Resonance - Twenty Years Of Impact - Report - Page 12
Authority and flexibility
So from 2004-2006 Resonance was based in the living room of the new spaceship
flat known as the Yellow House, and this makeshift office meant Daniel got a little
perspective basing the business from somewhere other than someone else’s offices
and Resonance started to develop a stronger identity of its own. Resonance was
starting to become a significant presence where entrepreneurs would get the map
they needed to do things differently, providing an alternative way of working for
many who were demanding change but couldn’t work out how to get there. We
met cafe owners, writers, farmers, builders, church leaders, warehouse managers,
architects, school leaders, all who needed serious input to move forward. Many
would want to create a sustainable enterprise, feed their family but invest the
profits back into the organisation. Daniel was there with the map, the language,
the examples, the connections to help them off the starting blocks. We as a family
would visit these places as they grew, use their services, buy their furniture,
visit their schools, eat at their cafes. This was personal. We would find Social
Enterprises whilst we were on holiday and go explore what they were doing. These
people attempting to lead social change in their communities were supported
by Resonance and then they told their friends; it was flexible, moving, forward
thinking, responsive to the needs of society and exciting. There was nothing that
could not be solved and there was very obviously a growing need for change in
society’s structures.
“Resonance was starting to become a significant presence
where entrepreneurs would get the map they needed to do
things differently, providing an alternative way of working for
many who were demanding change but couldn’t work out how
to get there.”
Launceston, Cornwall
I’m Cornish and many folk are mistaken in thinking that Cornwall is a blissful,
sandy haven of holiday calm. The reality is that the rising house prices means the
deprivation and inequality within communities is as devastating as it is across
other more obvious parts of the country. With Daniel now spending a week a
month working in Cornwall with local Cornish social enterprises, and me missing
my motherland, it became obvious that living in a deprived, less central part
of the country may be an equally effective way of developing Resonance. The
communities which were most at need were not always near the City of London
and we didn’t think it had to be the only place for a financial headquarters. London
office rent and rates were also incredibly high, so Launceston seemed more and
more to be the answer.
We set up Resonance in an old, listed building where we as a family lived upstairs
and Daniel ran Resonance from the ground floor completely on his own. On the
day of moving, we hired two vans from a social enterprise in East London and each
of us drove a van with a child next to us, one Sunday morning from Canning Town
to Launceston. The building was three times the size of our little London flat and
needed loads of work, but it was ours. I remember thinking we would never find
enough furniture to fill it.
After many months of working through the detail, Resonance facilitated a complex
property purchase in a deprived town in Cornwall, giving a home to some
vulnerable people in the county. Whilst it was a drop in the ocean to others, to us
it was the moment things moved up a gear – something we could take pride in, a
very real accomplishment. I bought Daniel a sign that day and dated it on the back.
It hangs in our hallway: ‘Expect a miracle’. At the time it really did feel like it.
The team
Shirley was the first to join the Resonance family as a support to Daniel. Our
children, who are both now grown up, remember walking through the office
as infants and chatting to her and Daniel, witnessing the growth, seeing their
dedication. They were and still are, very proud of their dad.
Shirley was the first employee of what would grow to be the amazing Resonance
team for which we hold such affection. We were so small at the start that I had to
sit on the interview panel and appear as though I was an employee rather than the
wife. As it grew, I saw the huge burden that Daniel had chosen to carry, gradually
lighten. He had occasionally suffered from heavy spontaneous nose bleeds at times
of stress, but they never came back after the team grew and the partnership began
between Daniel and Simon in 2012. There is nothing quite like finding someone in
your professional life who can understand you but possess all the strengths you do
not have – this is Daniel and Simon.
The team grew and grew and eventually other offices were opened, like a child
leaving home. Daniel started taking holidays and turning his phone off. After
putting the children to bed he started not returning to the ground floor to put in a
few more hours. At each Resonance whole team away day the faces kept changing
and the chairs kept increasing. I love attending the Resonance events and meeting
new team members, hearing about the growth, their motivation for joining, the
funds they run. I delight that it has turned into a whole team of people driving
ahead what so desperately needs to be done in communities. But whenever I am
there, in the background, however hard I listen to all the presentations, I can only
just comprehend the amazing phenomenon in the room. The result of years of
laser focused collaboration with so many varied people. I remember a few months
after the opening of the Launceston office, Daniel called upstairs to me: “Rebecca
- you won’t believe it. I’ve just been sent the first issue of a magazine and it’s just
titled ‘Social Enterprise’ I think this might catch on!
“There is nothing quite like finding someone in your
professional life who can understand you but possess all the
strengths you do not have.”
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“EVERY TIME WE TRIED TO
EXPLAIN RESONANCE TO
SOMEONE IT FELT MORE AND
MORE LIKE THE BUSINESS WAS
INVENTING A NEW SECTOR. IT
JUST WOULDN’T STAY IN A BOX”.
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