Learning Partners
What if the work we do is shaped not just by a team - but by the relationships we grow with others?
In our work we collaborate with others to create spaces for learning, imagination, and action. Sometimes this looks like co-designing and delivering projects together. Other times it is about sharing practices, questions, and ways of working. It can also be simply learning alongside each other over time. Each relationship is different, and all of them shape our work.
These ongoing relationships of learning, experimentation, and shared enquiry are always evolving. New ones form. Others deepen over time. Together, they create a wider field of learning, care, and possibility within which our work takes shape. We learn from and alongside people who bring different practices, perspectives, and ways of knowing. These collaborations are one part of a wider ecology of relationships that shapes our work. ↗ People
Dudley People’s School for Climate Justice learning partners and collaborators
Through Dudley People’s School for Climate Justice, we collaborate with a number of partners to create diverse opportunities for learning and action. These collaborations bring together creativity, technology, research, storytelling, and community practice. They are resourced through the National Lottery Community Fund’s Climate Action Fund.
Ekho Collective CIC
Ekho Collective nurture communities through creativity, sustainability, and nature connection.
Based at Hawbush Community Gardens in Brierley Hill, they are working with us on Growing Land Connections - exploring relationships between people, land, and learning.
Workshop 24
Workshop 24 create immersive, multi-layered projects with local people - through creative workshops, explorations of place, and radio. Their work invites participation, storytelling, and imagination.
Together, we are collaborating through Dudley People’s School for Climate Justice, with Workhop 24 leading Getting Into Hot Water.
Common Knowledge
Common Knowledge are a worker co-operative of technologists, designers, researchers, and facilitators.
Working with grassroots organisers and communities globally, they are supporting the co-design of the Dudley Time Portal, a living archive and digital commons.
Bridget McKenzie (Flow Associates and Climate Museum UK)
Bridget brings decades of experience in arts, heritage, and education. She founded Flow UK in 2006. In 2018, she initiated Climate Museum UK and then in 2019, co-founded the Culture Declares Emergency movement.
Bridget supports our learning and evaluation work in relation to Dudley People’s School for Climate Justice, helping us to reflect on what is emerging, and how it might evolve.
Raechel Kelly (The Liminality and Planet Cheltenham)
Since 2022 a gentle learning exchange has been taking place between CoLab Dudley and Planet Cheltenham.
Raechel works at the intersection of people, place, and systems change. Alongside Bridget Mckenzie, she has supported learning and evaluation for the Dudley People’s School for Climate Justice, bringing a focus on care, reflection, and real-world practice.
Beyond Books (CIVIC SQUARE)
Beyond Books is a platform created by CIVIC SQUARE for sharing stories, knowledge, and imagination.
They are supporting the People’s School by sourcing and sharing books, helping to open up spaces for reading, reflection, and conversation.
Understory learning partners
Understory is shaped through collaboration across multiple places. Together, we are exploring connection, story, and community in different contexts—learning with and from each other. This work is resourced through the National Lottery Community Fund’s UK Fund.
Onion Collective CIC
Onion Collective catalyse community and cultural activity in Watchet, grounded in connection, compassion, and curiosity.
They believe a different kind of economy is possible and are working to demonstrate the future through East Quay and other projects.
Make/Shift
Make/Shift collaborate with communities in Amber Valley, Derbyshire, to create, repair, grow, and care for what matters locally.
Their work centres participation, creativity, and connection to place.
Minehead and Coast Development Trust
Working to strengthen community, environment, and local economy in Minehead, the Minehead & Coast Development Trust brings deep local knowledge and care for place, celebrating everything that makes Minehead special.
Parlour
Parlour create tools and practices that help communities reflect on their past and imagine their future.
They support Understory through mapping, play, and creative exploration.
↗ Parlour
- Rachel Smith, Make/Shift, summer 2025 following a team Learning Exchange in Dudley.
Academic collaborations
Through introductions by CoLab Dudley team member Holly we have nurtured relationships with academics and students of the Birmingham School of Architecture and Design at Birmingham City University (BCU). Holly also secured funding to undertake a practice-based PhD with CoLab Dudley through BCU.
Midlands4Cities PhD
Midlands4Cities brings together eight leading universities across the Midlands to support PhD research students.
CoLab Dudley is the site of practice of a PhD undertaken by Holly Doron, in collaboration with Birmingham School of Architecture and Design.
↗ Holly's blog posts documenting her PhD research and learning
Collaborative Laboratory (Co.LAB), Birmingham City University
Collaborative Laboratory (Co.LAB) is a design and research initiative involving students from multiple courses and a wide range of creative disciplines working on collaborative projects with all kinds of organisations, creatives and companies.
We have co-hosted a number of these collaborations.
Extinction Rebellion Architecture Studio, Birmingham School of Architecture
The Extinction Rebellion Architecture studio is for the Masters of Architecture students at Birmingham City University. It pushes the boundaries of architectural production to explore architecture that aims to be an active part of the solution to the climate crisis.
CoLab Dudley has been collaborating with students engaging in the Extinction Rebellion Architecture since 2021, working on ideas for a regenerative High Street in Dudley.
Fellow Travellers
Alongside our core collaborations, we are in ongoing relationship with others - sharing learning, practices, and questions over time. These relationships are not always tied to a single project. They are part of a wider field of mutual learning. This kinship, pollination and emerging collaborations are supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Emerging Futures resourcing.
- Andy Edwards, Makespace Oxford, summer 2025
Makespace Oxford
Makespace unlock spaces for community use across Oxfordshire.
Our relationship has centred on shared learning—exploring practices like detectorism, Stories of Place, and long-term thinking.
Bioregional Learning Centre
Working in South Devon and beyond, the Bioregional Learning Centre convenes conversations and collaborations for long-term resilience.
We are grateful for the learning and inspiration shared through this connection.
CIVIC SQUARE
Based in Ladywood, Birmingham, CIVIC SQUARE are building neighbourhood-scale infrastructure for social and ecological transition.
We have a long-standing relationship, including shared learning journeys and collaborations.
For example, in 2022 we hosted a Doughnut Economics Peer-to Peer Learning Journey in Dudley, to go deeper into the ideas of Doughnut Economics at the scale of the household, street and neighbourhood with CIVIC SQUARE and their collaborators.
Hood Futures Studio
Hood Futures Studio (evolving from MAIA) creates spaces for reimagining systems and futures rooted in the Black imagination.
We have collaborated through shared learning around care, culture, and evaluation practices.
"Our beloved peers Jo and Lorna at CoLab Dudley introduced us to the Principles-Focused Evaluation (PFE) framework, developed by Michael Quinn Patton." ↗ GRAFF: Accounting as Care Practice and Cultural Strategy
We Can Make
WeCanMake is a community-led response to the housing crisis in Bristol.
Our exchange has focused on sharing approaches to principles and long-term change.
In 2023 we shared our experiences of using Principles-Focused Evaluation with the We Can Make team. They went on to craft and socialise their own GUIDEing Principles ↗ We Can Make principles
The Bioregional Library
The Bioregional Library is a digital commons for place-based storytelling and art, rooted in landscapes, seascapes and skyscapes.
We’re in gentle conversation and exchange with Trish, who instigated and tends The Bioregional Library.
You might already be part of this wider field.
Or just beginning to find your way into it.
We are open to new connections and to learning together.
Contact us: colabdudley@gmail.com
This website page was developed through collaborative writing involving the CoLab Dudley team and AI-supported dialogue.
↗ Read more about our approach to AI and digital sobriety here.