Peat Carr and Moorsley Neighbourhood Challenge

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• Headlines from the project
• About their approach
• Challenges
• What's changed?
• What's next?

"..there is a lot of potential in Peat Carr and Moorlsey and people are willing to do something for themselves, the key is to make sure they have support to do so."  (Project blog)

"People have ideas but perhaps not the confidence to kick start something..." (Project blog)

This Neighbourhood Challenge project was led by Groundwork North East in partnership with Moorsley Residents Association, Friends of Peat Carr and the multi agency Coalfields Community Cohesion Group. Situated in the former Sunderland / Durham coalfield area, Peat Carr and Moorlsey are two adjoining neighbourhoods with a total of 787 houses and very little in the way of community facilities, community groups and community activity. With no community premises in Moorsley (the previous building 'The Hut' was contentiously removed by the Council several years before), the starting point from which it was possible to begin engagement was low.

The goal was to create debate, to share different points of view, and to enable residents to see themselves and areas within the community as assets which could play an essential part in addressing the problems that the residents themselves identified. Challenge Prize funds of £30,000 in total were available to provide an incentive to trigger new activity in the community. Ideas, projects and new solutions were to be generated by residents, with support from the project staff, and seed funding made available to help test out their proposals prior to the final Prize stage.

Some headline messages from the project

All the Neighbourhood Challenge projects offered rich opportunities for learning. We have picked out just a few specific insights from this project below:

• Creating trust and developing relationships takes time and cannot be rushed; the pace of change reflects people's previous experience and perceptions of the process. Here, the starting point was very low and as a result progress was very slow.
• Having a physical presence in the community is really important; it helps residents see what is going on and makes the people leading the process accessible. The project lacked a visible community presence and so found it challenging to engage local people and build up a momentum for involvement.
• Premises in the community are essential if people are to meet, develop new ideas and activities; they are a catalyst for community involvement.
• A contentious or significant local issue, like the loss of the Moorsley community building, can be instrumental in galvanising people into community involvement.

About their approach

With a Challenge Prize at its heart, this project aimed to get local people involved in seeing themselves as part of the solution to local problems; to move them from feeling 'done to' and to say "what can we do?". The project was made up of a staff member from Groundwork; a Steering Group of local people and agencies.  Events were held to engage local people; then seed funding helped to get project ideas tested; and the Challenge Prize aimed to incentivise people to get involved. This was a challenging process. Combined together, these elements resulted in a process that did three things: 1) started conversations and prompted new ideas; 2) grew and tested ideas and 3) helped people turn their ideas into action. 

1. Starting conversations and prompting new ideas 

"We need to keep a fine balance where we support enough to make sure the groups have thought about all eventualities but that we do not end up taking over." (Project blog)

The first step in engaging with the community involved 'piggy backing' onto events run by the social housing provider, Gentoo. This reflected a desire to build trust and acceptance gradually and to secure interest in Neighbourhood Challenge by being associated with an organisation well known to residents. Local people were invited to describe what they saw as the main problems in the area, suggest how those could be resolved, and also to offer their own time to those ideas.

A number of Make a Change days followed which picked up on the themes generated in the initial round of consultations, including healthy living, play and games, nature and heritage, and arts and crafts. The aim was to prompt residents to come up with their own ideas, and to show them the support that would be available to them if they did want to develop an idea by inviting relevant agencies to attend. 

Despite putting a lot of effort into widespread publicity, and holding events in a centrally located marquee, attendance was low, particularly from adults. The project regretted that contact details of local people were not captured from the early consultations and so people with specific ideas and interests could not be targeted for the theme/s that would be of interest to them. If they were to run a process like this again they would create a contact list from the outset that would then be the basis of their engagement work.

2. Growing and testing ideas

"We have a couple of groups who have grasped the idea of taking something on themselves with both hands which has been encouraging to see." (Project blog)

Although attendance was disappointing, there were some positive outcomes from the Make a Change events; several projects ideas started to emerge and further events were held to try and focus on these more specifically. 

The result was six applications made to the Challenge Prize including community gardens, a walking group, a toddler group, football coaching and a new community building for Moorsley. Three projects made it through to the second round and received seed funding to enable them to develop their ideas further and test them out with other residents prior to submitting a full Challenge Prize application.

With little experience of developing project ideas like this, most of the residents involved were hesitant, lacking in confidence and had little in the way of relevant experience to draw on. Working to deadlines was often new, as was the culture of completing application forms and proving a case for their project. The competition element of the Challenge Prize was also hard for people to understand and its scale was off-putting for some; it seemed to reinforce the fact that there would be a lot of work involved in getting their project off the ground. The culture of not taking part and of being 'done to' was particularly hard to overcome. Coupled with the lack of a presence in the area, this made the task of sustaining initial interest very difficult.

3. Turning ideas into action

"They have been given such a massive boost from seeing a reward for their hard work and this will give them the motivation to make their idea a reality." (Project blog)

Three projects went through to the second stage although only one submitted an application to the Challenge Prize, for a rented container to serve as the new community building in Moorsley. Of the other two, one struggled to find support for their idea from other residents, while the other did not have sufficient support among people who could offer time to develop the project sufficiently. 

Although there was only one entry to the Challenge Prize, it was still a well debated decision. While Moorsley Community Association had worked hard to provide a good case for a new building, and a door knocking exercise had generated a real interest in the project as well as over thirty new volunteers, it was felt that more consideration needed to be given to the question of covering costs into the future as well as several other areas of the project. The panel decided to announce the Community Association as the prize winners and to make an initial instalment, but with full payment pending the creation of a business plan and further research. 

So Neighbourhood Challenge came full circle - the lack of premises in Moorsley was identified at the outset as a problem and a proposal for a community meeting place ended up winning the Challenge Prize. It was evident that it was almost impossible for residents to come up with ideas for groups and activities when there would be nowhere for them to meet. However, as soon as that became a possibility, all sorts of ideas began to emerge. It was also the case that the loss of the earlier communal building was an issue that became a driving force behind some key people getting involved in Neighbourhood Challenge and securing benefits for Moorlsey. The previous building had been removed from the site several years before by the Council, which had created both anger and frustration among residents. By comparison, there was no similar significant issue of concern in Peat Carr, and overall the engagement there was less effective. It was also the case that there were key people in Peat Carr who wanted to be involved, but that life events intervened and they were unable to commit to projects. In such a small area, with a small pool of people to access, this proved to be a difficult issue to overcome.

What's been challenging?

"We think it will take many more years and more activities to finally persuade people that these things should not be met with suspicion." (Project blog)

The biggest challenge faced was the lack of community infrastructure - both in terms of actual facilities and the lack of active community based groups. Residents with little or no experience in getting involved, with no peer groups to look to for help, and with a suspicion of outside agencies, all resulted in an exceptionally low starting point for this project. It was disheartening for project staff and for those local people who were involved to have poor attendances at their events; to see only a few people come forward with project ideas and for those to largely fall by the wayside; and to experience lack of interest at first hand. Building relationships is a long process, particularly in situations like this, and the short project timescale combined with lack of infrastructure did not allow enough time for significant progress. 

More focus on the routine collection of people's contact details from the outset would have made some of the engagement easier. Without this information Groundwork was forced to create publicity for events that went to everyone and was not targeted; this lessened its impact and allowed those events people might have been interested in to fall under their radar. 

There were real difficulties in building trust based on individual relationships with the community. The lack of a physical Groundwork presence in the area was problematic and office premises in Peat Carr and Moorsley would have made them more visible and readily available to residents. Similarly, better use could have been made of the links Gentoo have with residents across the two communities in order to give Neighbourhood Challenge something of a head start. 

As a result there was some reliance on cajoling people to take on project leadership and to pull ideas together, and this was largely from among the few people already involved in community activity through the two residents groups. It is felt that it is no coincidence that the projects which were created in this top down way, and that did not evolve naturally from local people, did not progress in the Challenge Prize process.

What's changed?

Local assets have been unlocked

• Moorsley Community Association has been re-invigorated and has attracted new committee members and volunteers.
• The Nidderdale Centre in Peat Carr is being made more accessible to the wider community and to young people in particular.
• Over 40 hours of unpaid volunteer time was contributed to Neighbourhood Challenge each month.

Abilities and ambitions have grown

• Local people have helped co-ordinate and deliver Neighbourhood Challenge in Peat Carr and Moorsley.
• New skills were developed in all aspects of project scoping and planning.
• Individuals' confidence grew as they received empowering and enabling support that also nurtured their project ideas.

Creation of new networks, connections and collaborations

• There is greater potential for the two residents associations to work together in the future.
• There has been interest in the area from outside agencies as a result of Neighbourhood Challenge.
• Some service providers have worked in the area for the first time, including Sure Start and the youth service.

What next?

"Before the project there was apathy - people thought nothing would come from being involved. Now it's changed - there will be something to look forward to and something to show at the end of it." (Project workshop)

There will be a significant legacy from this project for the people of Peat Carr and Moorsley - their own community building that should act as a hub and a catalyst for all kinds of new activities and groups, as well as a place from which external agencies can deliver their services to the area. Groundwork, with others, will continue to support the Community Association as they formulate their plans further.

Read the Peat Carr and Moorsley Neighbourhood Challenge blog

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