"You need to empower the community, give people the tools to do things for themselves; this makes it much more sustainable, rather than bringing in people who don’t understand the area.” (Local resident and Challenge Prize winner)
“People never spoke to each other, even though they would be living just streets away; now people are volunteering and getting involved.” (CFM Programme Director)
Speke is a large outer-estate of Liverpool with a population of 10,000; it is physically isolated from surrounding residential areas, being bounded by the river Mersey and the main arterial road into the City centre, eight miles away. It was chosen by the Community Foundation for Merseyside (CFM), who were the lead organisation, as the location for the project because of its ranking as the most deprived ward in England and also due to the isolation felt by many residents.
Speke was also viewed by CFM as an area with few ‘grass roots’ community organisations, or links between organisations. While it had been the focus of various regeneration initiatives in the past, there was a legacy of scepticism amongst local people. There was a feeling that projects were ‘parachuted’ into the area with little reference to the views of local people and that they came and went without making any great difference. The fact that Speke had remained at the top of the list of most deprived wards in the country over many years was evidence of the failure of these initiatives in the community’s eyes.
As part of a baseline survey, people were asked what they thought were the key issues facing Speke and whether they would be willing to get involved to improve things, with most saying they wanted to help create change. The project appointed a co-ordinator to develop relationships with individuals and local groups and to get them thinking of ideas to improve the area that could go forward to the Challenge Prize; this was intended to stimulate new ideas that were developed by and for the community, with awards for the best that could be implemented.
All the Neighbourhood Challenge projects offered rich opportunities for learning. We have picked out just a few specific insights from this project below:
To begin with the project co-ordinator spent a considerable amount of time (1) building relationships and trust by simply having conversations with local people, talking about the project and trying to overcome the scepticism that many felt, given the areas history of previous initiatives. The Challenge Prize was then promoted to encourage community involvement and (2) develop ideas for change. Finally, the projects were supported to look forward and think about their sustainability so that they could increase their chances of (3) having lasting impact within the community.
1. Building relationships and trust
“The project worker… has been a consistent factor in getting people involved and being able to speak to and link to the grass roots. It makes a difference that she is not from the Council, but from a voluntary organisation.”(Participant at project workshop)
“Its getting groups to meet together, share and work together.” (Participant at project workshop)
By being very approachable and open about the project and importantly, asking people about their views and ideas and really listening to what they said, the project coordinator was able to overcome local scepticism and gain people’s trust. It was also important that she was seen in the area on a regular basis going out to visit people, rather than expecting them to come to her, which enabled her to make contact with new people.
When she began to talk about the Challenge Prize it became very apparent that many individuals lacked confidence and felt intimidated by anything to do with form filling or talking with different agencies. By encouraging and supporting peopleshe was able to build confidence For example, she helped a parent approach organisations that could provide assistance with her ideas for developing a support project for parents with young children. The project co-ordinator also encouraged people to gain new skills, for example by taking part in training on blogging, community research and health and safety.
2. Developing ideas for change
“Speke has been disconnected for years, money has just been thrown at the area, but now people are coming together and saying what they think should happen.”(Local worker and Challenge Prize winner)
“The Challenge Prize worked as a way of getting ideas, but needed more publicity, it got new people involved, but it could have reached more people.” (Participant at project workshop)
The lack of communication between the few community organisations in the area and the need to spend a lot of time working with individuals created difficulties in getting the message out about the Challenge Prize and what it involved. A well attended ‘neighbours day’ during the summer run by the local housing association, at which the project had a stall, helped to get people talking about their ideas for improving Speke. This included a ‘dragons den’ for young people to put forward their ideas. Leaflets were also produced and a project blog ‘Speak your Mind Speke’ set up to also provide a way of communicating about the Challenge Prize. The project co-ordinator played a key role in supporting individuals and groupsdevelop their ideas and in drafting proposals.
In December twelve projects presented their ideas to the Challenge Prize panel, the winners included projects focusing on post-natal depression, older people, a dad’s group, a drama project and a support project for parents. Each winner received ‘seed’ funding of £2,500. All but one of the projects were successful, the winners being given a support pack to help them in developing detailed proposals for the second stage. In January the winners met to see how they might work together and to jointly plan how to take their ideas forward. The intention was that they would then compete for a larger prize, with four winners to share £80,000. This was not carried out as planned and in practice the project found it difficult to move from a grant making model of funding, which was what CFM were familiar with, to a Challenge Prize.
3. Having a lasting impact
“We have been looking at financial sustainability and talking with other projects about what we might do jointly….”(Local resident and Challenge Prize winner)
“A local committee is being set up with the Challenge Prize groups and others will be able to join that will meet regularly and be part of the project’s legacy and sustainability. All the Challenge Prize projects have been asked to make a pledge to Speke; three things that they will do for their community and this will be reviewed annually.”(Project Co-ordinator)
The judging criteria for the second stage of the Challenge Prize required projects to not only say what impact they hoped to make, but to also demonstrate how they would meaningfully engage new people and continue their work beyond Neighbourhood Challenge. The project co-ordinator identified potential and actual longer-term support for prize winners by pointing them in the direction of Social Enterprise North West, local business, charitable trusts and the CVS. In addition projects were offered the opportunity to take part in Asset Based Community Debelopment trainingtraining to help them better identify what assets there are in the community and how to work with these. Some of the projects had already secured additional funding and support from other organisations.
Beyond this prize winners were asked to sign a pledge identifying three things that they would do for the community and to review this annually. A committee was formed of Challenge Prize winners as part of the project’s legacy. The intention was to involve other community groups and organisations to give the community a voice and more influence over the future of Speke.
“I grossly underestimated the time that needed to be invested and how much time (the project worker) would need to put into the area, but there has been a big increase in the numbers of people volunteering and this is snowballing.”(MCF Programme Director)
The project co-ordinator was new to the area, which increased the time she needed to get to know people and build relationships. It didn’t help that there were only a few community organisations to work through or that they tended to be very single-focused in their interests and did not communicate with each other. This both slowed progress and added to the difficulties of communicating effectively about the Challenge Prize.
The project was initially partnered by a local housing association; however CFM felt that it didn’t share the same interest in the project, and didn’t provide the support that had been anticipated. Some members of the community were said to be reluctant to get involved because of the project’s association with the housing association and their negative perceptions of it; this also slowed initial progress.
The Challenge Prize approach was entirely new to CFM and represented a substantial learning curve for the workers involved. This kind of financial award was also new to the community, who were more familiar with the notion of grant funding. Despite the hard work designing and implementing the Challenge Prize, the project found it hard to make the shift from a grant-funding approach which focuses on addressing needs to one that rewards good ideas and potential.
“Peoples’ self-belief and connections being made between groups. People are now more open and willing to engage.”(Project Co-ordinator)
“Getting various groups positively making a change across the generations.”(Participant at project workshop)
“The change in attitude amongst people; at the neighbourhood day last June people were questioning what we would be doing and were dismissive of it. Now they welcome it and are asking what will happen when the project worker goes.”(MCF Programme director)
Projects have been established that address local needs
Creation of new networks, connections and collaborations
A group of people from CFM are looking at how the organisation can continue to have a physical presence in Speke. The Merseyside Charitable Trust Group, who had previously received no requests for funding from Speke are planning to hold a ‘funding surgery’ in the area to encourage people to apply for resources for local activities.
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