Dreaming BIG about community leadership and the community centres of the future

I recently sat on a panel at the Restitch Social Fabric Summit. The question we were offering our thoughts on was ‘what is the most essential feature for a successful modern community centre in 2024?’

I shared …

We must remember that it is people as well as buildings that can make a difference. We don’t just need buildings, we need power and community leadership so that residents can be advocates for the wants and needs of their whole community. One without the other will not have the impact that we want or indeed need.

If we are to shape our spaces to be the very best they can be then we need to work on the agency and power of the people who live there. And it’s as important to think about what happens in these spaces to support that too.

We know that infrastructure really matters; we have tried to create it by establishing Collaboration Station — Coventry’s open ideas night. It’s where ideas are bounced around, supported by others and powered up for action. It also has the potential to become a place of congregation for mutual support and awareness with an equalising, playful yet urgent mood. Imagine the scene — 3 to 4 tables each headed up by a local person wanting to create change. There is a mix of nervousness and excitement in the room. Each table host has allocated time to share their ideas and for those gathered around to listen and make contributions. At the end there is time to share next steps and make connections and we finish with a group photo and a group chant.

“I’m finally in contact with people who want to work together to build a better community and make their surroundings better. It’s so easy to feel hopeless and depressed about the world, and Collaboration Station makes you see the power of people and the power of coming together to make change happen” — Sophie, local resident

Collaboration Station speaks to how spaces could see themselves and the role they can play in supporting and developing community leadership. A community centre has the potential to be more than a place to meet, it has the potential to see its role in supporting the crucial work on deeper causes.

Just 5 minutes (by car) from the city centre is Ball Hall where we are working with local community members to work on deeper causes — they have established 5 action groups and a strategy team that sits across all of the work. They have no base but receive support from a local cafe and the church.

When we first landed in BH there were a few residents associations but they were tired, they had been active in the past but people are now older and momentum has been lost. As local resident Rachel explains “I live in the Ball Hill area and have done for most of my life. It is an area of amazing people — kind, funny, grounded, straight talking, friendly and hard-working. The area has its ups and downs, it always has — but I think the gap between the two has become more evident, post-pandemic. This has inevitably had an effect on the area — the shopping area reflects this, almost like a barometer — the exit of business names like Woolworths and Boots, as well as at least four high street banks has devastated the local area. There’s no doubt Ball Hill needed and still needs some help and TLC.”

Our Community Organiser Leonie has worked with local community members on leadership and building networks of relationships. They wanted to put Ball Hill back on the map, for it to be a destination again hence their name Destination Ball Hill.

In practical terms what does this mean for the agency and power of the people who live there? What is happening now that wasn’t before?

• Monthly litter picks, now an established touch point for Destination Ball Hill
• Relationships with local Cllrs and their MP
• Regular house meetings and 2 large community action meetings
• Collection of air quality data
• A Citizens Assembly
• Developing a green transport plan for Ball Hill to push through recommendations to local Cllrs
• Collecting 400 petitions to support the need for a banking hub in Ball Hill
• Over 140 petition signatures for a community hub
• Held their first Annual General Meeting

And breathe.

Building leadership in this way isn’t just about equipping people with leadership skills for now but so that they can organise around issues in the future too. And there is appetite. In a survey of people taking part in Grapevine initiatives, 84.6% of respondents describe themselves as confident in organising people to act on issues or campaigns.

This is slow deep work but it’s critical, it’s the missing piece in urban planning and regeneration. If we want to create better places we need to work on the agency, capacity, and leadership of the people who live there so they can form solutions, hold others to account and advocate for their needs and aspirations.

It is what Grapevine does well but it needs proper funding and resourcing and for the long term too because this work doesn’t just happen.

I ended with a question to the audience — How do we work to build community leadership into the walls and corridors of future community centres and for it to be a fundamental part of their structure, values and heart?

I’d love to hear from you if you’d like to chew the fat with me on this one.

In solidarity,

Mel