Built in the 1920 and 1930's and about half an hour outside of Sheffield town centre, Shiregreen is an estate with attractive housing, shopping areas, community buildings and outdoor green spaces. It's a place that has always benefited from community activity, but this has tended to centre on smaller sports clubs and groups that were doing good work but were hidden from view and not so well connected with each other. Consequently there was an attitude amongst many residents that 'nothing happens here' - a myth that Shiregreen Community Homes Ltd was keen to expose through Neighbourhood Challenge.
"In estates like Shiregreen there is high unemployment and people lose a lot of confidence and they feel abandoned. Neighbourhood Challenge is helping to build confidence back up again. It's a tremendous job, which is harder than physical regeneration. It's trying to change the way people think and feel." (Shiregreen resident and volunteer)
A subsidiary of Sanctuary Housing Association, Shiregreen Community Homes oversees the management of 2500 homes on the estate and has made a commitment to making it a great place to live. Neighbourhood Challenge was an opportunity to focus on the strengths of the estate - the people and the places - and make the most of what they can offer. The vision was to build a sense of neighbourliness across Shiregreen and change the way people think and feel about their community.
All the Neighbourhood Challenge projects offered rich opportunities for learning. We have picked out just a few specific insights from this project here below:
Shiregreen Community Homes set out to recognise and celebrate what is already happening on the estate. At the same time they wanted to find new ways to get new people involved in community life. Their approach, from the outset, was very open and flexible and their mindset was one of 'let's give it a go'. Three things were important to the project: (1) going out into the community and finding out what people are good at; (2) encouraging people to try out something new and making the most of the outdoor and indoor spaces on the estate; (3) celebrating and reward all the good things that people do.
1. Finding out what people are good at
"We are not saying to people, 'can you volunteer?' We are saying, 'what are you interested in and what are you good at and could you use it to help others?'" (Project Director)
Because Shiregreen Neighbourhood Challenge was all about building on the strengths of the community, it was important to discover what local people were good at. But because it's not always easy to get people to blow their own trumpet, the project team decided to try out some fun and creative ways to spark up conversations with local people. One way was to ask a group of residents to be community researchers and take their 'talent spotting questionnaire' out to schools, shopping areas, events and barbeques and talk to people about their interests, abilities and ideas. Another approach used the artistic skills of a Shiregreen resident to create some fairground-style characters that were taken out and about to different events to find out whether people could see themselves as cooks, bakers, gardeners or anything else. All the information that was collected was then used to create a database of local skills and bring together clusters of people with the same interests or skills to develop new projects and activities.
The Let's Celebrate Shiregreen summer event provided more opportunities to get people thinking about the things they could do in the community. Bringing together 1900 people, the event was designed to generate ideas and enthusiasm for more community activities: for example the music stage was all about trying to get a music collective together; the gardening stall was capturing ideas to feed into the gardening project; the food stall was gathering recipes for a food project.
2. Trying out new things
"It been about giving people on the estate a chance to join in, learn new things and have fun with others." (Shiregreen resident and volunteer)
"This is different from a manicured project plan. It's been a more intuitive approach to get the blood flowing." (External partner and adviser)
"It's about believing in people and allowing them to do things in the way that they want to do them." (Project Director)
Shiregreen Neighbourhood Challenge has revealed that a lot can happen when residents' ideas are greeted with an enthusiastic can-do attitude and a collaborative approach. By building relationships between some key people within and outside Shiregreen, the project team were able to bring support, expertise and inspiration to local ideas. Connecting people that care about the same things and encouraging them to try out their ideas was the hallmark of this approach. The key to its success was encouraging people to follow their own passions and interests, rather than asking them to volunteer on a pre-designed scheme.
There are many stories from Shiregreen Neighbourhood Challenge to illustrate this: the three times world snooker champion, Steve Davies' visit to Shiregreen sparked an estate-wide snooker championship, which brought together children from primary and secondary schools; The Ministry of Food (Rotherham) delivered a series of ten week cooking courses which brought food enthusiasts together within the newly refurbished community cooking facilities and cafe; Groundwork Sheffield were invited to work with gardening enthusiasts following a successful rose-garden project led by an elderly resident; new sporting opportunities for young people have arisen out of joint initiatives with Sheffield Wednesday Football Club and Shiregreen Cricket Club.
There was a powerful 'ripple effect' from many of these initiatives, even when they were one-offs. They got new people involved, connected groups together, sparked wider interest outside of Shiregreen and attracted new skills and resources into the area. The 'Shiregreen Badminton Marathon' is a good example of this. A seemingly simple idea of a 36-hour badminton event put forward by a Shiregreen resident grew into a record breaking community spectacle that brought together a supportive coalition of people from different parts of the community and attracted national press attention. The offer of free coaching from Badminton England after the event brought in new resources. Meanwhile, the Shiregreen resident responsible for organising the event has gone on to secure a permanent post with Sanctuary Housing to support community communications across the estate.
This collaborative and opportunistic approach has made it possible for Shiregreen Neighbourhood Challenge to make the most of outdoor and indoor spaces on the estate, most notable of which has been the transformation of the Neighbourhood Centre, which has transferred from council to voluntary ownership.
3. Celebrating and rewarding all the good things that people do
"When you are applying reward to community action, you have to think 'what do we value?' and actually you start to realise it is quite often the small or less visible things that people do in neighbourhoods that add up to the biggest difference." (Project Director)
"It has proved to me that there are a lot of good people in Shiregreen." (Shiregreen resident)
"The Awards Night was lovely. It made you believe in things again." (Shiregreen resident and volunteer)
Over the course of the Shiregreen Neighbourhood Challenge year there were various debates about how to use reward to motivate people to get involved in their community. Different methods such as time banking, points-based and online systems were all considered.
In the end, more than one approach was adopted - partly because it was important to reach out to a wide range of people but also because the team wanted to ensure that the smaller and simpler things that people do in Shiregreen were valued. The Shiregreen Newsletter, blog and website showcased community activity; sponsorships and prizes rewarded individual contributions; and the Shiregreen's 'Dragon's Den' provided six new projects with access to expert advice and some start-up funding. One of the most innovative developments was Mission Explore, an online game developed in partnership with a local business, which rewarded young people for fun outdoor missions in the streets and open spaces of Shiregreen.
As Neighbourhood Challenge approached the end of its final year, an Awards Night was organized for over 300 people from Shiregreen who came together to celebrate neighbourliness and reward the things that people do for their community. The evening told a compelling story of Shiregreen's community spirit and demonstrated that celebration can be a powerful way of highlighting the many positives about community life whilst also getting new people together who may go on to do new things.
"What's happened is that the dust has been kicked up - this is unfamiliar to many people who are not used to things moving so quickly." (External adviser)
Some local people were not comfortable with the strengths-based approach of Shiregreen Neighbourhood Challenge and voiced some scepticism about the new people-focused approach. Where this was the case, the team's response was to keep talking and listening to all, whilst also bringing in new and different points of view. The experience highlighted the importance of strong leadership and the need to challenge negative responses in a respectful and constructive way.
It was also necessary to adapt the original project plan and to let go of some of the early ideas that were not popular with the community. For instance, the proposed Internet based time-banking system was replaced with smaller scale reward systems.
Although there was an aspiration to create a new food enterprise in the Neighbourhood Challenge year, it became clear that the vast amount of social activity on the estate could not be translated instantly into sustainable enterprises and new jobs. There is now a recognition that this will take some time to achieve and things will need to move at a pace that is determined not by a project plan but by the local people that are involved.
"It feels like there is a community spirit in the area again, people are doing things together. It's opened my eyes to the knowledge and skills that the residents and the kids have got." (Local partner)
"It's the togetherness of this community that has made a difference. It shines as a beacon to the rest of Sheffield." (Shiregreen resident)
Local assets have been unlocked
Abilities and ambitions have grown
Creation of new networks, connections and collaborations
New opportunities to influence
The growing profile of Shiregreen in Sheffield is opening up new opportunities for Shiregreen to influence and inspire others: The Project Director has been invited to join Sheffield wide strategic groups; a conference about skill/employment training was located on the estate; other housing associations are interested in what has been happening in Shiregreen
"A learning point has been that some aspects of the work need intensive co-ordination and professional infrastructure to support volunteers and take forward development and promotion." (Shiregreen Neighbourhood Challenge Project Director)
Shiregreen Neighbourhood Challenge was about trying out a different way of working with the community. It started with the strengths, passions, skills and ideas of local people and supported them to translate these into local community-led activities. The project director's role was seen as a catalyst that would provide encouragement and incentives to get things going. Because Neighbourhood Challenge has revealed the potential of this approach, Sanctuary Housing has taken the decision to commit new resources to build on the success of the first year. Two new people have been employed to continue to support, connect, reward and celebrate the many people and groups that have come together to make a difference in Shiregreen.
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This paper presents observations, drawing on evidence from the people that are funding, delivering and supporting the 17 Neighbourhood Challenge projects.
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