Meet Laura!
Laura co-founded Power With during the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in spring 2020. She is funny, creative, loves to listen to music, and leads an amazing virtual dance party!
Name, or what you would prefer to be known as:
Laura Steen
What does Power With mean to you?
Ohh it means many things! Working together for a common goal. Democratizing decision making - making decisions with people rather than for them. Challenging power imbalances. It means listening before acting. A cultivation of spaces to learn and grow together. The building of a warm and inclusive community.
What do you do at Power With?
I’m one of the founding mothers! Together with Alice and Carolina, through the Year Here Social Innovation Programme, I was involved in the initial stages of setting up as a business, from pitching for our first seed funding to building connections with what is now the PW community and partners. I had to take a step back for a while for other work and personal commitments, always cheering from the sidelines and watching the organization go from strength to strength. I recently came back on board to facilitate some sessions where a few of the Power With community and I have been putting our heads together to come up with content ideas for this very website. I hope to always be part of the community in some form because what they are doing is fantastic and so important.
What do you bring to Power With?
Facilitation skills, creativity, humor, a love of people and encouraging collaborative working for the greater good! I’m also always up for sharing tunes to brighten days.
How have you grown from being part of Power With so far?
Pretty much everything I’ve experienced on Power With was a first for me, from all the formalities of setting up a business, to having meetings with people at all sorts of levels in the homelessness sector. So in that respect it has definitely helped with my confidence, both in myself and in humanity. It's very inspiring to work with people and discover organizations that genuinely care about people, care about co-production, about putting those with lived experience at the heart of decision making.
If you could choose one song to soundtrack your life what would it be?
‘Young Hearts, Run Free’ by Candi Staton, it reminds me of driving in the car back from my first job in a call center in Brighton with my step-mum listening to Heart FM. Whenever it came on we would scream along. I love the message of the song and the feelings it evokes in me, it makes me feel powerful and always gets me up dancing, dragging whoever is fortunate enough to be by my side with me.
What is your favourite phrase?
‘Work like a captain, Play like a pirate’ I saw this written on the side of a pub on my birthday this year and decided it was to be my new life mantra. I grew up in Cornwall, so naturally I was drawn to it and of course because life is all about balance.
Draw yourself or something that represents you…
An otter!
Drawing by community member, Caroline Hadley.
