Author: Deborah Castellanos
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Asking the Neighbourhood What It Wants
I remember sitting in a drafty church hall back in ’94, watching a professional consultant in a sharp suit try to explain to a room of skeptical residents why they needed a three-month “engagement period” and a five-figure budget. It… Continue reading
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Practical Conservation Work by Season
I remember sitting in a drafty village hall back in ’94, watching a group of well-meaning locals get completely defeated by a thirty-page application form for a tiny woodland grant. They had the passion and the muddy boots, but they… Continue reading
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Pricing a Ticket From the Budget Up
I remember sitting in a drafty church hall back in ’94, staring at a stack of handwritten slips and a calculator, feeling utterly paralyzed. We were trying to host a simple street fayre to fund the new playground, but everyone… Continue reading
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A Shift in a Food Bank
I remember sitting in a drafty church hall back in ’94, staring at a stack of disorganized donation forms and wondering why everyone made helping people feel so exhausting. Most people think that figuring out how to volunteer in a… Continue reading
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Reporting a Road Fault to the Right Body
I remember sitting in a drafty community hall back in ’94, watching a perfectly reasonable group of neighbors dissolve into shouting matches because nobody could remember if the council had actually received their formal complaint about the crater on Elm… Continue reading
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Why the Street Is Called That
I remember sitting in a damp, windowless basement archive back in the nineties, surrounded by nothing but the smell of decaying glue and old ink, trying to figure out why our local residents were so convinced a certain lane was… Continue reading
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Arguing for a Bus Route With Numbers
I remember sitting in a drafty church hall back in ’94, watching a local councillor try to explain a “community engagement framework” to a room full of people who just wanted to know if the 42 bus was still going… Continue reading
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Running a Bar That Breaks Even
People will tell you that learning how to run a bar requires a massive commercial loan, a designer interior, and a cocktail menu that looks like it belongs in a London hotel. They make it sound like some high-stakes, glamorous… Continue reading
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Befriending and Where Its Limits Are
I remember sitting in a drafty church hall back in ’94, listening to a consultant drone on about “intergenerational synergy frameworks” while trying to figure out how to get three lonely widows a ride to the chemist. It was all… Continue reading
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Food Safety at a Village Fete
I remember a summer afternoon in the parish hall back in ’98, the air thick with the smell of lukewarm tea and something distinctly off coming from the communal sausage rolls. We had spent months fundraising for the new playground,… Continue reading
