'Hard to reach' people can be easy to reach if you think carefully about what they respond to and why.

Our recent consultation work with a deprived community in West Cornwall has confirmed our thinking that good communication skills and trust with people are vital to have if you want to engage with so-called hard to reach people.

As we reflect midway through our 'Designing Communities' project for Dott Cornwall, we consider the fact that so many people living in this deprived area of Cornwall do not make use of available local services that could improve their social and economic circumstances.

So the question is, why?

Experts tell us that it is because of the general "can't be bothered" attitude in the community. "People lack motivation to change the way they do things" and the "general feeling of apathy" is blamed for unusually high levels of unemployment, education drop out, poverty, crime, teenage pregnancy, drug and alcohol problems. But by talking to some of the residents themselves, we are beginning to discover that very often people either don't know what services are available to them or simply don't understand the benefits they may bring.

So can better communication change peoples' behaviour?

There is no silver bullet when it comes to changing people's behaviour, some people will never change no matter what you do, but by talking to people on the Pengegon estate we believe that by improving communication and providing better facilities the majority will respond in a positive way and the downward spiral of deprivation given time, will begin to turn the other way.

So would a new community centre with trusted workers be a good place to start? Could it restore the sense of self pride and community pride needed to reverse the trend? Our work so far suggest that a community centre should be: