The Long Hop 2026: 5 Weeks, 11 Stops, and a Whole Lot of Community
Ten years into this tradition, The Long Hop 2026 still managed to surprise us – in the best ways. Over five weeks, the Jeder Beyond Team travelled across the UK to share Asset-Based Community Development with communities, local government, voluntary organisations and practitioners – and, as always, came home with more than we brought.
This year’s tour was our fullest yet: sixteen workshops across eleven locations, with 500+ people in rooms where stories got shared, leadership got practised, and “doing with, not to” moved from principle to lived experience.
Before the work began – Blackpool Pride WeekendThe team – Dee Brooks, Fiona Miller and Lee Griffiths – arrived on a Friday night, landing in Blackpool just in time for Pride Weekend. Lee’s hometown of Fleetwood was nearby, family was waiting, and the Funny Girls show was on the agenda.
As Dee put it: “It’s 11pm and we’ve just arrived in Blackpool for Pride Weekend – time to pass out for a while and see what tomorrow has in store!”
It was exactly the right way to begin.
Fun Fact: Fleetwood is the only place in the world Fisherman’s Friends are made!
Stroud – with Go Together (UK) The team – Dee Brooks, Fiona Miller and Lee The work kicked off in Stroud with an Introduction to Art of Hosting and Harvesting, delivered alongside our friend Richard Holmes at Go Together. The room did what good rooms do – it got honest quickly.
One participant summed it up better than we could:
“Today was a reminder that for me, being with like-minded people and sharing our stories is just like therapy.” – Laura, Stroud participant
This is why the team comes back every year
Merthyr Tydfil – with Merthyr Valleys Homes & Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board
Wales was next – and for Lee, it carried extra meaning. Merthyr is where his dad and grandparents grew up.
“What a great day in Wales,” Lee reflected. “It always fills my cup when there is a shift in the room. The passion ran deep.”
A participant captured that shift:
“Shift departments, keep pushing forward, collaborate with the others from this group, not wait for days like this and stop doing things on my own! We are going in the right direction!”
Bristol – with RAFT and Bristol City Council (twice)
Bristol became one of the most layered stops on the tour – the team visited twice, delivering three very different workshops with two very different groups.
The first visit was with RAFT, a newly formed peer-run recovery organisation. Rather than a standard community building workshop, the team explored living systems, horizontal leadership and shared leadership as a foundation for RAFT’s next steps.
As Lee wrote: “There is something really powerful about being with a group at the early stages of shaping an organisation, especially one grounded in peer support, recovery, lived experience and community.”
The second visit brought the team back to Bristol City Council – joined this time by some of the RAFT crew – for two half-day sessions on Collective Story Harvesting and Deeper Decision Making. Fiona’s graphic harvesting brought the energy of both days to life visually, capturing insights and emerging themes as they surfaced.
One participant reflected: “Today’s Sociocracy and Living Systems workshop showed me how to lean into the unknown, not take it personally and be comfortable with evolution!”
Between visits, Dee found time to fight a pirate in the park. (We are told she won.)
London – Stronger Things Conference with New Local, Guildhall
Seven hundred delegates. The Guildhall. The Stronger Things Conference with think tank New Local – and Jeder was in the Experience Zone.
Dee, Fiona, Lee and Richard delivered two workshops: ABCD and Beyond: A Practical Guide for Local Government – bringing the book of the same name to life through practical, participatory tools, stories and processes. The session drew from chapters including Time for Change: Rebels with a Cause, Co-Everything: Doing With, Not To, and Measuring What Matters: Data With Soul.
New Local’s reflection on the day: “Relationships are the glitter and the glue.”
The team had a stall, met a whole lot of interesting and passionate people, and Dee was so excited to take Fiona to Rockaway Park – a beloved Bristol spot – on the way through.
A happy accident on the road
En route from Edinburgh to Leeds, the team spotted a small motorway sign reading “Stone Circle”, near Keswick. They got off the motorway. From Bristol to East Sussex – a wander through Chawton Manor and Jane Austen’s house, and from East Sussex to Glasgow, a visit to the Lakes District and electronic bingo in Morecambe. They also went to the Derwent Pencil factory and enjoyed some colouring in. All in all, some quiet highights of the trip.
“It was absolutely stunning, emotional and just what we needed after the week of heatwave,” Dee wrote.
Fiona put it simply: “Day off. No work. Just adventuring. Stone circle. Cathedral. Lakes. Morecambe–Carlisle.”
Peterborough – ABCD Essentials with Family Action
Back to work – and this one was historic.
The two-day ABCD Essentials workshop delivered with Family Action in Peterborough was the first face-to-face ABCD Institute Essentials training delivered outside of the USA.
It was held in a community centre deeply embedded in local life. Centre volunteers, local community members and practitioners came together – not as separate groups, but as people with gifts, knowledge and lived experience to share
“The room was full of laughter, reflection, honesty and heart,” Lee wrote. “It was practical, immersive and, at moments, deeply emotional.”
On the second day, Fiona was giftes a necklace by one of the participants. They had had the necklace for many years and never known who it was a gift for. She met Fiona and knew who it was for. Fiona wears and treasures this.
After the workshop, the team wandered through Peterborough and its cathedral before heading back to Bristol for round two
East Sussex – Co-Everything – Plumpton Green, Hastings (x2), Eastbourne
Four days. Four communities. One golden thread: Co-Everything.
The team worked across Lewes District, Hastings and Eastbourne alongside Community Action East Sussex, Hastings Voluntary Action, Sussex Community Development Association, and Compass Arts – exploring ABCD, People vs Programmes, Asset Mapping, and what it means to do everything with communities, not to them.
In Hastings, something particularly special happened. Young people from the local community stepped up to co-facilitate alongside the team – not handed a script, but walking the path alongside people who’d walked it before.
Go Together’s Richard Holmes captured it: “For community-led approaches to sustain, we need to build capacity that’s grown alongside people, not poured into them from above.
It was also, by all accounts, one of the hottest weeks of the UK summer. Four days of workshops in venues with no air conditioning or fans, during a full heatwave. The team arrived in Hastings on a Friday evening, found a community-minded pub and played dominoes until closing time. The next morning, Dee was outside on a stool at sunrise, meeting neighbours and searching for a breeze.
They survived. Just.
The week ended with the team driving north to Morecambe, arriving with the sea in sight and the heatwave finally easing.
Glasgow – World Community Development Conference with IACD
The final stop. And the biggest.
The team spent four days at the World Community Development Conference in Glasgow, delivering and partnering across six workshops – sharing practical approaches to ABCD, queer community building, participatory leadership, youth partnerships and community-led change with delegates from around the world. Funny we had to travel so far to also catch up with so many of our Australian partners and peers.
A particular honour came at the Civic Reception at Glasgow City Chambers – where, to the sound of bagpipes in one of Glasgow’s most beautiful rooms, Dee formally handed the conference baton from WCDC Darwin 2023 to WCDC Glasgow 2026 in her role as Co-Chair of the Darwin conference.
Glasgow was also the occasion for the international launch of ABCD & Beyond: A Practical Guide for Local Government – generating strong interest from practitioners seeking practical ways to embed ABCD within local government.
You can get your copy here: www.jeder.com.au/abcd-and-beyond/
“Our international book launch at WCDC Glasgow was a treat!” – Dee
Glasgow – World Community Development Conference with IACD
| Metric | Long Hop 2026 |
|---|---|
| Time on the road | 5 weeks across the UK |
| Locations | 11 |
| Workshops & presentations | 16 |
| Participants | 500+ |
| Major conferences | 2 |
| Workshops at WCDC Glasgow | 6 |
| Book milestone | International launch of ABCD & Beyond: A Practical Guide for Local Government |
Thank you
The Long Hop doesn’t happen without the generosity of the people and organisations who open their doors. We are also hosting a free two hour on line networking event on the 25th August for everyone we met along the way. We have 36 registered so far. Consider joining us: The Long Hop 2026 Catch up
A heartfelt thank you to: Go Together and Richard Holmes, Merthyr Valleys Homes, Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board, RAFT, Bristol City Council, New Local, Family Action, Sussex Community Development Association, Hastings Voluntary Action, Community Action East Sussex, Compass Arts, and the International Association for Community Development (IACD).
And to every participant who stepped into the room with openness, honesty and care-the best learning always comes from you.
The Long Hop 2027
We’ll be back.
If you’d like to be part of it – whether as a host, a partner, or someone who wants to bring ABCD to your community – we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch at info@jeder.com.au
