SoWhoCaresAnyway E12 The Story Behind The Story

Are you ready to listen to a story and uncover the untold?

In this episode of #SoWhoCaresAnyway, I explore with Paul Stepczak how co-production and asset-based community development can transform the way communities and services work together. At its core, this approach is about listening—not just hearing words, but truly understanding the stories behind the stories, gaining real insight into people, their lives, concerns, and what matters to them.

Recognising people as assets rather than problems to solve, Paul embraces a real #DoWith approach—where collaboration isn’t imposed but built with communities.

Paul shares his journey, starting with his work at The Prince’s Trust, supporting young entrepreneurs, before returning to his own community. Seeing deep inequalities, he dedicated himself to ensuring people are heard as equals. His experience led him to specialise in co-production and asset-based community development, and today, he works for CWMPAS, contributing to the Start Something Good  Start Something Good project—an initiative delivering social hackathons to bring communities and services together for meaningful change.

In this episode, Paul, TEDx speaker, shares his five-point plan to ensure that co-production isn’t imposed but brings people together, giving everyone a voice to shape solutions through ongoing dialogue, ensuring long-term sustainability beyond the project itself.

Paul’s passion lies in listening to people and amplifying their voices, so come and listen—because understanding the stories behind the stories might just change everything.

Resources;

“Radical Help: How we can remake the relationships between us and revolutionise the welfare state” (2018) by Hillary Cottam https://www.hilarycottam.com/radical-help/

“The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference” By Malcolm Gladwell (2002)  https://www.gladwellbooks.com/

https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/projects/do-with 

The ladder of co-production