How can a new community centre bring about lasting benefits to the residents of Pengegon?
By almost any measurement you choose, the Pengegon estate in Camborne just about goes off the dial on indicators of deprivation.
Whether in terms of child poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence, long-term unemployment or low educational attainment...the ward is among the worst two per cent for multiple deprivation in the country.
There have been many attempts to ‘intervene' and turn the estate's fortunes around - with limited success. Locals are well-used to well-meaning people with clipboards standing on their doorsteps consulting them about their problems.
So when SEA were appointed by DOTT* to investigate whether Pengegon needed a community centre - and if so, what form that should take - it required a different and creative approach to getting under the skin of the neighbourhood.
SEA worked closely with Claire Arymar, Cornwall Council's Neighbourhood Manager, a respected figure in Pengegon, and discussed potential facilities with the public service providers involved in the estate, including social landlords, police, the NHS, drugs advisors, and child and family services.
The SEA team, led by Kathryn Woolf, then used their imaginations to encourage residents to join the ‘co-discovery' process and talk about their own aspirations for Pengegon; the services and facilities they thought would improve their lives. Kathryn says: "Engaging with disengaged people is a challenge in itself. We just started conversations in a relaxed and fluid fashion, using a lot of creative techniques which gave them something back and provided incentives. It was a different approach, and I think it enabled us to engage a lot of people who might not have responded to more conventional consultation."
Rather than randomly cold-calling residents, SEA sought out those who already had a stake in the estate's fortunes; those who belonged to local organisations and sports clubs, who might have a vested interest in better social facilities. In an area which appeared to display little collective aspiration, it would be easy - and glib - to assume that apathy would rule. But the team quickly discovered that a strong community pulse beat below the skin.
They filmed one of the basketball team's matches - and took the opportunity to chat with the players about their needs. They video-interviewed residents on their allotments, met the football teams, the bingo players, the volunteers running the youth boxing club, a girl band...chatting, teasing out desires and ambitions. The material was uploaded onto YouTube, prompting further local response.
SEA attended a Christmas Party, inviting children to help dress the tree with specially created decorations on which they could write their wishes for the community. They launched a text campaign asking residents to write in about services and facilities, with a prize draw for an ipod.
Kathryn says: "People opened up to us about their individual dreams, problems and issues, and we really felt we were able to give them a voice - because another part of our job was to help them feel that they were in control, build their confidence and increase motivation." It worked. Claire Arymar says: "All in all, I and the residents I have spoken to found it to be a very positive, empowering experience."
The span of research clearly established that yes, people wanted a community facility, as a meeting place and social centre, with changing rooms for the sports clubs - but they wanted ownership and control of it, rather than being given a family services or social service-run building. Across just 12 weeks of diagnosis and co-discovery SEA built a picture defining those ambitions, richly illustrated and brought to life through the archive of audio and film to inform other stake-holders and decision makers.
Tarn Lamb, the Chief Executive of ‘Cornwall Neighbourhoods For Change', a tenant-led regeneration organisation, says: "They have really made things move - I think partly because they are a new organisation looking at the community's needs, without an ongoing vested interest. That's meant they have been able to shift things forward apace and have offered a genuine opportunity to make a long term change in the area."
Kathryn says: "The partners who funded the project have been able to see how a design-led approach can help not just Pengegon, but deprived communities anywhere, and how this process of using creative methods to engage people is something they can roll out in other areas."
The work was commissioned by the Design Council-led Dott Cornwall Programme, on behalf of the Camborne, Pool and Redruth Regeneration Company. Lynda Davis, CPR Regeneration's Programme Integration Manager, says: "We have had a good experience with the Pengegon project, and we are really pleased. SEA spent an awful lot of time embedding themselves with the local community and have kept really good contact with us as a client."
She adds: "They engaged with that community and brought them together in a way that hadn't happened before, which is very positive."
View the Flickr project photo stream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/designingcommunities
View the community films on You Tube:
*DottCornwall is part of a 10-year programme of events developed by the Design Council, driving design-led solutions to economic and social challenges throughout the UK. The Design Council, Cornwall Council, University College Falmouth and Technology Strategy Board have partnered to deliver the Dottprogramme throughout Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly during 2010.
