Co-pro example: Bethany Christian Trust

Starting with a blank page

Paul Stevenson from Bethany Christian Trust reflects on his experiences starting out on a new co-production project.

A new Word document with a blinking cursor can be intimidating for a writer. A blank canvas can be daunting for an artist. The silence of an empty sheet of manuscript paper can be unnerving for a composer. 

But they take a deep breath, make the first stroke and envisage something, often doing so alone. 

Getting started

Sometimes, though, we can’t do things alone. So, when it came to conceptualising a new service, instead of taking a deep breath and ploughing on solo, I asked others to get involved too. 

The only things that were already decided were:

• Funding – pledged sufficiently for undefined activities and a worker three days a week.

• Target Group – people in active addiction and individuals interested in recovery.

• Location – Dundee, Scotland’s drug death capital.

The questions we asked

With the above established, we found ourselves in need of a pioneering new team member to join our existing team of two. Someone who could work with people in addiction to create a bridge to recovery. A role that would build upon existing work that engages with 180 people in the city every year. 

A new service, like a blank canvas, opens up a world of creative opportunity. This service needed to be designed, a job description written and the role advertised. As existing staff, my colleagues at Bethany Christian Trust and I could have completed this whole process ourselves, but we know that for any service to be effective it needs to be co-produced with the people who will potentially use it.

The question we asked were:

• How do we effectively do that?

• How can we develop co-production so that it is not a tick box exercise or a one-off event?

Ideas taking shape

Thankfully, the co-pro ideas clinic gives individuals and organisations the opportunity to garner the input from people interested in coproduction from a variety of sectors. The first online clinic first flung open its virtual doors in April.

There were three breakout rooms, each with their own focus of exploration. Participants shared from a range of fields and expertise. Every contribution widened our collective understanding and knowledge over the course of the hour as participants shared their ideas, experiences and links to websites and resources.

Nine of us were in the breakout group discussing my idea. We discussed how the co-production process could look for developing the Dundee service, both imminently and in the future. It helped me to get my feet on the starting blocks, plan the journey ahead, and visualise the pace of that process.

It has also caused me to ensure that co-production remains in the frame, even when the canvas looks like it’s filling up or the composition looks like it’s taking shape. 

Thank you Co-production Network members for coming together to pioneer something new and giving impetus and insight to each of our journeys of coproduction through the clinic. Thanks also to those who participated in my breakout group, broke down the process and made it all the more accessible. 

The deep breath has been taken, together; collectively, the process of coproduction is underway.

Paul Stevenson is Director of Homelessness Prevention at Bethany Christian Trust.

After working for more than a decade in homelessness accommodation and addiction recovery centres in Scotland, India and Nepal; Paul turned his focus upstream to Homelessness Prevention. He now co-designs, and facilitates the implementation of new initiatives to prevent homelessness across Scotland.

Find out more about the Trust’s work on homelessness prevention.