Tag: life

• Community Sensei

  The people who have gone before Someone who has gone before In Karate, a Sensei isn’t simply a teacher. It doesn’t just mean instructor or coach. It literally translates as: someone who has gone before. Someone who has walked the path ahead of you. Someone who can help you navigate the learning.The doing.The journey. It’s…

  carljorgeson

  19th Mar 2026

  Uncategorised

  community, guardians, leadership, life, personal-development, place, relationships, sensei, volunteers

• Reclaiming the Commons

  Permission, belonging and the culture of public space There’s something slightly odd about modern public spaces. They are called public, but often don’t quite feel that way. Walk into almost any park and, if you look closely, you can sense the invisible rules. Football here. Dog walking there. Fences. Play equipment for younger children. Paths…

  carljorgeson

  10th Mar 2026

  Uncategorised

  beaches, belonging, cohesion, commons, community, computer says no, life, mental-health, open spaces, parks, permission, place, pride-in-place, rights, the commons, trust, writing

• Place Expansion:

  Notes on Stewardship from the Ground If you look only at the paperwork, Place Expansion can seem like a set of plans, milestones and reports. If you sit in the work long enough, it feels very different. It feels like conversations in cold parks and along the prom.Like volunteers staying late because they care.Like young…

  carljorgeson

  30th Jan 2026

  Uncategorised

  joseph-rowntree-foundation, life, love, mental-health, place-expansion, relationships, seachange, sport-england, writing

• What Are We Actually Trying to Learn?

  How Hartlepool Sport is using Test & Learn to shape Place Expansion When people hear “Test & Learn”, it’s easy to picture more sessions, more classes, more programmes. But that isn’t what we’re doing. Because if we simply delivered more activity, we might get busier — but we wouldn’t necessarily get better. For Hartlepool Sport,…

  carljorgeson

  30th Jan 2026

  Uncategorised

  community, life, movement, place-expansion, play, research, sport-england, writing

• The wrong operating system

  Working across many sports gives you a different perspective. And increasingly, it feels like parts of sport are running the wrong operating system. When governing bodies start behaving exclusively like businesses, something subtle shifts.Clubs, associations, athletes — and especially volunteer referees — stop being treated as partners and start being treated as customers. Or worse,…

  carljorgeson

  30th Jan 2026

  Uncategorised

  author, karate, life, mental-health, news, politics, referee, sport, volunteers