Using digital technology to create resilient neighbourhoods in

Chicago’s South Side Nicola Bacon & Saffron Woodcraft

Workshop July 19, 2012

Social Life is a new venture set up in 2012, with a strong heritage.

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

This is a global issue.

We believe we can learn from both the mistakes, and the hopes, of the past.

Where are the people?

Our approach: putting people at the heart of placemaking

Our work: hands-on local innovation

Our tools: understanding how places innovate

Research investigating what enables some places to innovate successfully. Case studies about public and community sector innovation in cities. Focus on UK, USA, France & Netherlands.

Our tools: understanding how places innovate

1  Prompts

2  Proposals

3  Prototypes

4  Sustaining5  Scaling

6  Systemic  change

The Young Foundation social innovation spiral

Hands on innovation: practitioners workshops in in Malmö, Sweden

Our work: social sustainability

Our tools: a framework for social sustainability

The Young Foundation/Social Life Social Sustainability Framework, 2011

Our first question: what is a community?

A UK mainstream version: defining a sustainable community Source: Egan review 2004

A US version: what makes a successful place? Source: Project for Public Spaces

But what about… •  A sense of identity: a place people feel they

belong •  Local history, myths & stories •  Strong social relationships, networks & bonds •  Trusting the neighbors •  Rituals and rhythms •  Physical boundaries to promote geographical

identity •  Visible leadership

Stuck vs dynamic?

Our tools: a framework for social sustainability

The Young Foundation/Social Life Social Sustainability Framework, 2011

Future communities: Barking Riverside

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

Working with Berkeley Group, exploring how to understand and measure the social sustainability of the places they build.

Our work: resilient communities

What is resilience? •  The ordinary superpower… •  Resilience is the ability of a

person, group or community to bounce back in the face of adversity

•  Adaptability matters for individuals, families, communities and cities

•  Good and bad happens everywhere

•  Resilience is not static: it can be changed.

Survival resilience vs adaptive resilience

Emotional

Social

Structural

Open up opportunities, increase confidence

Increase wellbeing, isolation, hope, optimism

We increase resilience through: •  Increasing access to

opportunity •  Boosting local

leadership •  Building identity and

belonging •  Creating and

strengthening local social networks and neighborliness

What interventions build resilience? Full of life: tested in Brixton and Kingston in London, peer to peer learning, using volunteers trained by experts

Wellbeing and resilience in Poplar, East London

How do we build community resilience?

Feedback from July 18

21 participants from community and city-wide agencies

Process of designing propositions for increasing resilience through digital technology moving from the general to the specific

Generated four propositions for development

A sample of the process

Emotional

Social

Structural

Open up opportunities, increase confidence

Increase wellbeing, isolation, hope, optimism

We increase resilience through: •  Increasing access to

opportunity •  Boosting local

leadership •  Building identity and

belonging •  Creating and

strengthening local social networks and neighborliness

The Task Ideas generation at speed, using the prompt cards. Your question: how would you build resilience in south side neighborhoods?

Our four propositions

The four propositions

•  All grounded in neighbourhoods and experience

•  All combining on-the-ground community development with digital backing

•  All building the conditions that will boost resilience

•  And encouraging take up of new technology, encouraging wider use

•  Boosting civic engagement, driving the creation of bridging as well as bonding social capital.

Proposition 1 Title: Adding barter to main street Aims: To create a local “swap-shop”, on corner of 63rd and Cottage, which will: •  Encourage greater foot traffic to other stores in area •  Improve perception of area •  Increase local social interaction, especially between private owners and

public housing •  Ensure preservation of local heritage in murals •  Kick off with a one off festival/event to get people to the area •  Extend the footprint of a ‘safe’ area Local specificity: 63rd and Cottage Technology use: Digital timebanking/sharing platform to be reinforced by local activity

Proposition 2 Title: Flash blocks Aims: Enable new use of empty spaces, in order to: •  Increase foot traffic •  Improve sense of community pride and ownership •  Provide a place to house community events •  Build community involvement •  Make the ‘sense of place’ more visible •  Potentially create more permanent opportunities for local entepreneurs Local specificity: tbc, seek out enthusiasm and energy Technology use: Digital technology is tool to communicate and convene, and then network after the event

Proposition 3

Title: Building a city-wide placemaking app Aims: Through creating a city-wide placemaking app with local ownership and management we will: •  Increase belonging •  Build local identity •  Increase civic engagement •  Reduce social isolation by increasing connections •  Improve the quality of the built environment, create better places •  Bring together community organisations, developers, architects, citizens,

public service and business Local specificity: City-wide Technology use: multi-modal web, mobile and SMS capability available at all community access hubs

Proposition 4 Title: Team Approach to Violence (TATV) Aims: To focus on neighborhoods that have highest levels of digital exclusion and violence, to use TV and mobile technology to inform government about crime and disorder, anonymously, in order to: •  Reduce violence and crime •  Share information •  Create sense of public services and community as one team •  Empower community and individuals •  Encourage civic minded decision making •  Create a platform for broader dialogue Local specificity: most troubled blocks, streets, neighborhoods in south side Technology use: Make use of familiar technology that is used in areas where digital uptake is low. Focus on technologies that are compatible with anonymity.

Two questions

•  If we use Flash Block and Main Street as test beds for developing a city wide digital place making tool, what would you need to make it work for you?

•  We know this will take time, money and people, so what do we need to get it started?

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