designing community projects for coventry university

Designing a new community initiative, and introducing Social Life’s work

A workshop for Coventry University

8th October 2013

Social Life’s aim is to put people at the heart of placemaking, we work in the UK and internationally.

We continue to build neighborhoods that fail to thrive as flourishing communities and struggle finding ways to revive failing areas.

Where are the people?

•  Our

Our organisational heritage

Today’s workshop

Aims:

•  to introduce Coventry University’s Centre for Social Relations to Social Life’s work

•  to use social design and innovation methods to develop ideas for a “neighbourhood university” in Foleshill

Our work

Our starting point

The first question: what is a community?

An alternative view

•  Physical boundaries to promote geographical identity

•  Local myths & stories •  Visible leadership •  Strong social relationships, networks & bonds •  Rituals and rhythms •  Shared belief systems, garden cities, new towns,

eco-cities

Stuck vs dynamic?

A framework for social sustainability

The Young Foundation/Social Life Social Sustainability Framework, 2011

What we do

We do research and use ethnography

We use data

We advise organisations across sectors

We run practical projects

We facilitate discussions

Innovation methods

Understanding how places innovate

The Young Foundation social innovation spiral

Framing Malmö’s innovation story

Disengaged communities, poor education, high levels of disadvantage

Consensus about need for new approach

Data/studies on social need

External inspiration, social design principles, co-design solutions with participants

Learn from success of environmental sustainability programmes

Malmö is known internationally for green tech but also in Scandanavia for its social problems

Prompts Innovations develop as a result of urgent need: this can be commercial, social or political

There are many tools to help people make the link between needs and activities

Your task Using prompt cards, think about the neighbourhood university.

How could this work?

Big neighbourhood data

Wellbeing and resilience in Poplar

Wellbeing Resilience

13 indicators made up of 35 questions measuring dimensions of social sustainability.

Social sustainability indicators

!0.4% !0.3% !0.2% !0.1% 0% 0.1% 0.2% 0.3% 0.4% 0.5%

How%safe%do%you%feel%walking%alone%a9er%dark%in%wider%area*%

Have%been%asked%what%you%what%you%think%*%

How%sa@sfied%or%dissa@sfied%are%you%with%your%local%area%as%a%

Most%people%can%be%trusted%or%you%cannot%be%too%careful%with%

I%borrow%things%and%exchange%favours%with%my%neighbours*%

%People%pull%together%to%improve%neighbourhood*%

Felt%you%were%playing%a%useful%part%in%things_*%

%Tried%to%get%something%done%about%the%local%environment*%

How%important%is%it%for%you%personally%to%feel%that%you%can%

Can%you%influence%decisions%affec@ng%area*%

Been%feeling%reasonable%happy*%

How%safe%do%you%feel%walking%alone%in%this%area%during%the%day%in%

Feel%like%I%belong%to%this%neighbourhood_*%

Plan%to%remain%resident%of%this%neighbourhood%for%a%number%of%

%Importance%of%where%you%live%to%sense%of%who%you%are*%

No%problems%affec@ng%facili@es%in%local%area*%

Series1%

Comparable area benchmarks: statistically significant results

Empire Square Imperial Wharf

Knowle Village The Hamptons

Cressingham Gardens SW2

Neighbourhood data Data can be used a tool to help understand and think about places, sometimes it provokes strong reactions

Data that reveals how people feel about a place and how they experience their lives often tells a very different story to conventional deprivation statistics

Your task Look at the maps of Foleshill what do these tell you?

Is the data about what we would expect to find in comparable areas useful? Misleading? Downright wrong?

Mapping community assets

Eco Bicester: we worked with Cherwell council and the developer of exemplar stage, A2Dominion, to build social sustainability into the ambitious new development, planned to be 20,000 homes over 20 years.

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Bicester Community Asset Map

Eco-town Site

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Bicester Community Asset

March 2012

Grassroots Bicester

Bicester Local History Society

Langford Women’s Institute

Bicester Round TableCommunity Organisations

Oxfordshire Community & Voluntary Action

Bicester Rotary Club

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North Bicester Surgery

Community Facillities

Montgomery House Surgery

Bicester North Rail

Bicester Town Rail

Bicester Hive (Bicester Garrison)

Langford Medical Practice

Bicester Library

Child First (Day Care)

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Emmanuel Church

St Edburg’s C of E Church

Parish of the Immaculate Conception

Bicester Methodist Church

Religious Organisations

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Heyford Park RA (Upper Heyford)

Bure Park RA

Bicester Parkland RA

Langford Village RA

ResidentsAssociations

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1st Bicester Scout Group

2507 (Bicester) Squadon ATC

Bicester Courtyard Youth Arts Centre

Bicester Youth Council

7th Bicester Scout Group

Youth Organisations

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Banburyshire Community Transport Assoc.

Cherwell Crime Partnership: Bicester

Bicester Chamber of Commerce (Banbury)

Bicester Link Point (Cherwell DC)

Bicester Town Council

Statutory Organisations

Bicester Resource & Wellbeing Centre

Bicester Vision

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Cherwell Volunteer Bureau (Cherwell DC)

Cherwell District Council (Banbury)

Bicester Village

Bicester Farmers Market

Bicester Market

Garth Park

Chesterton Golf Club

Places of Interest

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West Bicester Community Centre

Langford Village Community Centre

Southwold Community Centre

Bicester East Community Centre

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Community Centres

Kings Meadow Primary School

Bicester Community College

Glory Farm Primary School

Bardwell Community Special School

The Cooper Secondary School

Longfields Primary School

St Edburgs C of E Primary School

St Mary’s RC Primary School

Southwold County Primary School

Bure Park Primary School

Langford Village Primary School

Brookside Primary School1

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Schools

Stagecoach Bicester (Theatrical arts)

Bicester Concert Band

Bicester Choral & Operative Society

Sport &Leisure

Organisations

Bicester Leisure Centre

Bicester Green Gym

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Assets located in Bicester Assets located outside Bicesteror non-physical assets

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ns A

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Field

St

Buck

ingh

am R

d

Churchill Rd

Laun

ton R

d

Banb

ury

Rd

Howes

Ln

A4095

Oxfo

rd R

d

A41

B4030

A41

London RdB4100

Wretchwick

Way

A4421

Char

brid

ge L

n

Gavr

ay D

r

Skimmingdish Ln

A4421

A4095A4095

B410

0

B4030

A409

5

Bicester Rd

Bucknell Rd

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Bicester Community Asset Map

Eco-town Site

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Mapping Foleshill’s assets It is relatively easy to find out about local institutions.

It is more difficult to find out about people based assets, and strengths that grow out of social networks.

Your task Look at the pictures of Foleshill, what do these tell you about the assets in the area and within the community?

What else do you know about community assets in Foleshill? How would you go about filling out this picture?

Using personas

The Social Life of Cities is a new collaboration with Cisco: bringing together city leaders to find new ways of driving urban innovation and to think differently about creating thriving and sustainable places.

We have been working in Chicago’s south side, and Malmö in Sweden.

Workshop July 2012

July 2012: How can digital technology create resilient neighborhoods in Chicago’s South Side?

Resilience: the ordinary superpower

Developing personas for South Chicago

Biography My name is….My age …..I live in…..with..… My family, study and work background ….

Think about different kinds of people living and working in South Side neighborhoods and why they would use TATV

What matters What�s important to me in my day-to-day life is… I spent time doing … because …. My values are …

Relating The people and organisations I spend time and connect with are … because….

Touchpoints and devices Things I have with or around me (eg car, TV, mobile phone) …. Because …

Capacities and resources I can do easily…. I can�t do easily… My skills are … because ….

AMOS

The issue The issue facing me that the service is trying to address is….

What matters to me day to day?

Staying safe on the streets, seeing his friends.

Amos is 16 and lives in Woodlawn with his mother, brother and sister. He lives in an apartment in a public housing building. He feels unsafe in the neighborhood because of gangs and gun crime. He has friends who have been robbed at gunpoint and been caught up in shootings. He is careful about when and where he goes and his mother worries about him being out on his own. Touchpoints and devices

He has a smartphone and uses it to text his friends, use the internet, listen to music, text his family.

How is TATV helping me tackle a problem? Amos wants to know about trouble hotspots so he can avoid them and wants alerts about violent incidents so he can stay out of the way.

Who are the people and organizations that I spend time with and connect me others?

Amos goes to the neighborhood high school and has good relationship with some teachers. He sometimes goes to an after school youth group that runs anti-drugs, anti-gang programs for boys. His family regularly attends Church.

Developing personas for Foleshill Hypothetical service users help people think about the detail of different people’s experience and empathise with their lives.

This is a user centred design method.

Your task Take the personas templates and create some hypothetical Foleshill residents

What would you need to do to make this robust? What research would you need to carry out?

Designing interventions

Community consultation about Somerleyton Road

Using trade off lines

Consolidating personas: south Chicago

First ideas for the design of the Stay Safe app: south Chicago

Using the personas, beginning to design a template Design methods allow us to turn complex issues into visualisations.

Our initial designs need to be tested and prototyped.

Your task Look at the two sheets and see how you could work with your personas to start to build a picture of how a neighbourhood university could work in Foleshill.

social-life.co nicola.bacon@social-life.co saffron.woodcraft@social-life.co