Jenny Fribbins | BD Collective

Is ‘Neighbourhood Working’ Competing with Local Charities?

by Jenny Fribbins | Jul 1, 2026 | BD_Collective

Recently, a head of a local VCFSE organisation asked me a question along the lines of: ‘if the Neighbourhood Networks were successful in their aim, wouldn’t it create more competition for the CICs and charities in our borough?’ In a landscape where charities and CICs...

Doing with, not doing to

by Jenny Fribbins | Feb 26, 2026 | BD_Collective

What does it look like when the VCFSE shifts towards building community – investing in residents’ confidence, connections and capabilities – so that residents can identify and act on what matters to them? That’s the question I came away with after a session with our...

Unlearning the Hierarchy – Why Systems Change Is So Much Harder Than It Sounds

by Jenny Fribbins | Dec 10, 2025 | BD_Collective

I want to be someone who helps to change the broken system that we’re working in. I’ve read, taken courses, watched the TED talks, and sat in all the meetings and webinars about system change, all about how we need to move from bureaucratic to human systems, all about...

Behind the Scenes of Hyper-Local Networks: Six Months of Learning

by Jenny Fribbins | Oct 2, 2025 | BD_Collective

🤔 How do you build neighbourhood networks that genuinely put residents in the driving seat? That’s the question we’ve been wrestling with in Barking and Dagenham. In April this year, BD_Collective signed a contract to facilitate the creation of ten hyper-local...