Author: Deborah Castellanos
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Registering With a Gp and a Dentist
I remember sitting in a drafty community hall three years ago, listening to a young mother cry because she couldn’t figure out where to take her toddler for a simple vaccination. She wasn’t looking for a high-tech app or a… Continue reading
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An Exhibition in a Village Hall
I remember sitting in a drafty church hall back in ’98, surrounded by three dozen dusty boxes of old photographs and a committee that couldn’t agree on whether to serve tea or coffee. Everyone was talking about “curatorial vision” and… Continue reading
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Chairing So Everyone Gets Heard
I remember sitting in a drafty village hall back in the nineties, watching a perfectly good community project dissolve into nothing because the chairperson spent forty minutes arguing about the brand of biscuits rather than the budget. It’s a tragedy… Continue reading
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Leading a History Walk People Follow
I spent thirty years in local government, and if there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that people love to make simple things unnecessarily complicated. You’ll often hear folks saying you need a professional historian, a laminated guidebook, and a… Continue reading
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Organising a Delivery Round
I remember standing in a damp hallway back in ’94, clutching a stack of soggy, poorly printed flyers that looked more like junk mail than community news. I had spent three hours trying to figure out the “most efficient” route,… Continue reading
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Sound That Reaches the Back of the Field
I remember standing in the drafty village hall during our first neighbourhood street party, watching our chairperson struggle to be heard over the clatter of tea trays and a dozen overlapping conversations. We had spent our tiny budget on bunting… Continue reading
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A Newsletter You Can Keep Producing
People will tell you that you need a fancy website, a professional graphic designer, and a complicated subscription platform just to get the word out about the local allotments. They make it sound like a massive, expensive undertaking, but honestly,… Continue reading
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A Carer’s Assessment and What It Can Unlock
I remember sitting in a drafty community hall three years ago, listening to a local official explain that getting support was a “linear process” of forms and waiting. I looked at the tired faces of the residents around me and… Continue reading
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Putting Up a Noticeboard Legally
I remember standing in the rain outside the old parish hall in 1994, staring at a soggy, taped-up flyer that had just fallen off a telephone pole. It was a notice about a lost cat, but it was unreadable, and… Continue reading
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Someone Who Can Hold a Microphone
I remember sitting in a drafty village hall back in ’94, watching a lovely community fundraiser slowly sink into a sea of awkward silences and polite, painful coughing. We had the tea, the raffle prizes, and a decent little pot… Continue reading
