Firstly, a massive thank you to York Press readers!

In my last column I asked you to send me six-word stories about cultural life in York: your replies provided wonderful insights and have given me much food for thought. The standfirst above is taken from one of those contributions - more on that later.

My call for six-word stories led to a conversation with Professor Helen Smith from the University of York. She is one of the team behind the York Centre for Print which has just relaunched Thin Ice Press in its new home at the School House on Peasholme Green.

Helen asked to collaborate with us to celebrate my Six-Word Story Challenge and so give our fabulous six-word authors the opportunity to come to a workshop with Thin Ice Press to immortalise their stories. I love these serendipitous moments and the opportunities they present for new collaborations and partnerships. I will keep you posted on development as we progress.

Now back to “Community creates the passion for change”.

This lovely story came from Miles Goring, co-founder of York-based organisation Lived Insights.

We met up after Miles sent in his story so that I could find out more about Lived Insights

In case you haven’t come across them, Lived Insights provide feedback to organisations and services from people with lived experience who have real insight about the difference, or lack thereof, the service makes for them.

Miles and I talked about Explore, how we want to be shaped by our communities, and how he thought we could make that a reality.

One of the most important things that came from our conversation was that the simplest questions can offer the deepest insights. Just ask: “What do you need from us?”

Explore is a registered society owned by our staff and our community members. We are governed by charitable community benefit society rules so everything we do is for the benefit of our communities. Any money we make goes straight back into our core purpose.

Explore was set up to enhance the lives of people in York. It aims to reflect and develop a lively, inclusive community, through library, archive, learning, and creative activities in our trusted spaces,. We want, among other things, to give people chance to read, meet, learn, imagine, create and belong.

One of my goals this year is to reinvigorate the relationship we have with our community members. They are already keen supporters of Explore and it is critical that we understand what they need from us, and in return that we are clear what we need from them.

Our community members, who hold shares in Explore, have a say in what we do based on one member one vote.

Last month, to start the conversation, I wrote to all our community members (over 700 of them) to check we have their correct details and to ask them to write back to us back to us by August 20 to confirm that they want to remain on the register.

If you think you are a community member, but haven’t received a letter, please get in touch at contact@exploreyork.org.uk. For those of you who are not yet members, but interested in getting involved, please watch this space!

Finally, continuing the theme of communities creating the passion for change, Explore is celebrating its 10th Anniversary in 2024.

Over the summer, we’re looking at the ways Explore sparks children’s imaginations. When I was working at Acomb Explore the other day, there was a real sense of excitement and anticipation about this year’s challenge, 'Marvellous Makers', with many young visitors asking when they could sign up.

You may also have seen recently in The Press that we are asking young people who have participated in the Summer Reading Challenge over the past ten years to share their stories of how it inspired them. Please do send in your story!

I love this time of year; listening in to the conversations our teams have with our younger readers and hearing all about the fantastic books they have read. They even let me loose to help and talk to visitors myself!

If you would like to help us feed curious minds by supporting holiday activities for children and young people, you can donate at exploreyork.org.uk/support-us/giving/ or give in person at any of our libraries.

Alternatively, come along to our family fundraising day on Saturday August 17 at York Explore. Join us for a day of fun, community spirit, and the chance to support a great cause. Let’s continue to create the passion for change together.

  • Jenny Layfield is chief executive of Explore York Libraries and Archives