So when , that's why I want everyone else to see it that way , so that can help them the way it's helped me, is how I look at it .

Saskia Townsend

Yeah , they have a word for community-minded in . I think it's either Danish or Swedish .

Saskia Townsend

It's samfundssind or something like that .

Chloe Laurie

See , here she goes with her knowledge .

Saskia Townsend

It's probably half knowledge . I've probably got the word completely wrong , but the concept is that so they have a word for community-minded and if you are not being community-minded , then people they'll say , oh , you're not being Samphan Sindh or whatever . It is LAUGHTER .

Chloe Laurie

Is this getting somewhere ?

Saskia Townsend

Yeah , Well , the point is , we don't have a word for that in this country . We don't have a word for community-minded , because it's almost the exception to the rule , isn't it Like oh , that person's really community-minded . Well , you wouldn't say that about the general population , I don't think .

Chloe Laurie

But there are people who are

Saskia Townsend

so many people are

Chloe Laurie

and there's so many people are and I think there'd be so many more people who'd be open to be more community driven if they just had the knowledge of what could be achievable in their area .

Saskia Townsend

Yeah , you're absolutely right .

Chloe Laurie

Yeah , for me , I think door knocking the amount of homes that we knocked on and they were just elderly people who don't leave their house , had no idea what went on outside their doorstep expressed how lonely they were , how they've not left the house for three years other than to do their shopping , um , and just letting them know about local groups that they then attended .

Chloe Laurie

A big part of our role , in fact all of our role pretty much , is being out in the community on foot , meeting as many people as possible

Saskia Townsend

it is a kind of method where you you get out amongst people and you really get to know a community so that you can look around and see what's strong rather than what's wrong . I think

Chloe Laurie

I love that

Saskia Townsend

Traditionally , historically ,

Chloe Laurie

we used to say that what's strong . At the very beginning of the project we done a whole sort of quite extensive discovery phase . So we got these big maps , we had google maps , we literally just pinpointed every community space , every park in the area that . So me and Saskia we are based in the Mancroft ward , so we would put a little pin on every community center , every park , school , doctors , um community group that was already happening churches , and then , once we'd done that , we then started going to all these places and meeting all the people

Saskia Townsend

yeah , yeah , absolutely yeah , I think that was It was quite an important part to sort of very yeah , um google . I mean , that's the , that's the bit that was office based , I suppose . Yeah , it was more yeah , in your kitchen , yeah , um , so we would look at the stuff that was kind of on , uh , on maps , um stuff that we sort of you could find out about online , yeah , um , but I'd say , but most of the stuff was found just being out in

Chloe Laurie

that oh , you took the words right out of my mouth . I was about to say the same thing . The amount of stuff that we actually found out that was going on that we're not seeing at all anywhere online um , and that was also shop windows was really like people's flies and shop windows like since starting this role , I cannot go past the shop window and not stopping and scouring like every community board that I probably never really took any notice of prior to starting this role .

Chloe Laurie

Um , but now I look at everything . Even if I go to like somewhere out of norfolk and they've got , I'm like , oh , what are they doing around this area ?

Saskia Townsend

Yes , absolutely yeah .

Saskia Townsend

Um also , we found out a lot of information by exchanging information with people that were at the groups that we would go to , and that knowledge share was quite yeah , quite an interesting thing , wasn't it ? We'd say what did you know about this ? And we have . We did put together a list of city centre activities and we found that really very useful , very useful , and we shared that with people and then they would share what they knew with us and then we were able to build on what we'd put on our put on our sheets activity sheet because we would go to all the groups on this or drop into all the groups on this activity sheet at some point .

Chloe Laurie

Seeing the people that we had signposted to these actually going and making friends , like seeing them , like blossom from going to these groups , I think is something that you just can't , that you can't quite believe until you've seen it for yourself , and it did like doing this . Yeah , connection and action and it , like this job , has physically changed my whole outlook on life , my whole outlook of how I see things .

Saskia Townsend

It's inspired , like I've felt inspired by people in so many ways yes , I think being a community connector is interesting because , um , I think in the beginning you're sort of okay , so we're trained in asset-based community development and using that sort of way of working . It's like you know , you search for this , like in theory , you search for the sparks in community . So it's discover , connect and mobilise is the way of working within asset based community development and I think we did a very comprehensive discovery phase .

Chloe Laurie

In hindsight , maybe the discovery phase was a bit longer than it should have been . But also we learned so much from the discovery phase that even if we look back and think , oh , that is a bit , that was a little bit too long , we still learned so much from it absolutely one of the main things that we did a lot of towards the last sort of year of the project was the door knocking . So what about ? A month ago , we found out about the Colgate .

Saskia Townsend

Wellbeing Choir , is it called ? Yeah , so it's the , which is a women's wellbeing choir . I think they're called Colgate Singers to give them , their correct title and they sounded amazing .

Chloe Laurie

Yeah , but we didn't know about these a couple of months ago and then we just happened to drop in to one of their sessions and it's a well-established group . Anyone can join and they happen on a Wednesday morning at 10 30 10 30 at the Optican Chapel on .

Saskia Townsend

Colgate um , you know , and it means so much to the women in the community that have joined the choir . Yes , the discovery phase is kind of ongoing , really . It's it's . It can go on indefinitely , because new things come up and you can walk around an area and initially it can feel like , oh , there's not much happening here , there's no sparks here , there's not much in the way of assets , but a lot of areas you look around and you quickly find out that what is the asset in that area is the people .

Chloe Laurie

Yeah .

Saskia Townsend

And we found that , with door knocking , we embarked on a yeah , door knocking .

Chloe Laurie

I think before we did door knocking we were really on the fence about door knocking .

Saskia Townsend

I don't think we were on the fence . I think we were firmly in the camp of no , I don't want to do that .

Chloe Laurie

Because it is nerve wracking Because you're in someone's personal space . When you knock on their door , you know we didn't want them to think we're selling them anything . We didn't want them to feel like we're invading their space . But I can remember the first day that we actually set out to do it , can you ?

Saskia Townsend

remember the first door we knocked on . I can't remember the first door .

Chloe Laurie

I can remember the first day and just being like oh , we're gonna get told to beep off , um and that's never happened once , and it's not ever happened once no . And how pleasantly surprised . And after that first day of door knocking , my whole view on doing that changed . It humbled me so much the people that we met and just how different everyone's lives are . I had a couple of doors

Creating Community Spaces

Chloe Laurie

and you'd knock on and you'd have a conversation and they haven't left the house for , you know , years . They haven't .

Chloe Laurie

They don't know anything that goes on in the community . They're full time carers . They , you know , they have mental health issues . And I had moments in the role where I was like what is my purpose ? And I wasn't really sure what the , the connector role , meant and what I was doing , because it was just so new .

Saskia Townsend

Yeah , it's definitely something that we've had the autonomy to shape as we go along yeah , so back to door knocking . Yeah , back to door knocking yeah , we were really apprehensive , weren't we ? Um , but actually and people are very used to sort of that , they are used to people knocking on the doors , but normally , I think people knock on doors . Well , politicians do it , don't they ? When they're just before .

Saskia Townsend

You know when they're yes , when they're canvassing for votes , and they'll knock on the door and they'll say , oh , what's wrong around here ? Um , so a lot of people that we spoke to did have .

Saskia Townsend

We're kind of ready for oh yes you know , it's the fly tipping , it's the anti-social behavior and what have you . So this , you know , and that was you know . What they said was no surprise , no really . But then we would , we would sort of listen to their concerns and if it was because we had the community conversations officer with us , if it was something that , something that needed addressing or signposting to the council , we could kind of shorten that feedback loop and he could step in and say , well , this is who you need to speak to , or or I will speak to someone . We were knocking on doors , um , but after a while we would say , okay , so there's , there's these things going on for you . You know what's what's good about living here , what you know , what's what's great about living here , um , and sometimes people would go nothing , you know .

Saskia Townsend

And we would go oh , come on , there's gotta be something , you know . You know we'd have a laugh with people and you know we'd say , well , can you just think of one thing , just one thing . And then , you know , the conversation would take a more positive turn . And also , we'd get to know people . You know , we would sort of take a street and we would knock on the door . So we'd do 10 o'clock in the morning sometimes , and then we might go back to that same street in the evenings to sort of catch people at different times of day . So we would try and get it so that we we knew the people on the street , yeah , that lived in a certain area , or , and they knew us . You know , you talk to older people and they'd say , oh , the council used to come around twice a week and tend the roses here or whatever , and of course they don't do that now , but the people that live there would still like to see something happening something happening yeah

Chloe Laurie

um and then that's where people have then gone on , though with support from us , to plant their own things in little community flower beds and get together with their neighbours and take that on themselves , and that's then created a bond with their neighbours that they didn't initially have , and it is so nice to see things like that flourish .

Saskia Townsend

Another of the things we discovered was a need for people to connect with each other in an area , and some of these , some of the kind of estates I suppose will have Some of them . Don't have active community centres where people can connect with other people at , you know , free or low cost , yeah , and there is a real need , a real want with people to connect , to have a social space .

Chloe Laurie

so we set up a six-week pop-up and invited everybody along in order to let me just butt in a little bit there and in order to set up this social space , we connected with a church that we'd connected with during our discovery phase during our discovery phase that we then built up trust with , and they offered us that space for free to set up this six-week social space pop-up .

Saskia Townsend

Yeah , and the first one was really great , wasn't ?

Chloe Laurie

it yeah , the first one was amazing .

Saskia Townsend

The people were um , so some people that were taken on these green spaces were talking about plant swapping and seed swapping . Uh , neighbors that had lived around the corner from each other for years and had never spoken were talking to each other . And , yeah , it was really positive , wasn't it ?

Chloe Laurie

Yeah , you know , we did send a lot of emails out to organizations and we did actually find that that wasn't as effective as we thought that's right . I like to think it went straight into this spam box , but I forgive you all , yeah but we actually ended up instead , because of that outcome , we ended up just dropping into all these organizations , and we did find that that worked a hell of a lot better and we did then manage to build up a lot of trust .

Saskia Townsend

I keep saying absolutely , because it's true , absolutely . Dropping into a place , there's no substitute for it . Dropping in , this is who we are , this is what we do . You can join in , get involved , or you can tell us to go away . You know , either is fine and we're not offended by it . No , not offended .

Chloe Laurie

Maybe a tiny bit , a little bit offended , yeah I think something that we haven't touched base on yet as well is the sort of conversational side of the project and the community , yeah , the sort of admin side of things , if you will .

Saskia Townsend

So we do have a team of community connectors currently there's six of us uh two in the mancroft area , two in milecross and two in north earlham and the connectors visit different areas and talk to as many people as possible in order to find out what matters to people .

Chloe Laurie

We wanted to have as many conversations as physically possible with the people that we were meeting in our community and then we'd anonymise those and they would feed into a data hub .

Saskia Townsend

It fed into the insights hub with the city council and that is a live insights hub so anyone can look at that and you can find that by going on the City Council website .

Chloe Laurie

But from that , why that is so important is from that and you know one of my guests that is going to be coming in next week you can pull the information from the Insights Hub and that can support organisations that want to set up groups in order to get the grants going and get evidence of why . So if , say , a theme was no art activities in the area , someone who wanted to set up an art group .

Chloe Laurie

Yes , could look at that information and you could ask further data to be pulled out and you could see how many people in that area are saying they want more community , low-cost community activities um for families , for instance and that could back up your funding bids one of my guests that I'm bringing in for the next episode um is a lady called abigail taylor and she runs she now runs arts table , which is a low-cost children's art group that happens on silver road um , in st mary magdalene church , and it's a group that happens on Silver Road in St Mary Magdalene Church , and it's a group that I attend every week . I also take my daughter to this group and she absolutely loves it , and I have got some snippets of sounds that go on in this group , so I'll

The Art Table Success Story

Chloe Laurie

let you guys have a listen .

Unknown

I think we love coming here because it's such a friendly , informal , relaxed community space that we get to meet loads of other people that don't actually go to Mousehold . There's actually other children here from Magdalen Gate School , so it's really nice to get a mixture of people . It's loads of fun . It's different every week . Abigail's always got great ideas , I think , art .

Unknown

Club brought a sense of community , which was absolutely brilliant . Gabriel was never much into art until starting Art Club and I think he's just developed his imagination brilliantly . He's also gotten so many new friends and I think for me as a mum , getting to know everyone else involved as well , it kind of started our own little friendship club . So it's been absolutely brilliant .

Chloe Laurie

What is your favourite thing about coming to art club ?

Unknown

The art . My favourite thing about coming to art club is doing art and talking to people and having fun doing art . What's your favourite thing about coming to art club , talking to people and having fun doing art ?

Chloe Laurie

What's your favourite thing about coming to art club ?

Unknown

The biscuits , and also that we can do loads of lovely art clubs , because we do hardly any art at school . Hey , roxy , what is your favourite thing about coming to art club ? That I get to have biscuits and spend time with my friends .

Saskia Townsend

As we just heard there from the families and young people , this is a great example of how asking what a community wants works in comparison to prescribing what officials think a community needs .

Chloe Laurie

So what have you been up to in the last week , Saskia ?

Saskia Townsend

We've been visiting the hotspot , the Coffee Morning at St George's in Colgate , which is a fabulous community . I have to say it's one of my favourites .

Chloe Laurie

We shouldn't have favourites , we shouldn't have favourites , but we do .

Saskia Townsend

Initially it was a coffee morning that her and a gentleman called Brian had set up , coffee morning that her and and a gentleman called brian uh had set up . Uh , they set it up as a carer's coffee morning and it grew into a hot spot and it grew into this kind of organically moving community space . So they offered free tea and coffee but then , quite quickly , people began to bring their own things to . They would do a bake and share . It grew from very small numbers to I think at one count they had 40 people attending . And the reason why it works so well is that Annie and Brian are so welcoming . It's open to everybody , whatever faith . So whoever you are , you're welcome at St George's and Colgate and that's part of the reason why it's so fabulous . They now have a toddler's music group that goes in there . They have a dad's singing group , so the church becomes this kind of vibrant space that is truly open to the community and it's a beautiful thing to see isn't it ?

Chloe Laurie

It's a beautiful thing , yeah , and things have blossomed from that starting , which I think is amazing and absolutely yeah , we've done a lot of knowledge sharing in that space .

Saskia Townsend

yeah , and we do have some snippets from there as well . I'm here with sally today , a volunteer at st george . Hello , sally , hello , how long have you been volunteering here ?

Unknown

Well , I'm one of the church wardens here , and so since we started the hotspot , which I think is roughly two and a half years ago , I've come down to volunteer and we had about eight people , I think , the first day , and we have far more than that regulars now , and it's really lovely . I really thoroughly enjoy it . I discovered , although I lived two minutes up the road for over 40 years , I've met people in the neighborhood that I can now see here every week , speak to if I see them in the street , and also I've been around to a couple of people's houses and it's been absolutely wonderful for me , and I've met new friends myself . So I'm sure seeing other people interact and meet new friends is just so good for everybody plus the coffee's pretty good here too .

Saskia Townsend

Yes , it is , it's pretty good .

Unknown

I think it's lovely . First time I've been in it and I drove past it and I didn't believe that was a big one . It's outside , but I've heard about it .

Saskia Townsend

You're listening to community unboxed , and in this part of the podcast , chloe , we're revealing our special item to store in our imaginary shoebox . In our next episode , we'll be asking our guests to do the same thing , and so will the other community connectors in milecross and north earlham .

Chloe Laurie

So take it away , chloe I wasn't up all last night worrying about this at all no , not at all . So my item is how should I describe it ? So it's a brown leather bag and on the front of it is a Frida Kahlo design . I absolutely love Frida Kahlo , for anyone who knows me will know that the design on the front is very colourful . It's got Frida's face and then around it has birds , butterflies , flowers , and it's just a crossbody bag , and I've never seen one before like this . Actually , it's beautiful . As soon as I laid my eyes on it , I loved it .

Saskia Townsend

It is beautiful , and how did it come to be yours ?

Chloe Laurie

It's a lovely little story actually and that's partly why I wanted to bring it today . It be my special item . So when my daughter first started primary school , there was a lady

Treasured Items in the Shoebox

Chloe Laurie

, so she was in reception reception . I didn't really know any of the other mums , it was very new scenes and there was this lady . She looked right up my street colourful clothes , really vibrant personality , which I love in people , um , and she had this bag on um , and I've never spoken to her and you thought I'm having that .

Chloe Laurie

I was , I was , you know , iron up the prize um , and I just said to her one day , I was like your bag is so beautiful . I was like I love Frida Kahlo , I've never seen a bag like that before . Where did you get it ? And she said , oh , I actually got it off Etsy . And I went home I had a look , could never find it on there , told her . I was like , oh , I couldn't find it . I'm gutted , but you know , you rock it . And then one it was around Christmas time and I was going through a bit of a crappy time , but no one knew that anyway . Um , and we'd come back after the half term and the mum approached me with this bag , um , like a Christmas bag , um , and inside was something wrapped up and I , um , and then she passed it to me and I I felt a bit awkward because I was like , oh gosh , this woman's bought me a Christmas present .

Saskia Townsend

I've only spoken to her a few times .

Chloe Laurie

So I took it home and I opened it and inside she had wrapped me up the bag and it had a little note and it said it was always yours and I literally it made me feel so happy that I felt like I wanted to cry and I was like that is probably one of the most sweetest things anyone has thought to do and done and I just thought what a blimmin nice person like what a lovely human being to do something like that .

Chloe Laurie

But also I was like , oh my god , she's given me this bag . That's amazing .

Chloe Laurie

So I saw her on the school run that afternoon and I was like , oh my gosh , that made me feel like incredible , um , and she was like , no , she was like from the first time I saw you mentioned the bag and how you loved her . And she was like , no , she was like from the first time I saw you , you mentioned the bag and how you loved her and she was like you're so quirky , like it's just always been yours and yeah . And then from that , like act of kindness , I think that really also her doing that then really inspired me to also do little things like that , because she didn't know I was going for a bit of a crappy time and her doing that just made me feel so much better and I thought , oh my gosh , I want to do that for someone . So now , since then , I have done little things that I think people would really love and it also just really opened a really lovely friendship between us as well .

Saskia Townsend

That's amazing . That's a lovely story .

Chloe Laurie

Spread the love .

Saskia Townsend

Spread the love , pay it forward . Yeah , I love that .

Chloe Laurie

Every time I look at it , it's just got that story behind it . Every time I look at it , it also reminds me of how I felt when I received it . Yeah , that's brilliant . I love that story behind it . Every time I look at it , it also reminds me of how I felt when I received it yeah , that's brilliant I love that story moving on to you , saskia , what is your object ? What is why have you brought it in ?

Saskia Townsend

today . So I was in the bathroom this morning brushing my teeth , um , and I looked and noticed this object it's a ceramic vase , I guess . I mean , I guess it's a vase , it could be a vase , but it's also a kind of object in itself , isn't it so basically , it's a giant nose yeah , that's , but I love it real here . It's a big old hooter .

Chloe Laurie

Yeah , I've never seen anything like that before it's , and it's quite a small . It's a . It has the pocket to be a vase , but it's quite small , isn't it ?

Saskia Townsend

the vase itself , but the nose is very big yeah , it's about seven inches tall or um the size of the nose .

Chloe Laurie

It's bigger than a human nose . It's probably to scale 10 times as big as your actual nose it's 10 times bigger than my nose . It does look a little bit like your nose as well oh yeah , kind of squashy at the front it literally does look like a giant um , anyway , it's green , it's pale green , it's a giant nose .

Saskia Townsend

Um , this giant nose was bought to me from by my daughter , so when I arrived in , I arrived in Norwich , um , I think , june of 2021 yeah , that was around then .

Chloe Laurie

It was when because it it was not long after we started this project . Was it Not long before we started ? Yes , I'd lived in .

Saskia Townsend

Norwich for six months before I became a community connector and when I got the job as the community connector because I had you know , I'd applied for a few jobs I arrived in Norwich with not much really . Me and my daughter arrived and I'd been applying for a few jobs . I'd had a few interviews and no luck . And then a flyer came through my other daughter's door and yeah , basically the present to celebrate you getting the job . And she presented me with this nose and I just thought , oh my gosh , that's so perfect Because basically , as far as I can tell , my job is kind of to be nosy , that is .

Chloe Laurie

I love that Because it's weird .

Saskia Townsend

Yeah , so this is my object a giant nose , because I get paid to be nosy , so yay , yeah , it signifies um new job , new start , community connect . Work's just been amazing like meeting me , meeting you . Yeah , I think there is room for these objects in the shoebox . I hope our guests have slightly smaller objects because they're not gonna fit , they're not gonna fit .

Project Reflections and Legacy

Saskia Townsend

So our project is now coming to an end our community connector project

Chloe Laurie

makes me so sad yeah ,

Saskia Townsend

yeah , it is kind of sad that this is ending , and I think that is the nature of sort of short funding , although it's run longer .

Chloe Laurie

Yeah , so originally it was actually meant to just be a six month project and here we are three and a bit years later , so it has gone on a lot longer than we anticipated and we are really grateful for that , and I do think it definitely needed that extra time .

Saskia Townsend

It is a massive extension of time , but I just it feels like we're almost just beginning in some ways ? No , really it really does feel that way . Yeah , so , as we are coming to the end of this project , what we're very keen to do now is feed back to the community what we've learned and share that with the community in many different ways , this podcast being one of them and we've had over five and a half thousand conversations with local residents and we're keen amazing in itself .

Saskia Townsend

I think , yeah , and we're keen to feed that back in ways that is more than just pie charts and data interpretation , and we hope that residents will also perhaps be inspired to set things up for themselves and it's basically yes , this part of it's coming to a close , but it's also we see it as a kind of springboard um , to see where we can all go go next . You've been listening to the Thank you .