What the CSF is about – Colin Grant’s perspective

The Civil Society Forum was formed to resolve the need caused by the increased challenges we face in society. Economic uncertainty, increased disenfranchisement, self absorbtion at the cost of social connectivity, reductionist thinking that underlies economic and business practice has contributed to an economic order characterized by huge jobless total (including thousands of young people in the UK who are unemployed or worse have never had a job), high stress in and out of work and other damaging unintended consequences on society and the world. All these have led to increased disconnectedness across society. This means that we have to find new ways of doing things. These will be the ways of ‘holistic thinking’ that will contribute to wholeness in society and our institutions. We cannot continue to do the same things in the same way and expect a different result.

The forum aims to act as a catalyst for this change by bringing together the different voices and diverse interests that need to be explored. We aim to encourage and support business organisations, social enterprises, communities and individuals to work together to enhance strategic thinking and systemic activity. This will lead to increased internal and cross-sector collaboration to maximise potential. We will experiment and promote ways of working that release resourcefulness and therefore better serve our collective interests.

By exploring the similarities and differences in all these disparate voices we can harness them to increase shared value and work to create a world where all can flourish.

The forum educates through holding events, by offering training through an expanding syllabus of ethically driven training courses and by bringing together and co-ordinating diverse groups of people together to collaborate in finding practical solutions to real problems.