ProjectChange: How we think about collaboration

ProjectChange was set up in 2020 with the aim of creating spaces where care experienced voices lead conversations, to create the change they want to see in the areas that matter. Their mission is to give care experienced people the tools to grow their voice and shape change.

Their goal is to shake things up, and find new ways of doing things.

In this blog, Rachael Borthwick, the development officer at ProjectChange, looks at how we think about collaboration, the importance of being able to enjoy the process, and how the way we work can be reflected in what we create.

“Collaboration” and “community” have been absolutely rinsed. They’re often the words we use to describe what we care about, without always naming how that care is actually felt or experienced in the work itself, and they’ve probably been ticked off a flipchart somewhere under Ways of Working more times than any of us would like to admit.

But in my experience, collaboration isn’t really a strategy or a framework. It’s a relationship.

Over the past while, I’ve been working alongside Jenny Lewis from North Ayrshire. On paper, it was a straightforward collaboration: different roles, shared aims, work happening in community. In reality, what made it work was much simpler and much more human— we got to know each other.

Not just what we do: but how we think, how we make decisions, what we care about, what we find funny, and when to push and when to pause. All of that mattered far more than any meeting structure or agreed outcomes ever could.

Having fun can make good judgement possible

There’s a strange idea in professional spaces that if we’re enjoying ourselves, we must not be working hard enough— as if laughter is a sign something has gone terribly wrong. But some of the strongest work we delivered came from spaces where there was room to relax, think out loud, and occasionally laugh at the absurdity of the systems we’re all trying to navigate.

Working with Jenny reminded me that fun isn’t the opposite of professionalism. It’s often the thing that makes good judgement possible. When people feel at ease, they take better risks. They listen more carefully. They’re more likely to say, “I’m not sure about that,” instead of nodding politely and hoping the problem goes away.

And yes, fun was part of that. Not forced fun. Not icebreakers that make you consider faking a fire alarm. Space to enjoy the people you’re working with. It wasn’t a distraction from the work; it was part of what made the work possible. That might sound counterintuitive in systems that prize business and exhaustion as proof of commitment. When work becomes all output and no humanity, anxiety creeps in. Everything feels heavier than it needs to be. You start mistaking urgency for importance. I’ve learned, sometimes the hard way, that when work feels suffocating, it’s often because something human has been squeezed out of it: curiosity, connection, or joy. Good collaboration puts those things back in.

That doesn’t mean avoiding difficult conversations or glossing over complexity. In fact, it often makes honesty easier. When you trust the person, you’re working with, you can name uncertainty, disagreement, and discomfort without it turning into defensiveness.

Grounding collaboration in relationships

That matters deeply in work connected to the promise. If we want care experienced people to experience relationships that are safe, responsive, and human, then the way we work together has to reflect that too. We can’t build relational systems through transactional ways of working.

The collaboration with Jenny worked because it was grounded in relationship first and task second: because we allowed ourselves to enjoy the work and each other’s company while doing something that mattered.

So yes, collaboration can be strategic. It can be planned. It can even involve a spreadsheet. But if it doesn’t leave room for trust, humour, and genuine connection, it’s probably just parallel working with a nicer label.

And honestly? Everyone deserves better than that.