‘Municipal futures’ is a collection of essays from the Local Government Information Unit. It brings together thoughts and ideas from the LGiU’s policy team about how we might begin to think differently about local government.
One of these short essays is ‘The social council’ by Ingrid Koehler, which is about building relationships.
She says in her introduction:
Councils need to think less about service and more about relationships. Good relationships underpin individual wellbeing and community resilience. They are the key to real demand reduction and to better outcomes for everyone.
Ingrid talks about the importance of relationships within communities for creating wellbeing and encouraging mutual support. She also talks about the relationships between people within councils, which can enable employees to feel secure and to innovate. The most important aspect of all relationships is trust, and Ingrid questions whether we’ve thought enough about why councils often don’t trust residents.
Ingrid suggests that for most areas of council provision, we could do more to connect people by simply stopping to consider things with relationships in mind.
Think about what you’re working on today and ask yourself “how could this help to build relationships?”
Local social networks 