Everyday Projects

Every One Every Day builds on the imaginative ‘hands on’ projects that people have been creating over the last few years in their own neighbourhoods.

These practical projects make everyday life better for everyone, and the initiative has been designed so we can build a very large network of this activity. We need to create a lot of projects together to make a real difference - making life better for families, friends and neighbours. Every One Every Day will work with residents and local organisations to create a network of 250 projects across Barking and Dagenham.

These projects include sharing knowledge, spaces and resources, for families to work and play together, for bulk cooking, food growing, tree planting, for trading, making and repairing, and for growing community businesses.

Because these types of practical projects are designed for people to work together on an equal footing and are also social and enjoyable we know already that they create lots of mutual benefits for people taking part.

They make people feel welcome, happy and connected to neighbours from all walks of life; improve levels of health and wellbeing; increase learning and provide new pathways to work and self employment ... as well as helping to make neighbourhoods kinder to the planet by creating lots of opportunities to grow, share, repair and recycle.

We launched Every One Every Day in November 2017. If you live in Barking and Dagenham and want to start a project right away, please contact us below.

The Every One Every Day initiative is dedicated to making practical participation fully inclusive.

We know that only 3% of people in the UK are involved in neighbourhood projects, while 60% say they would like to be. Our research has shown that many opportunities for involvement locally are designed for people with more time and confidence, and that the majority of people have very busy lives, with work, raising children, caring for relatives or managing their own health issues.

Which is why we think that if we are serious about ensuring that everyone benefits from the effects of working together on practical projects, then we have to design the projects a certain way. We'll be working tirelessly throughout the first 5 years to take away all the logistical, cultural and structural barriers to participating regularly. 

All the projects through Every One Every Day will be supported by the initiative's infrastructure. This means that together we can grow a large network of projects and activity without any of them having to become their own micro-organisation involving complicated and time consuming processes.

Below are some of the design principles we will be using for the projects to ensure that the activity becomes part of the fabric of everyday life, not something requiring extraordinary amounts of time or heroic effort. We know that when we design projects in this way that it really helps people access practical participation, allowing people to experience the benefits first hand when they have the time, the skills or the inspiration.

We will be measuring all the benefits and outcomes from the activity, and making these metrics public immediately.  We think that showing what is being achieved through participation in practical projects is just as important to residents as it is to funders. We are aiming to create new set of Indices - linked directly to the practication outcomes.

Every One Every Day will be growing a network of projects and businesses across Barking and Dagenham over the next 5 years, launching in the borough in October and November 2017. It is a very ambitious project that aims to work with all the creativity and energy that already exists in the borough. Every One Every Day will invite people to suggest ideas for projects and businesses they would like to create together, providing the support needed to bring hundreds of these ideas to life quickly and without any complicated processes.

Every One Every Day will open 5 high street shops (starting with two in the first year) and a central warehouse. From these core spaces the team will work with people to create projects, arrange insurances and health and safety, facilitate the use of smaller functional spaces for the projects (kitchens, workshops, storage spaces etc), set up websites, produce newspapers, hold festivals, workshops and business development incubator programmes. 

The aim of all this activity is to enable people to work together more easily to improve every day life for everyone living in the borough, ensuring it's an exciting, vibrant place to live and work, to grow up in and to grow older in.

As the initiative grows and develops we will be working with new local partners and industry to create more and more opportunities for apprenticeships, training and work experience. These might include opportunities to learn about practical business develop, re-training or self-employment ... or ways to learn new skills in research, social innovation or design.

From the Warehouse spaces we will be running 4-6 Business Incubator Programmes each year. These will be running on a few specialist themes based on the interests expressed by people in Barking and Dagenham. The borough already has one of London's highest concentrations of businesses making and repairing products, from exclusive leather goods to sliced bread, from diesel fuel caps to jam.  This is an exciting ecosystem which represents the borough's amazing heritage - and a vital part of it's future for continuing to build an inclusive and sustainable local economy. We are currently mapping this network in order that the new projects and businesses can be fully connected with the existing organisations.  

The programmes will be part-time to allow for people with existing commitments to participate. They will be 6 - 10 weeks long and be an intensive development process to get ideas and products to market testing stage, within the borough or elsewhere, wherever the development process determines the best market for individual products or services might be.  The Incubator Programmes are particularly interested in growing the collections of local businesses which will increase the prosperity and wellbeing of people living in the borough right now and in the future,  that encourages community ownership and that supports Circular Economy thinking.

Businesses might take many different forms that will include a mixture of Co-operatives, Community Interest Companies, Limited Companies, self-employed micro businesses or Community Businesses.

Below are some of the specialist programmes we might be offering in the first year or two.

We will be launching the Business Incubator Programmes in 2018.

If you live in Barking and Dagenham and want to start developing a new business straight away, please contact us below.

Food

People who like to cook and want to start a new food business will benefit from the Business Incubator programme with specialist support to grow food, design food products, cafes or restaurants, develop branding and understanding of the financial principles of food businesses.  The programme will also focus on sustainability and environmental food concerns and connect the emerging business ideas with the Every One Every Day projects network. They will also connect with the existing local network of food businesses.

Finance

People have lots of new ideas for developing helpful tools for managing money, budgeting  or micro-lending or micro-investing.  From local currencies, to credit unions, bitcoins or apps designed to keep family spending on track, new financial organisations and products can help to improve there financial stability of individuals and families.

The Business Incubator will support people developing local ideas on new financial products and services aimed to supporting people, perhaps even start a new local bank?

Collaborative Childcare

Families working together to develop Childcare Cooperatives have proved to be exciting in neighbourhoods across the world.  Parents who wish to share in the care of their children are often attracted to the many co-operatives, which are often 50% cheaper than regular nurseries. 

Exciting versions have also sprung up -- such as HakerMoms -- Parents wanted space to learn, be creative and stimulated, and use their talents - not another play group. HackerMoms offers the time and space for new parents to meet and explore DIY, design and entrepreneurship - and all with on-site childcare.

The Business Incubator programme will help develop new ideas with local residents that will be unique to Barking and Dagenham.

digital making

The Every On Every Day Warehouse will have facilities for accessing equipment and materials to support people designing and testing new products.  From digital manufacturing (CNC, 3D printing, laser cutting) through hand tooled and crafted products, the equipment and support will be available for people to learn new skills, perhaps taking existing making expertise and putting it to new uses.

The Business Incubator programme will provide specialist support in taking your early ideas and products to a business level, including market testing, branding and financing.

Environment

Co-ops and businesses that care for habitats,  generating distributed forms energy from solar and wind, creating clever ways of dealing with waste through recycling and energy production. The possibilities are endless.

The Business Incubation process will help develop residents ideas, build communities of interest for ideas that need large networks of co-production or cooperation and work through financial models for sustainability.

Retail

Many people dream of opening a retail business, selling their own products or creating collections of products and services.  The business incubator programme will help individuals and teams reduce the risks of starting a new retail business by understanding their potential customers, designing retail combinations that they can test in the real world, with real people.  Every One Every Day might also create shared shops where many people can test their ideas, while they keep studying, caring for children or working elsewhere. We will share expertise from ideas like Hackney Pirates, a book shop at the front, a children’s creative writing camp at the back. Or PieLab, a high street cafe that sells pies, but also runs apprenticeships and makes an open community space.