Image via Old Ladywood. Our shop is on the left-hand side of the road past The Ivy Bush pub.

When you approach a stranger on a busy street in the middle of the day and offer them a free cup of tea the most likely response will be ‘why?’ When you go on to explain that this cup of tea is integral to a programme of work designed to engage local people with each other and the spaces they inhabit they will then say ‘ok, but what for?’ It’s a valid question and one I have reflected on quite a bit since opening the shop a week ago, looking at our original motivations and aims and taking into account new ones as they emerge.

The whys and wherefores of a project like this can seem so soft and ephemeral that we are quick to dismiss them. But the more I think about what we can achieve the more inspired I feel. So, in brief, here is a list of reasons that Inhabit exists for us and for you:

• To connect people with each other
• To connect people to the space in which they live
• To make the high street and surrounding areas feel safer
• To stimulate inter-generational understanding
• To connect past with present and present with future
• To act as a signposting agent
• To provide access to participatory arts in an area where participation rates are low
• To elicit a sense of community or tap into a community that is already there but not felt or understood
• To ask people to try something new
• To hear people’s stories
• To question people’s beliefs about each other
• To create a lasting piece of work that will be a testament to this particular place and these particular people at this particular time
• To inspire people to be creative in their local area

Through the people we have met so far I have already seen a glimpse of what this project might look like in six weeks time. There has been such a lot of interest, sometimes from unexpected places, and a really positive response to the project so far. It’s unfortunate that the next question I expect to hear over and over is ‘why are you only here for a few weeks?’ The only adequate response I can give to that involves briefs, budgets and timescales but to those who might become quite invested in the project that kind of response won’t seem adequate at all.

• Karen's blog