Building community: learning from the Ahead project Asset Based Community Development in North and South Ayrshire

Year 2 Report to NHS Ayrshire and Arran

November 2016

Contents

Executive Summary ............................................................................................... i

1. Introduction ................................................................................................... 1

2. Methodology ................................................................................................. 4

3. Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) ............................................. 7

4. North Ayrshire ............................................................................................. 12Castlepark .................................................................................................................. 14Harbourside ................................................................................................................ 17Fullarton ..................................................................................................................... 20

5. South Ayrshire ............................................................................................. 23Lochside ..................................................................................................................... 24Wallacetoun ................................................................................................................ 27Dalmilling ................................................................................................................... 31

6. Conclusions and recommendations .............................................................. 34

Appendix - Community Planning in East Ayrshire .............................................. 38

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Executive Summary The report covers the second year of an evaluation of ongoing asset-based work in Ayrshire and Arran, supported by the NHS Endowment Fund and involving a partnership between NHS Ayrshire and Arran and the three local councils. Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) in North and South Ayrshire Endowment Fund support has enabled the appointment of a team of Community Builders to work across six communities: Fullarton, Harbourside and Castlepark in North Ayrshire; and Lochside, Dalmilling and Wallacetoun in South Ayrshire. Also, a fund giving small start up grants (Small Sparks) has been established. The Ahead project has followed the principles of Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) as set out by Nurture Development, and practitioners involved have received training and mentoring in these principles. The Report below focuses on the Ahead project. Community Action Planning in East Ayrshire In East Ayrshire, where a programme of Community Action Planning driven by the Council’s Vibrant Communities Team was already well in progress, a smaller amount of Endowment Fund resource has been used to support staff and residents involved in the community planning process. An update on Community Action Planning in East Ayrshire, and an account of how the Endowment Fund is supporting it, is Appended. Policy context and ABCD The Endowment Fund’s support reflects the growing interest in assets-based work in Scotland and beyond, and gives expression, for example, to the calls of the Christie Commission for the bringing together of people’s assets and skills to develop solutions to community problems, including improving population health and wellbeing. This is also a specific action identified within NHS Ayrshire and Arran’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy (2015-2027), given the strategy’s strong emphasis on increasing social connectedness. The vision of ABCD that underpins the Ahead project is that Community Builders (CBs) will open up learning conversations with residents that uncover what people care about enough to take action on. This then leads to the development of new forms of associational life in the community where people are doing things together, sharing their skills and capacities, to build and improve their community and produce better health and wellbeing for themselves. It is expected that Community Builders will be supported by other residents (Community Connectors) who know their community well and who can help map assets and extend and multiply social connections between residents. A core principle of Nurture Development’s ABCD is that community building should start by encouraging local people (through learning conversations) to recognise the many assets they already have in terms of their skills, gifts and capacities (i.e. starting with what’s strong) and to think about how they can use these assets (through collective action) to provide some of the things they need (i.e. to address what’s wrong).

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Ahead project Across the six communities covered by the Ahead project, the CBs have had around 3,800 discrete learning conversations with over 700 residents. The conversations have explored peoples’ dreams for their community and the things they care about. The Community Builders have also had contact with a range of local community bodies and associations, and practitioners involved in local service delivery about ABCD. In each community, a number of possible Community Connectors have been identified, in most cases they do not appear to be playing the role envisaged for them in ABCD. At least 20 separate activities formed during the second year of the project (or continued from the first year) where residents have come together around shared interests, for example: residents meetings; community art; community cinema; tea, toast and treasure; dominoes; gardening; walking netball; knitting; food bank; Xmas party; badminton; street football; and tai chi. Most of the activities have depended to some extent on the Community Builders to get going. These activities will be making a valuable contribution to people’s quality of life and wellbeing by connecting people with others and other groups and activities, encouraging people to give some of their time to community activities, drawing people together with shared interests, learning new skills, and activities that enable people to enjoy physical activities of some sort. Recommendations for evaluating Ahead As the project moves into its final year, it is recommended that the framework for data gathering is revised and refreshed to enable a project-wide picture of ABCD’s contribution and outcomes to be developed. The recommendations are for:

• A tighter and more robust set of indicators and data gathering on these • The CBs being actively engaged in gathering and regularly updating data • Project team members actively monitoring and questioning the data from CBs • The CBs gathering residents’ contact information to allow follow-up engagement • Engaging with residents through survey or/and group-based work.

The framework could be established as a ‘dynamic excel sheet’ that each CB feeds into on a monthly basis. This tool could provide a key focus for Ahead project team meetings, allowing participants to consider emerging outcomes on the ground and ask further questions as appropriate of the data presented. East Ayrshire (see Appendix) The Council’s Vibrant Communities Team has been progressing a programme of Community Led Action Plans since April 2013. Work is well under way to support the development of locally-led action plans in every one of East Ayrshire’s communities. So far, 16 Community Led Action Plans have been launched. Funding received from the NHS Endowment Fund of £35,000 has been used for training for community representatives and staff to add value and support the embedded process taking place, whilst also supporting the communities to organise and run their main Community Event linked to their Action Plan process. Some 14 of these Events have taken place, feeding information back to the wider community whilst supporting community connections to be made.

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1. Introduction SMG was commissioned in May 2014 to evaluate an Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) project in Ayrshire. The project is supported by the NHS Endowment Fund, initially for a three-year project (until March 2017). This has since been extended to December 2017. SMG (the Learning Team) has followed the project as it has developed, looking at how ABCD work has been applied on the ground, and feeding back information and reflections to a Learning Group (made up of NHS and council staff from the three local authority partners, and other stakeholders including representatives from Glasgow Centre for Population Health, and a PhD student associated with Ahead). The Learning Group reports into the project Steering Group. Project scope The Learning Team has been asked to cover three local authority areas: North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire and East Ayrshire. In North and South Ayrshire, which has been the main focus of the evaluation, a new project (Ahead) has sought to apply the ABCD principles (outlined in more detail below). In each of these two council areas, three communities have been covered by the Ahead project: Fullarton, Harbourside and Castlepark in North Ayrshire, and Lochside, Wallacetown and Dalmilling in South Ayrshire. The agreed goal of the Ahead project is to ‘Enable local people to produce better mental health and wellbeing outcomes for themselves through building connections and producing a culture of abundance’1. The bulk of the Endowment Fund support has gone to the Ahead project. Five Community Builders (CBs) were initially appointed across the two project areas: two CBs in North Ayrshire and three CBs in South Ayrshire. A Small Sparks fund was established to provide residents with small sums of money to help get some activities going. Mentoring has been provided from Nurture Development for CBs and staff, commencing during the first year and running throughout the second year of the project. In East Ayrshire, a smaller amount of Endowment Fund resource has supported supplementary training for the ongoing Community Planning work by the Council’s Vibrant Communities Team. East Ayrshire has not followed Nurture Development’s ABCD in the same way as the Ahead project. Asset Based Community Development The Ahead project has sought to apply the principles of ABCD advocated by Nurture Development. When the term ABCD is used in this report, it is the Nurture Development definition and working principles that are being referred to (discussed further below). ABCD builds community by mobilising citizens to connect and share their assets (skills and capacities) in ways that improve things they care about in their local communities. Through the new social connections made, and the range of new activities that residents are actively involved in together, mental health and wellbeing improve.

1 This was articulated as the goal for the Ahead project during its first year.

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Policy context Support for the ABCD project, and for assets-based work more generally, is indicative of the wider response by public bodies to the increasing and unsustainable pressures on health services and the persisting health inequalities between affluent and less affluent areas. The Christie Commission2, for example, argued that in order for public services to be sustainable the public sector should: ‘Work more closely with individuals and communities to understand their needs and mobilise a wider range of Scotland’s talents and assets in response to these needs. Asset-based, or ‘positive approaches’, get better outcomes by bringing together people’s assets and skills to develop solutions to community problems.’

The Community Empowerment Act (2015)3 opens up opportunities for assets-based work, by aiming to empower community bodies through the ownership of land and buildings, and by strengthening the communities’ voice in decision-making. The Act seeks to improve outcomes for communities by improving the process of community planning, ensuring that local service providers work closely with communities to meet their needs. It places Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) on a statutory footing, with duties around the planning and delivery of local outcomes, and the involvement of community bodies at all stages of community planning. More recently, the introduction of Participatory Budgeting (PB) gives communities a say in how to spend a proportion of the public budget. PB is being implemented across all three council areas in Ayrshire and Arran, opening up opportunities for communities to use PB, for example when working with others to create a Locality Plan. Support for the Ahead project also links closely with NHS Ayrshire and Arran’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, 2015-2027. The strategy recognises that improving mental health and wellbeing is for the whole population and identifies six areas that require to be considered for optimum mental health and wellbeing:

• Promoting health and healthy behaviours • Sustaining inner resources • Increasing social connectedness, relationships and trust in families and communities • Increasing social inclusion and decreasing inequality and discrimination • Increasing financial security and creating mentally health environments for working

and learning • Promoting a safe and supportive environment at home and in the community.

The work of the Ahead project is particularly linked to the social connectedness aspect of the strategy. Report structure This Year 2 report will now outline the methodology used by the SMG Learning Team over

2 http://www.gov.scot/Resource/Doc/352649/0118638.pdf 3 http://www.gov.scot/Topics/People/engage/CommunityEmpowermentBillFAQs

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the second year of the project, followed by a fuller description of ABCD as advocated by Nurture Development. A review of practice in each council area follows, before a concluding section critically assesses the practice in light of the ABCD principles and makes recommendations for how the evaluation can be approached in over the next and final year of the project. A short overview of Community Planning in East Ayrshire, including what the Endowment Fund has been used for, forms an appendix to the report.

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2. Methodology The bulk of the Learning Team’s work has focused on the Ahead project’s work in South Ayrshire and North Ayrshire, with a mix of methods and sources of information being drawn on (below). For East Ayrshire, regular updates have been given to the Learning Group by its representative from the Council’s Vibrant Communities Team, and two further members of the Vibrant Communities Team have been interviewed about their work in two communities. Examples of ‘community building’ A total of 11 examples of community building were identified in discussions with the local Ahead teams (Figs 1 and 2) for the Learning Team to explore. Across these examples, individual residents4 (and others) who have been touched by the project in some way have been engaged and encouraged to tell ‘their story’. Key lines of enquiry included:

• The individual, including how connected they were before • How and why they got involved, including their hopes for the future • New connections they have made since being involved • Time devoted to the activity and what it is used for • The role of Small Sparks funding in getting the activity going • What impact people feel involvement has had on them

Conversations were held with 31 people: 17 local residents5, with the remaining 14 ranging across: community centre staff; local teachers; care home workers, workers paid by Small Sparks funding, and a netball coach. Conversations were ‘written up’ and shared with the people interviewed (plus, with the resident’s permission, CBs and other team members). Stories were then revised in light of feedback or further conversations and developments. With most of the people interviewed, two or more conversations have taken place. Skype mentoring sessions From late 2015 the Learning Team observed the mentoring sessions delivered via Skype by Nurture Development. A total of 6 mentoring sessions were observed between November 2015 and May 2016: 4 in North Ayrshire and 2 in South Ayrshire. These gave a helpful insight into how the CBs were addressing opportunities and challenges, and the guidance given by Nurture Development. CB team meetings Over the year, 3 joint-team meetings (between CBs and other practitioners from both localities) have been observed. The monthly CB reports (below) featured as a regular agenda item and discussion took place about practical issues that the CBs were experiencing.

4 Note: for the purposes of this report, all people we have spoken to have had their names changed 5 In addition to these 17 residents, the Learning Team was able to have conversations with a wider group of residents attending learning sessions.

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Fig 1: Examples of Community Building in North Ayrshire Example of Community Building Brief summary Guerrilla Cinema – pop up cinemas in Fullarton

The Community Builder helped organise a pop up cinema with a local social enterprise; this has sparked a number of documentaries involving local residents

Shadowing Mhairi – Community Builder in Castlepark

Shadowing one of the new Community Builders as she went about her work

Elaine – volunteer at Coastwatch in Harbourside

Capturing activities that have stemmed as a result of Coastwatch being engaged in ABCD

Tom - a Community Connector in Fullarton

He has been involved with pop up sports

Yvette - a Community Connector in Harbourside

She has been involved in residents’ meetings – where we have seen the creation of community noticeboards, and the Street Party

Nancy - a Community Connector in Fullarton

She volunteers at the Green Hut and has introduced the Community Builder to some people

Fig 2: Examples of Community Building in South Ayrshire Example of Community Building Brief summary Newton Primary School - Wallacetoun This school embraces ABCD and has some

examples of community building taking place Gardening group and dominoes group - Dalmilling

In year one a dominoes group sparked a gardening group. We met with some of these residents again

Walking Netball Group - Dalmilling Women who were part of an existing group now play walking netball

Dominoes Group - Wallacetoun Residents meet in the Ahead office to play dominoes once a week

Shadowing Louise – the CB for Lochside Shadowing one of the new Community Builders as she went about her work

Monthly CB reports For most of Year 2, the CBs completed a structured pro-forma on a monthly basis that presented information on, e.g.: the number of people engaged with; number of new people met; number of associations supported; number of possible Community Connectors6 (CCs) identified; and key highlights and challenges. This information provided a ‘project-wide’ view while the Learning Team focused on specific examples of community building. For the purposes of this report we used CB reports dated up to and including July 2016. Consultations with stakeholders Consultations were carried out with those involved in the project, i.e.: the CBs, line-managers and other members of the Learning Group. The conversations covered: the stakeholder’s view on progress; thoughts on what’s gone well/not so well; the contribution

6 The definition and role of Community Connectors (CCs) is described in the next section.

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of ABCD so far; future expectations; and views on what should happen going forward. The conversations were loosely structured to enable the stakeholder to reflect on their experience and key lessons. Reflections on methodology Selecting specific examples of community building allowed the Learning Team to work at a community level and follow stories as they developed on the ground. However, despite working through the CBs, it proved difficult to find residents who were performing the role envisaged for CCs (i.e. residents who know their community well and help connect up other residents around shared cares, concerns and capacities). More exploration of this issue is required. Across the examples of community building explored, while the Learning Team engaged with a mix of residents, very few were previously ‘unconnected’ to community activity. This begs the question ‘how much community building is taking place among people who previously had little contact with their neighbours?’ It is a question that should be explored further over the next year. By attending team meetings and reviewing CB monthly reports, the Learning Team maintained a broad perspective of what was happening across the project. However, the information available has been insufficient to develop a clear picture of the extent of new social connections being made and the new associations between previously unconnected residents springing up. Again, more exploration and clarity is required.

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3. Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) The vision of the Ahead project is that by ‘building community’ residents will develop their social connections, come together in new forms of associational life and collective action, and be enabled to produce better mental health and wellbeing outcomes for themselves, i.e. in the words of Nurture Development, ‘starting with what they have, to provide what they need’7. A key role is envisioned for Community Builders (CBs) to help weave the assets of the neighbourhood together, and Community Connectors (CCs), residents who know their community well and can help connect people. Both work to build new relationships between residents around shared interests and passions. The sharing of skills and capacities in collective citizen-led action will improve the community, with previously untapped human assets being brought to the fore. ABCD therefore positions local people in the driving seat: doing more for themselves, building their resilience and reducing their dependency on established services and programmes. Nurture Development points out that the primary questions that ABCD asks are:

• What is it that citizens are best placed to do together on their own terms? • What are citizens best placed to do, but with help from outside agencies? • What are institutional systems, including the state and not-for profits, best placed to

do? 8 It is on the first of these (what citizens can do together on their own terms) that the Ahead project, and Nurture Development’s training and mentoring to the project, has focused: i.e. ‘starting with what we have to provide what we need’. This vision of ABCD is central to how the project has been introduced and progressed in both North and South Ayrshire, and it is the evaluative lens through which the Learning Team has approached the Ahead project. Learning conversations The role of conversations between residents has a vital role to play in ABCD: it is the mechanism that uncovers what people care about and are prepared to do something about through sharing their skills in new forms of collective action. ‘How’ such conversations build community is further developed below by Nurture Development9:

• Learning conversations that draw out what people care about enough to take action on, is distinct from what their opinions are about what others should do for them. The key question is “are you a citizen, or do you just live here?” In these conversations people are ‘heard into expression’ around their dreams (what they want to move towards), concerns (what they want to move away from), gifts and talents, political impulses, and who and what they’d like to connect to.

7 Cormac Russell, Nurture Development 8 http://blog.nurturedevelopment.org/2015/05/13/asset-based-community-development-focusing-on-what-matters-by-cormac-russell/ 9 ABCD; It is not about overt Positivity, but it’s not about getting trapped by negativity bias/effect either. Nurture Development blog, Cormac Russell and Shaun Burnett.

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• Once we are clear through hundreds of one-to-one learning conversations where the dreams and concerns are, we can connect people to others who share their dreams/concerns in small groups of local kitchen table conversations towards shared action.

• These groups look at their dreams and concerns through the lens of ABCD, and ask how can we use what’s strong to address what’s wrong, but also make what’s strong, stronger? As these small groups gather momentum and agency then they are supported to connect together to figure out what they can do collectively that they cannot do alone. In this way individual energies get connected, amplified and multiplied through the building of new associations and ultimately over time, an association of associations (this takes years and is messy), using their shared agency to contribute to their community’s wellbeing.

Touch Stones of ABCD Nurture Development identifies ‘8 touch stones’ of ABCD (see Fig 3). They are called ‘touch stones’ rather than ‘stepping stones’ because there is no fixed sequence to when they should occur. Nurture Development has stressed that ABCD should be looked on as a set of working principles, not as a process or model:

• “ABCD is a perspective, not a model, and cannot therefore be tied down to one version of (so-called) best practice, or another. In fact, when it comes to ABCD, best practice is the enemy of better practice, and the inhibitor of next practice.”10

Fig. 3: 8 Touch Stones of ABCD

! Finding a Community Builder Team ! Recruiting a Community Connector ! Hosting community conversations to

discover assets and what people care about ! Engaging community groups and

associations ! Building connections through social

interaction and sharable opportunities ! Visioning and planning ! Implementing change (doing and reviewing) ! Fostering celebration

(Source: Nurture Development Learning Session, June 2016) The role of both CBs and CCs is seen as pivotal to ABCD in order to stimulate and broaden out the dynamic of community building. The NHS Endowment Fund support allowed the project to establish a CB Team in both North and South Ayrshire and the CBs have been

10 Cormac Russell, Nurture Development

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encouraged by Nurture Development to identify and mobilise a group of CCs in each community. The roles of both CBs and CCs are developed further below11: Community Builders: The role of a CB is to focus on engaging the skills, knowledge and talents of residents, as well as the institutional, associational, physical, economic and cultural resources of the community. The CB’s main concern is how to empower a wider, equal partnership between residents and the clubs, groups and social networks of their community and the institutions that serve them. They are community weavers, intent on weaving the community together relationship by relationship, asset by asset. It is envisaged that each CB will conduct learning conversations: i.e. one-to-one, and group based conversations aimed at:

• Developing stronger relationships with and between residents • Discovering individual and collective motivation to act towards the common good • Understanding what supports would be needed to support people to work with

others who share their passions • Exploring mutual interests, passions and creative ideas for community building and

clarifying next steps • Discovering more prospects for citizen-led action • Cross-fertilising stories from within the community and sharing inspiring stories from

other communities. Community Connectors: The role of a CC is to support and extend the work of the CB. At the beginning of every community building effort it is seen to be important that a group of CCs is nurtured. CCs are people from the community who are prepared to commit to widening the circle of participation. This is something that is envisaged will happen week by week and that will be fed by the learning conversations that CBs are having with residents, which reveal those who are passionate about community building and inclusion. A key role of a CC is to help build an ‘asset map’ that assembles, through conversations, the things that local residents care about and the skills that they have that can be put to use in joint action with neighbours to improve the community on their own terms. Theory of change12 - Nurture Development’s vision of ABCD can be represented in a ‘theory of change’ (Fig 4). Based on this theory of change, key indicators of success would include:

• Residents coming together to have conversations with others in their community about things that they are interested in

• Conversations resulting in the formation of new associations and collective action among residents

• Through this collective action residents are ‘using what they have to provide what they need’

• New associations and action forming among residents that are able to sustain themselves and, possibly, grow

11 Descriptions of the CB and CC roles are taken from a paper prepared for NHS Ayrshire and Arran by Cormac Russell 12 This theory of change was developed by SMG and agreed with the client during the first year of the project

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• Residents who become more connected in their community enjoy better mental health and wellbeing as a result.

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Fig 4: Theory of change

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4. North Ayrshire Conversations with residents The CBs report that they have engaged over 1,300 people in conversations across the three neighbourhoods over the year, with some two-thirds of these conversations being in Harbourside. (The CB in Harbourside worked 10 hours more than each of the other CBs)13. The number of ‘new’ people (i.e. people having conversations with the CBs for the first time) is reported to be 255, with almost 40% of these conversations taking place in Harbourside. At face value, these numbers suggest that there may have been greater penetration in the first year of the project, with the CBs finding a diminishing stock of local people to approach as time moves on. Hence, the CBs are having repeat conversations with residents that they have already met, taking time to build up relationships. In Castlepark, a new community added at the start of the second year, the CB met a total of 57 residents, having 254 separate conversations with them. On average, each resident engaged by the CB has been involved in approximately 5 separate conversations. Community Connectors (CCs) Across the 3 neighbourhoods, the CBs felt that possibly between 13-17 community connectors (CCs) have been identified: 2 in Castlepark, 5 in Fullarton and 6-10 in Harbourside. We have engaged with 3 of these potential connectors through the examples of community building followed. During mentoring, the CBs highlighted some challenges they faced as they tried to identify and mobilise CCs, ‘Do we tell them they are connectors?’; ‘How do we make them aware?; ‘Do we have to get them all together?’. Nurture Development advised that CBs don't need to label people as CCs (labels can have both negative and positive consequences) and offered an example of a Minister in Birmingham:

“The local church was condemned because of asbestos, so he did ABCD. The Minister got

7 of the congregation to have conversations with others in the community to find ‘unsung

heroes’. They found 93 people who had stories worth sharing about their community. An

event was held with the 93 people asked to bring 4 people each. 500 people turned up to

celebrate their community through stories. The Minister asked people what they thought

needed to happen. Hundreds of things were identified, then put back to the core group.

This example highlights the fact that there were 100 connectors who were not aware of it.

They were not called Community Connectors. (The lesson) is to use language that is

specific and to remember that the process should not be abandoned. Start in corner shops

– they are obvious Community Connectors.”

Regardless of whether or not the residents identified as ‘possible’ CCs perceive themselves as such, there is little evidence that they are actively engaged in having conversations with

13 Source: CB’s monthly reports.

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others in their community, with the purpose of helping connect people together based on their skills, passions, cares and concerns in ways that result in new forms of associational life. Associations and activities Evidence to support the above observation is that we could only identify about 3 or 4 resident-led-activities that seem sustainable moving forward without the CB’s involvement, and all are in Harbourside. These are: community events led by Coastwatch (flowing from the CB initiating an entertainment’s license for the organization): the Richmond Fellowship developing a ‘wish list’ for their members in an ABCD way; resident meetings (which the CB helps with, although they could potentially go on without him); and a resident driving an initiative to create community notice boards. A further small number of activities – between 2 and 3 – appear to have sprung up under the project, but are dependent on the CBs to drive them. These include the filming of documentaries and community art. The CBs are aware of the small number of genuinely citizen-led activities visible, and point out that “you can only go at the speed of trust”. The photo parties that happened in the first year have not continued. See Fig. 5 below which captures some of the main activities, showing what have continued from Year 1 into Year 2. In Year 1 the CBs helped to set up a football team which has continued without any support in Year 2. Fig. 5: Activities in North Ayrshire

Small Sparks funding totaling £2,55914 has continued to support a range of local activities, such as Guerilla cinema, including a mini-documentary for the green hut and a football club, Minecraft, pilot house painting party, and an entertainments license for Coastwatch. There has been less use of this funding in Year 2, possibly reflecting fewer funding opportunities

14 Year 1 expenditure by Small Sparks for Fullarton and Harbourside was £5,941 (on approx. 36 activities)

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coming forward, the CBs tapping into community assets (e.g. free venue space), and the absence of pop-up cafes supported by Small Sparks that figured heavily in Year 1. Community events In February, residents of the three communities came together in a celebratory event in Puffers Café, Harbourside. This was used as a soft re-launch of ABCD, with a short introduction from the project team and an introduction to Participative Budgeting (PB). It was suggested that local people could help organise a PB event. This met with a positive response from residents, although a meeting to further this has not yet been organised. A Learning Day, primarily introducing people to ABCD principles took place in June in Fullarton. It was well attended by residents from 2 of the 3 communities (no Castlepark residents participated) and some service staff, such as the Police and Fire Brigade. A summary of what has happened in each individual community is provided below, highlighting, where appropriate, specific ‘vignettes’ from the examples of community building followed.

Castlepark In Castlepark, the new part-time CB (Mhairi15) has been shadowed, and a worker in the Community Centre (Alyson16) engaged by the Learning Team. Alyson was identified as a potential CC because of the good contacts she has been able to develop with residents using the Centre. Castlepark was chosen as a pilot community partly because some asset-based work had previously been done in the shape of an Early Years project. Following chats between members of the project team, local residents and community centre staff, it was felt that a CB would be welcomed. The area is predominantly residential: a lot of tenement housing and green space, but does not offer a lot for residents to do. With only ten streets, it is a small area with a population of around 2,000 (felt to be a good scale for ABCD). Key physical assets are a well-used community centre, a school/nursery and a church; but no cafes or shops. The CB’s approach The CB based herself in the community centre, making an effort to ‘be seen’ and to engage with residents using the centre. She drew on Alyson’s help for introductions to residents. Advice from one of the original CBs (who left at the end of Year 1) helped focus the new CB’s mind on:

• Speaking with lots of people and asking them to introduce her to others they know: i.e. a better way of developing trust than approaching people cold.

• Having a simple script to use when opening up conversations: i.e. about why she is here, e.g. that it’s about creating community spirit, getting neighbours talking etc.

• Setting herself challenges, e.g. to speak with a set amount of people in a day.

15 The CB was is post at the time of writing, but was due to leave her post in December 2016. 16 NB: here, and elsewhere in the report, names have been changed to provide anonymity.

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Starting the job in winter, the CB found the streets quiet. As many residents tend to use their back door to come and go, with cars parked at the back of the house, lingering in the car park, was not the best way to make the first approach. Hence, tapping into footfall at the community centre has been an attractive way to meet locals. The CB has been able engage with groups using the centre (and has helped out in her spare time, which has proved important in building trust). She has also, in her other part-time job as a youth worker in the neighbouring community of Redburn, engaged with young people using the Redburn Youth Centre and told them about Ahead. A noticeable change in the community has been a group of three young people getting involved in volunteering at the community centre in Castlepark, which could be linked to the CB’s activities and her particular experience in youth work. Building genuine relationships with people is seen to be key. Having open, honest conversation is crucial to building a relationship and a ‘must’ before ‘jumping into learning conversations’. It took 4 months before Mhairi was invited into somebody’s house, which she feels was a turning point. This reinforces the wider point that community building can be a slow process. Mhairi’s advice to a new CB would be to “Start to create strong relationships the minute you enter the community. Without these foundations – you won’t get anywhere. You have to be open to being involved in the community”. Also, giving up some of her own time to volunteer at some groups has paid dividends in relationship building. Fig 6: Examples of the CB’s community building activities Streetwork – The CB hooked up with two local ladies who walk round together the area together every day as a tactic to ‘get known’ in the community. When weather permits, she plans to hold street cafes as way to engage people. Skills sharing – During a ‘learning conversation’ with an older gentleman, the CB discovered he was passionate about gardening and willing to share his skills. The CB put him in touch with a gardening group that he now attends when his health permits.

An example cropped up that highlights a possibly important point relating to boundaries between ABCD and other activity that would be ‘asset-based’, but not ABCD. This arose when the CB was in discussions with a resident who was interesting in starting a jogging club (Fig 7).

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Fig 7: Jogging Group Dilemma

Without the support of the community centre worker the CB would probably have struggled to meet and build relationships with the number of local residents that she has. But in the main, these connections are with residents who are already users of the centre, or involved in existing groups. Also, while Alyson (the centre worker) has been described as a community connector, it is difficult to see that she is performing the role of a community connector as envisaged by ABCD (Fig 8). Fig 8: Alyson’s Story – a potential Community Connector

The CB was approached by a lady interested in starting a jogging club and looking for help to set up a group, who also enquired about a qualification from Jog Scotland (“to lead a group, you need to be qualified for insurance purposes”). The CB was initially was happy to help: seeing a qualification as an opportunity to help build the woman’s confidence.

During a mentoring session with Nurture Development several questions were posed: Could other ways be explored to increase her confidence?; Does the group need a ‘qualified’ person to run it?; Does it have to be called a ‘jogging group’?; Is there someone in the community already qualified and running a jogging group?

“In the early stages of community building, the first learning point is to not do for them,

the second is to not misinterpret their lack of confidence…it is best to start with what

you have.” (Cormac Russell, Nurture Development)

Taking a step back and thinking in an ABCD way can sometimes be a challenge in itself. A CB may be tempted to help people learn new skills or gain qualifications rather than building from what is already there; a point reflected in a recent blog post by John McKnight:

“You don't know what you need from the outside until you know what you have on the

inside. Therefore, ABCD always starts with what we have in the neighbourhood that can

produce what we want?”

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Alyson doesn't live in Castlepark, but in the neighbouring community of Redburn. She has been the caretaker of Castlepark Community Centre for 17 years and is very active in the community. She knows everybody in the community and will stop and say to ‘hi’ to all.

The Ahead project has sparked Alyson to do even more work in the community (within her working hours) and think about engaging with people in a different way. She never thought about integrating work with younger and older people, and connecting people with learning difficulties with others in the community, as she and the CB have now done: “I was doing things for each – I didn’t think to bring them together”. For example, some older people who are keen gardeners are helping members of the Pegasus group (people with learning disabilities) to plant a community garden.

She is encouraged by the increase in the number of young people using the centre and a few have begun to volunteer, which is seen as a turning point: “Trying to get young people engaged in the community is very hard. This development is really, really good”.

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Some key points: ü A community needs to be both a welcoming community and one where there are

public spaces to hang out ü Partnering up with an experienced CB can be very valuable for the new CB ü Community building work can easily overspill into neighbouring communities ü It is easy for a CB to ‘drift’ from ABCD principles when responding to requests for help ü Certain actions may conform to ‘community development’, but are not ABCD ü Can a locally based worker be a community connector?

Harbourside Harbourside differs from all the other communities covered by the Ahead project, with numerous local businesses (e.g. cafes, B&Bs and pubs), many catering for tourists. There is no community centre and possibly a weaker sense of local community than in the other areas. The CB’s approach Two CBs (one covering Harbourside, the other Fullarton17) are based in a ground-level office in a main street. The office has a large window that looks onto the street which people walk by: this has been used by the CB to post ‘dating-like’ notices (“local resident seeking help with their garden”) designed to encourage CCs to link people with shared skills and passions. The CB’s approach is deliberately ‘light touch’: he doesn’t convene meetings or encourage people to form a group, but looks to encourage residents to do these things for themselves. Applying for an entertainment license for Coastwatch (below) has been an exception. The CB has also become ‘more direct’ when speaking to people. His Year 1 experience taught him that a CB can’t simply ‘assume’ people will care enough to act on a skill/passion. He now asks:

“If you care so much, what are you going to do about it?”

OR

“I know somebody who likes this too, if I were to arrange a coffee, would you come?”

The CB rarely spends time in the office. Weather permitting, he is chatting to people in streets, cafes or knocking on doors. He has spent a lot of time engaging with small businesses and organisations, explaining ABCD and his role. Local businesses and one established community organisation (Coastwatch) have been supportive and are beginning to see the value in sharing assets and being active in the community (see Coastwatch below). There have been challenges along the way. The CB was reported to the police by residents alarmed by his door knocking. In response, he created a flyer with an amusing photo of himself (on a space-hopper) and a link to a Facebook group he created to explain why he is in the community. The Facebook group (Connecting in Harbourside) is “A place to share

17 This CB, one of the original 5 CBs, left the project at the end of 2016 to join Nurture Development

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your ideas, thoughts, events or anything that brings community together.” The CB has passed administrative rights to residents so they can own and manage it. Main community building activities Resident Meetings – the CB co-hosted Resident Meetings to highlight people’s passions and identify possible CCs. One issue that arose was:

“People don't advertise what’s going on, e.g. people don't know what’s happening at the

Maritime, so the notice boards are really going to help.”

Residents and business alike are now all chipping in to help make the noticeboards: providing money, materials, labour or space. Richmond Fellowship – The manager of this care home has been a great advocate for ABCD. Richmond Fellowship is creating its own ‘wish-list’ with the help of a resident (and without the CB’s help). This is being spread through word of mouth and notes in the office window. Coastwatch – following on from a successful Beach Clean Up in the first year, a number of new community-led activities and connections have been sparked, some of which have not required the CB to take a lead. Fig 9: Coastwatch’s community events

A small number (3) of local people have connected up to drive activities linked to Coastwatch. Two of the three had not been involved with Coastwatch before and got in

• A fence painting party at the Pilot House (paint provided through Small Sparks) • A community Halloween party (first of its kind) with family friendly activities such as

face painting, games and a witch’s tea party. The local radio station based itself there for the day and the event was picked up in the local press – raising the profile of both Coastwatch and Harbourside. Around 200 people attended.

• A second annual Beach Clean Up; not requiring Small Sparks this time and with minimal support from the CB. Two local businesses donated food and ice cream - “Something like this has not happened before… we’re raising the profile of Coastwatch and bringing the Harbourside community into play.” (Local Resident)

• The CB encouraged Coastwatch (with Small Sparks support) to apply for an entertainment license to cover future events: a one-year license allowing for 4 events over a year was secured: o a community Fun Weekend in June, which was purely-resident led with activities

covering: inflatable bar, zip slide, bouncy castle, birds of prey, clowns/balloons, craft fair, and a food hall

o plans for a range of community activities were being made for Halloween and Christmas.

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touch via the CB because they wanted to help. They are contributing a lot of time to planning and delivering community events:

“The number of hours they are giving up is phenomenal – something like 20 hours a week

each!” (Coastwatch member)

More generally, the number of volunteers involved in community activities in Harbourside has increased since the first Beach Clean in 2015. The CB was instrumental in getting this event off the ground and it seems things have snowballed since then, with new connections being made between people and associations in the area:

“Lots of people now speak to us as a result of Shaun’s meetings with local residents.”

(Coastwatch member)

Fig 10: Local connections being made (Tina and Robert)

Fig 11: Yvette – a Community Connector’s Story Yvette is very well connected. She regularly invites neighbours to her flat for a cup of tea, and feels that while there is ‘some’ sense of community in Harbourside, particularly in the older generation, there is room for improvement. A lot of people work out-with Harbourside

Tina and Robert met at the Beach Clean Up in 2015 and are now engaged. The Beach Clean Up was the first time Tina had volunteered, having been asked by a friend to come along (and it has since sparked her to do a charity run): “I wanted to help the community, so why not?! I was off work that day so fancied going along to give back to the community”... “It’s had a big impact on my life. We’ve booked the wedding for next year. Neither of us were looking for love. It just happened out of the blue”. Robert went to the beach clean up because his friend, a volunteer at Coastwatch, told him about it. He is always keen to volunteer: “I do loads of volunteering, so if I’ve got spare time and it’s for a good cause I get involved.” He met a couple of other people that day, but Tina was the most significant connection. It was “very life changing – couldn't ask for anything better.” Robert estimates that he’s volunteered 30-40 hours to Coastwatch in the last year: two beach clean ups; a Halloween party; getting the pilot house ‘paint ready’; fundraising planning; using his own social network to see if friends had spare paint or materials for flower boxes; using his creative skills to help make baskets for duking for apples.

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and don't spend much time in the community – they get back late and leave early for work, so the area is relatively quiet during the week. In the first year, she accompanied the CBs during ‘street work’ and introduced them to others – if the CBs were seen to be with her, they’d be trusted and remembered. At a rough guess, she has linked the CB up with at least 30 people, but it could be a lot more. She estimates that she has given at least 5 hours every 2 weeks to the project. The project has led Yvette to do more voluntary work: e.g. convening more community meetings in her flat, Puffers Cafe and the Maritime Museum. Since Ahead started, Yvette has noted positive changes in the community as “Folk are talking more to each other… for example, people would come up to me and say so and so is trying to do x how can we help.” This is more likely to happen in summer when people are out and about. Winters are very quiet. Local business are more involved since Ahead began and Coastwatch is more engaged with the community – e.g. members go along to community meetings. Before the current CB took up post, “You knew Coastwatch was there, but they were seen, not heard. They are now getting more involved and organising things for the community. We help each other out – they’re getting involved with the street party”

Some key points:

ü The CB has mobilised the assets of existing local businesses and organisations to get involved, and gradually lead, a range of new community improvements and activities

ü More has been happening in the community as a mix of new people have connected up and are involved in a voluntary capacity in supporting activities

ü Coastwatch has been re-invigorated as a result and may be in a stronger position than it was before to engage the community and pursue its regeneration agenda

ü There has been a lot of energy released into asset-based work as a result of the CB’s efforts and imaginative approach.

Fullarton Responsibility for the area was taken on by one of the new CBs starting at the beginning of the second year, partly to help create a ‘fresh start’ following some difficult relations with the key community organisation. In Autumn, Nurture Development and members of the project team spoke with the Fullarton Community Association to try and smooth out relationships and resolve differing expectations about ABCD. The Learning Team has followed 3 examples of community building in Fullarton: Guerilla Cinema, and two possible community connectors (Tom and Nancy). The CB’s approach Fullarton Community Association (based in The Green Hut) was welcoming of the new CB18. The Green Hut is closing (Summer 2016-approx Easter 2017) for refurbishment. It will be developed, with support from The Big Lottery, to create a community ‘hub’ housing a range of facilities, including a doctor’s surgery, a multi-purpose hall and a community café.

18 The CB left the project in the Summer of 2016 for a full-time job.

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The CB’s approach has been to “start by ‘just being there’ – being on hand to offer a helping hand” to those she meets at the Green Hut. First conversations have no agenda – she aims to get to know the person before asking about their skills/talents. She believes that “this is how to build trust.” Then it’s easier to talk about skills and passions, though she does not use these phrases. Instead she asks: “What do you love about where you live?; What do you like doing at the weekend?; What would you love to do more of?” The CB has built up strong relationships with residents who use and/or volunteer at the Green Hut. Some groups invited her to outings, which she took as an indication that she was starting to be seen as part of the community. Examples of Community Building This year, the Learning Team interviewed two potential CCs: Tom and Nancy. Tom met the (then) CB at a pop up café in 2014 and had many suggestions about how the community could be improved. He attended a couple of ABCD training sessions and now really ‘gets it’. He has been a key driver behind the pop-up sports and helped introduce the CB to residents during street walks (see more of his story in Figure 12 below). Nancy has been helping the new CB build relationships with other groups in the community. The temporary closure of the Green Hut as the new centre gets built is seen as an opportunity for the CB to do more work with residents who are ‘unconnected’ to local groups and activities. Fig 12: Tom – a Community Connector’s story One of the first things that Tom got involved in was Pop-Up Sports. He is a trained rugby coach, and with the encouragement from the CB, took a ball and his kids to play in the green space. Within no time, others joined in. Small Sparks funding allowed the purchase of bibs, whistle and a mix of balls. Tom gives ownership to the kids to let them choose what they play each week. He plans to start this up again shortly. When he initially got involved he thought the CB was there to ‘do the work’, and it took him a while to fully get to grips with ABCD. This process has “opened [his] eyes” to the community – he would never have given much thought to asking other people to share their skills and passions. Now he would tap into the school to make use of their resources (e.g. bibs, goal posts, other equipment). He found the Nurture Development sessions were inspiring. It was here where he got the ideas for a ‘points system’ that he introduced to help get kids more involved. For example, kids accumulate points that can be used for an activity of their choice once they complete some good work in the community, e.g. helping people with their gardens enabled children to go go-karting. People are becoming better connected: meeting other parents due to activities that their children are involved in. More recently Tom has distanced himself from Ahead due to family issues. This begs the question, how sustainable is community building where it relies on the goodwill and efforts of one person?

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Another example of community building followed was the ‘Guerilla Cinema’ (Fig 13). Following a public screening of a local documentary (aided by Small Sparks), several relationships were made and future filming opportunities were identified to help empower and motivate residents. Fig 13: Guerilla Cinema

Ayrshire Film co – a community interest company – producing high quality, entertaining community stories through video and audio broadcasting was put in touch with the CB by Tom (above). During the first meeting (in March 2015) the CB was shown an example of a film about Damien, a successful amateur boxer from Irvine. The CB suggested they should do something with this film, as it’s a positive story about a local resident. As the boxer’s dad lives in Fullarton, they decided to screen it publically on the side of a local building. Around 30 people watched it and “cars were driving by slowly to see what all the fuss was about”. This got people together in a novel way. There was a real buzz that night: “it was good for the area to know that someone like Damien exists.” Damien’s family organised a BBQ at the event. It was a huge success – bringing people together, and acting as a catalyst for a number of possible future activities that could connect residents. For example: • Damien’s mum has “been stuck in the house all these years [she brought up 7 children]. But

now she is interested in doing things with her life. This was a great thing to happen – it’s changed her life!”

• Damien’s dad and the brother-in-law of one of the Cinema’s organisers met and recognised a shared interest in physical fitness. The dad knew of an empty garage, and so the pair met with a plan to convert it into a community gym. They looked to source free equipment from people in the community. This was a positive development for the brother-in-law (described as being a bit isolated). However, due to difficulties in securing the gym, their vision has yet to be realised.

More ‘Guerilla cinemas’ are being planned that will share positive stories about Fullarton and its people. For example, a current project is filming the story of the formation a local football team, hearing from the 15 young boys involved (which the CB had helped with). The plan is to screen it at a future game.

Some key points:

ü Small sparks funding has been important in helping to get a number of activities going that connect people, and for some (e.g. Beach Clean Up in Harbourside) it has not needed to be provided on a repeat basis

ü Quite a few ideas and possibilities can appear to hold early promise, but may not (for a variety of reasons) come to fruition

ü One of the resident’s involved (Tom) may have the qualities of a good CC, but his contribution didn’t happen ‘overnight’: it developed through conversations with the CB over several months

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5. South Ayrshire Below is a brief summary of what has been happening in South Ayrshire during Year 2. Here 4 CBs have been operating. One has mainly supported the other 3, but has also been assisting a small neighbourhood in Wallacetoun that was ‘untouched’ during Year 1. None of the CBs are based in the target communities. Their office is close to Wallacetoun, but at least a 10-minute walk from Lochside and Dalmilling. The office is well used by community members (from Wallacetoun): people drop in for a coffee and a chat. Connections with residents Over the year, around 2,500 conversations with residents were recorded by the 3 CBs with responsibility for the three main communities covered, with over half of these contacts being in Dalmilling. Of these contacts, some 566 were with ‘new’ residents: i.e. conversations happening for the first time. Hence, as was the case in North Ayrshire, a pattern of repeat conversations between the CBs and local people is evident. Community Connectors The CBs have recorded around 11-13 residents as CCs or potential CCs, approximately half of this group again being from Dalmilling. The number of CCs identified by the CBs has tended to fluctuate each month more so in South Ayrshire than in North Ayrshire, possibly suggesting a greater degree of uncertainty that these individuals can operate as CCs are expected to in ABCD. As in North Ayrshire, The Learning Team has been able to engage with fewer CCs than we might have expected. Again, there is little hard evidence of CCs having ‘learning conversations’ with other residents and connecting people together based on their cares, concerns and capacities. Associations and activities Most of the groups and associations (particularly in Wallacetoun and Dalmilling) formed in Year 1 have continued, frequently with ongoing support and nurturing from the CBs19. A number of new activities have also taken place, a few of which have been driven by residents, but importantly, as in North Ayrshire, they have still had (significant) CB input. Arguably, if the CBs were not present, these activities would be unlikely to have gone ahead as all activities have needed some support (financial or other) from the CB to get started and/or grow. The CBs monthly reports point to a total of 4-5 new resident-led activities starting up that seem sustainable moving forward without the CB’s ongoing involvement. These include the School Gardening Group, Walking Netball, Knitting Group and the Foodbank. A further small number of activities seem dependent on the CBs to drive them. These include Badminton, Street Football, and Tea Toast and Treasure events.

19 These are the only 2 communities across the whole project that have had CBs consistently present.

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Fig 14 shows a snapshot of the activities, highlighting which activities have continued since Year 1, and the other activities that started in Year 2. Fig 14: Activities in South Ayrshire

Small Sparks funding to support local activities has been higher in the second year (£3,441) than in the first (£2,868), but has covered fewer activities. The biggest application (made towards the end of the year) came from Lochside for an Archery Coach and equipment. Community newsletter and event One CB has produced the Ahead Newsletter, distributed to the local community to raise awareness of the project. The newsletter introduced each of the CBs, promoted local events and carried a crossword with ABCD terms. One edition has been produced, and the plan is for this to be a regular production. A Learning Day took place in June at Ayr United Hospitality Suite. It was well attended, but only one resident from Wallacetoun was present, despite the venue being closest to this community. Lochside The Learning Team has shadowed the new CB and connected up with two members of staff from the community centre. Lochside is mainly residential, with some newsagents, churches as well as the community center. There is some tension between the community centre and the church: some residents have a tainted perception of the centre and disagree with how it is run. The new CB ‘started afresh’ at the start of Year 2 after the previous CB left – there was no handover and, of the people she has met, only staff at the community centre and members of the Neighbourhood Association could recall the previous CB and were aware of Ahead. A key highlight from Year 1 was the pop up sports in James Brown Avenue that the (then) CB had facilitated. These games have not continued – there was no one to champion it and drive it forward.

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The CB’s approach The CB20 is known as ‘Lochside Louise’: she takes Hamish, her Scottie Dog, out with her most days when doing street work. She initially found it challenging to strike up conversations with residents. With Hamish, people are more likely to stop and chat, and the issue of dog fouling has been pointed out to be a big one in the area. After a long application process, the Council gave Louise ‘poop bags’. So now, when people complain about the mess, she ‘puts the power back in to their hands’ by asking them if they know anyone who owns a dog. If yes, she offers them bags to pass on. The CB tends to engage people in conversation after she has seen them a couple of times on the street – she will smile and say hello to everyone she walks by so that people recognise her. She doesn’t mention the phrase ‘ABCD’ in her introductions. Instead, Louise says something like:

“My job is trying to get a community feel like a community again and help people make the

most of what they can give and help them keep what they have got.”

She asks people who are engaged in the community to put her in touch with those who are not. When she meets them and asks them why they don't do anything in their community, she finds it’s predominantly due to transport issues, ability or personal preference: a common response being “I don't want to – I’m happy on my own”. Her Facebook profile21 is being used to good effect. By branding herself ‘Lochside Louise’ she hoped that it would encourage people to engage online, and it did. This is because (she has learnt) people are more inclined to add/accept her friend request if they see her as part of the community. Louise will ‘like’ local community groups and organisations. She will look at who is ‘liking’ posts on these pages, and will add them as a friend. People she has never met have added her too. Her profile is ‘open’ so that everyone can see what she does. She finds it easier to engage with young people in this way. Community building activities Volunteers from Crooksmoss Bowling Club talked with Louise about things they could do to involve more people from the community. They were keen to organise a fun day (after the CB suggested it). However, as discussions progressed, motivation diminished with no one prepared to take responsibility. Louise was keen to keep the relationship going and met them again a month later. They were still interested in involving the wider community and discussed how the local primary schools might be a way in. In other parts of Ayr, linking up with schools has had a positive

20 The CB left at the end of the second year, after around a year in post. 21 NB - all bar one of the remaining CBs use Facebook to connect with members of the community and share with their ‘friends’ what is happening in the area.

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result on bowling club memberships. The CB arranged a meeting of Active Schools Co-ordinators and assistants based within local Primary schools to meet with bowling club members. Two schools agreed to attend coaching sessions once a week for 6 weeks. After a few sessions, several pupils indicated that they would like to join as Junior Members. The clubs are discussing a reduced membership fee and the CB is assisting them source external funding for equipment. Neighbourhood Association – Louise and another CB went to a couple of meetings. At the first, Louise had to clarify what her role is when a member of the Association tried telling her ‘what she needed to do in the community’. The CB’s response was: “We are here to help you – we support people to do things for themselves”.

“The group is a good way to be connected to the community, but I keep saying to them to

get people to do things for themselves.”

One challenge for Louise was that the group likes to have ownership and be able to say “We [the Association] did this, we helped fund x”. The CB finds her own way to constructively ‘disrupt’ this dynamic, e.g. if someone comes forward with an idea that can be achieved using community assets, she hands them a business card and asks them to email her to have the conversation out-with the Association. Archery – the CB went to a meeting at the Community Centre that was seeking to find people to volunteer (either for the centre or the community in general). One resident, a qualified Archery coach, was interested in starting sessions for teenagers as this was something that young people had mentioned they were interested in. At the time of writing, Louise is in talks to help support the individual share their skills with other residents. Fig 15: Sandra and Colin – a perspective from the Community Centre

Both Sandra and Colin are based in the Community Learning Centre (in the Community Centre). They support the idea of ABCD and want to help. They mentioned a previous CB (pre-project) that was based in the Centre and Cormac Russell (Nurture Development) had been to the community prior to Ahead to deliver training. ABCD hasn't changed the way they work – Sandra always had the mindset to focus on the positive rather than negative in people she supports (i.e. look at their talents and skills). Colin’s role is outcomes-focused, so he needs to follow protocols and procedures to reach targets. Neither has seen many changes in the community since community building began, but they acknowledge that relationships take time to develop and the changeover in CB slowed the whole process down. Sandra links Louise to members of the community, but does not follow up on the outcome.

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Some key points: ! More than a year into the project, there was little evidence that residents, including

people involved in local organisations (e.g. the Neighbourhood Association) were aware of Ahead

! The new CB helped connect an existing organisation (the Bowling Club) with schools, and young pupils with an activity (bowling) that is new for them. The club is likely to benefit from a boost in members and young people will probably meet new peers. Is this community building?

! Can someone working in the community centre and connecting the CB with others during their day job, but who is not a local resident, be a community connector?

! Keeping relationships alive, and keeping learning conversations going, is important as initial ideas may not come to fruition, but later ones might.

Wallacetoun Wallacetoun has a number of physical assets: church, newsagents, cafes and a primary school. It is blighted by high levels of drug and alcohol misuse. The large council estate is known locally as ‘white city’. The CB’s approach The CB is one of the original five and has been based in Wallacetoun since the start. He spends a lot of time walking the streets and engaging with residents either in the school or through the church, trying to connect people with shared passions and interests. He makes a conscious effort to talk to everybody he meets, a common ice-breaker being: “Hi I’m Richard. I work in the community. How are you doing today?” He has identified 4-5 people he describes as CCs who have helped put him in touch with other people in the community. After 2 years, the CB feels he is finally starting to see small changes in the community, e.g. the school gardening group (see Fig.17 below) was formed with minimal CB input and looks to be sustainable. It has taken some time for the community and key players in it to understand ABCD, and it is only now that people are appreciating what assets they have and that they can tap into these without external help. Community building activities in Wallacetoun Building relationships with key community assets School and churches have been the targets. Both CBs have spent time engaging with churches to introduce ABCD and to tap into their skills base. An ‘asset mapping’ event in Wallacetoun Church was held in June, piggybacking on a church meeting with 30 people in attendance. One of the CBs gave a brief overview of ABCD (i.e. connecting skills) and then everyone was invited to fill out a form to identify skills, interests, gifts etc. Every form had a number so they could be anonymised. Then, during tea and coffee, people were invited to stick their number on a photo of the church layout if they are keen to share their skills with the wider (church) community. Ten people put their number on the photo. It is intended to repeat this ‘asset mapping’ exercise with a larger group of

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people at a future Sunday service to encourage members of the congregation to share skills with one another. The main CB has also been developing his relationship with the school with a number of positive outcomes (Fig 16). Fig 16: Utilising a key community asset - Newton Primary School

Fig 17: Building inter-generational community cohesion - School Gardening Group

Strathyre had been looking for ways to do intergenerational work for a while, before meeting the CB. Since April, on a weekly basis, small groups of children from different primary classes now go along to do gardening: e.g. weeding, planting. They learn about plants and bugs and help with general up-keep, e.g. painting the garden furniture. The group is run by a staff member at Strathyre with gardening experience.

“The inter-generational is great – members of Strathyre offer juice to the kids” (Staff

member)

The member of staff had told the CB of Strathyre’s interest in involvement with the school. But at this time he did not know what shape the involvement would take or that the garden would be such a key asset. The CB was able to feed back the primary school’s interest in gardening. The initiative moved on from there without the CB having to drive it.

The member of staff explained how the initiative is helping to breakdown stigma against people living with poor mental health conditions: showing young people that their members are just like everybody else, and challenging negative attitudes among parents. For example:

The School has been a supporter since the inception of Ahead. A range of activities has been sparked as a result of the CB’s connection with the school. The school has strengthened its connection with the community, with staff being more informed about what assets are available in the area that they can tap into. Activities include:

• A weekly foodbank (plus clothes and toiletries). While starting in Year 1, it has continued. Vulnerable families engage with the school that wouldn't have normally done so. Around 12 families use the foodbank on a weekly basis.

• ‘Tea Toast and Treasure’ also started in Year 1 and is an opportunity for parents to meet and share ideas they have for improving the community. This was chaired/driven by the CB.

• Yarn bombing, i.e. a tactic to cover up graffiti, stemmed from a conversation between a parent and the CB about community art. One theory why people spread graffiti is to do with marking their territory – ‘If I write on it, then this is my area’. Yarn bombing is the same idea, but involves the community and is seen as community street art. The CB linked a parent with the school, as the head-teacher liked the idea. Pupils have participated in ‘yarn bombing’ their playground. It also helped to create a talking point about ABCD.

• The gardening group is a recent development. The CB linked the school and Strathyre House; a charity supporting people with poor mental health (below).

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“Previously if a kid was to tell their parent where they were today, the parent would say that’s the ‘mental house’. But being here and seeing it is normal, is breaking down this

stigma. Parents have started coming along and they wouldn't have been here otherwise.” (Staff member)

“This is not just a place to plant plants, it can help break down barriers and myths of these

two groups of people.” (Staff member)

One parent talked about how her son “absolutely loves it” and how it has transformed his school experience. He “hated school” but “now gets excited for going to school”. Monday “sets him up for the week”. She also uses the gardening group as a behavioural lever: “If he is misbehaving I tell him he won’t get to go to gardening group unless he behaves”. She finds this a good opportunity to bond with her son - “It’s good to see something he likes”. She comes along to the group to spend time with her son doing something he enjoys. The relationship was extended over the school summer holidays, as the Barnardos’ Family Workers based in the school could see the positive changes it was making to the children and wanted to keep up the momentum. “Some of the most vulnerable children have built positive relationships with people outside of school which is fantastic. The staff there are positive role models for the children.” (Head

teacher)22

Gardening group (Millfriars) – the start up of a gardening group, which stemmed from the Tennant and Residents Association at Victoria Court, has been supported by the CB who has been attending meetings to help develop relationships. It is still early days, but 6-7

22 Photographs have been provided by Newton Primary

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people from the Association are getting together to help make the area look nicer. An elderly woman, who can’t garden due to health issues, attends and is encouraging her friends to come along. A badminton club, initially supported by Small Sparks, has been set up with help from the CB. This takes place in the newly refurbished Newton Church hall and is run by a church member. It came about when a member of the dominoes group expressed a passion for badminton. The CB purposefully did not promote the event on Facebook or via posters, but rather through word of mouth with residents coming into the office. The first couple of sessions weren't well attended, but participation increased. However, the vast majority of the members are from Community Safety, Ayrshire Housing and the Carer’s Centre participating as part of a ‘Healthy Working Lives’ initiative. The person whose idea it was did not participate due to health reasons. At the time of writing, the CB is in talks with the Church to negotiate a price for hiring a hall until there are more members able to split the cost. The CB’s engagement with groups has thrown up the odd very difficult challenge, such as that highlighted in the experience of the Dominoes Group below. Fig 18: A challenging issue - the dominoes group The Dominoes Group initially met every Thursday in the Ahead office. On average, around 10 people attended. Some people already knew one another, others did not. The group gave people an opportunity to get out and interact with others. A number of members had addiction problems and/or depression. Coming to play dominoes once a week was possibly having a positive impact on their mental health and wellbeing. An informal support network had developed, e.g. when one member did not turn up, others went round to their house to check they were OK. The group was also helping people who would normally avoid services to become more engaged. However, all of a sudden, the dynamics of the group changed when it appeared that money laundering and drug dealing were taking place. The person in question was thought to have had the qualities required of a community connector. The group was no longer considered to be a safe place for members or for the CBs in the office. Although two of the group were known to have had connections with drug dealing, the CB was keen to not exclude them, but to try and keep them included in their community. The CB believes he embraced this challenge in an ‘ABCD way’ – he put the group members in control. It was decided there was a need to develop ‘group rules’ (see below) which helped eliminate the problem. Initially, the person in question left, but told everyone the group had been cancelled. This was quickly resolved and the group has continued to meet. The CB now takes the opportunity to have learning conversations with the group, rather than simply letting them use the office space to meet and play games.

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Some key points: ü The CB’s work with the school has been able to attract the active interest and

involvement of key teaching staff who were already amenable to thinking and working in an ABCD way

ü With the support of the school, young people have been connected to a group normally excluded and stigmatised (adults living with mental health problems), but while the wellbeing of both groups will benefit in various ways from these connections, is this worthwhile initiative an example of ABCD?

ü Wallacetoun is a community where addiction and drugs is rife. How can ABCD be made to work in these places? During a Skype session, Cormac Russell concluded:

“The Dominoes Group is a group of people who struggle to be part of a peer group… as a

CB you need to think about recovery in a broader sense – people in recovery struggle with

being in committed relationship... Then it is worth exploring, when you look across the

community, where in that community is there a welcome for that person’s gift/passion.”

ü How sustainable is it if a group is run from the project office? While it might be a

useful tactic to hold groups in the project office in their early days, once they are established they will need to find an alternative place to meet and continue.

Dalmilling Here one CB has been community building since the project’s inception. There are few public places to engage with people, and the John Pollock Centre is slowly being taken over by Council and NHS staff. One resident interviewed said: “There is no place for residents to go - we need a community centre! We feel like gypsies,

we’re being shifted all over the place!... we need premises for the local community!”

(Resident)

The CB’s approach The CB engages with local people either on the street or by attending pre-existing groups and associations. He focuses on developing a relationship and, once a good relationship has been formed, he encourages them to connect with others based around shared skills and passions. Like other CBs, he has not yet seen the establishment of a group of CCs who would lead the task of finding, speaking with and connecting the unconnected– “this will grow at the level of trust, once I’m confident they can function in that way.” Community building activities Three stories dominate the second year’s activity – football, walking netball and a gardening group. Football This came about when the CB saw kids playing football in the street. After speaking to them and their parents, there was the opportunity to use the school’s football grounds. Small

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Sparks was used to carry out parent helper’s PVG checks and buy first aid equipment. Activity dwindled as the parents who helped out quit due to personal circumstances. At its peak there was around 60 kids participating. Walking netball A group formed when the CB made contact with an existing women’s group in Dalmilling to discuss future developments. The women wanted to do something to keep active. The CB made contact with a Netball Coach who was happy to get involved. Her and one other coach support the group and guide activities, charging a sessional fee payment. This was initially paid by Small Sparks, but the ladies now pay for it themselves using money raised at Bingo sessions. The netball sessions last an hour on a Monday afternoon in the John Pollock Centre, and are followed by the knitting sessions in the café. Usually about 14 people participate, with ages ranging from 60 to 82. In March, the Learning Team attended a session and talked with participants: the women enjoy themselves and get some exercise - it gets them out of the house. The people interviewed come from different parts of North Ayr. Some had heard about the groups via word of mouth. But the majority were part of the Women’s Forum and are part of the knitting group that the CB helped to get going. The quotes below demonstrate they are reaping both physical and mental health benefits:

“I didn't think I could do what I was doing up there today at my age [82]!”

“I have problems with my legs. I usually take painkillers but haven’t done so on a Monday in

ages. This really helps my legs.”

“It’s good fun and good exercise – we don't do anything else at our age.”

“It gets me out of the house.”

“These are the only two things I do [knitting and walking netball].”

“You get a good laugh.”

After Netball, the ladies we spoke to went to the canteen to knit. The knitting group operates on a ‘mini production-like’ basis, with each member inputting their respective skills to the production of clothes/blankets. With the help of the CB, blankets have been donated to Erskine Hospital and Barnardos. Gardening Group - was formed in Year 1 of the project by people who were already getting together to play Dominoes, which the CB had facilitated. The group has continued to meet, but intermittently, partly due to a mix of weather, poor health and tensions arising in the group. They’ve made planters for local allotments, but some participants interviewed felt that the fun had gone out of it when they started doing work for other people: they had almost lost sight of why they got together in the first place – i.e. their shared passion. Fig 19: Bill – a community connector We met Bill to hear about his involvement. He acknowledged that the CB was doing a good job at community building despite there being few public places to engage with residents – really only Tesco and the John Pollok Centre. Bill has been cited as having been pivotal in getting the Dominoes group up and running:

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“[The CB] asked me to come to one of the first Dominoes sessions and to bring other people along to get them involved. So I brought my neighbour, and some others I think. I

like speaking to and meeting new people so was happy to go along” At this session, gardening was discussed, and it became apparent that a number of people in the group shared the passion. Bill was able to supply tools and pellets to help them to get started, and the CB supported them. Currently, due to a busy lifestyle, Bill is not involved with Ahead and does not attend dominoes or other activities.

Some Key Points:

ü Dalmilling is one of two communities where there has been continuity of CB from the start of the project. Yet, there is little evidence of a pool of CCs being active in having learning conversations with other residents with a view to making ABCD happen

ü Some activities make a valuable contribution to people’s quality of life and wellbeing, and some look likely to sustain themselves (e.g. Walking Netball, Dominoes and Gardening), but others haven’t (e.g. Children’s Football)

ü Walking Netball appears sustainable, but given the fact that money is changing hands to pay a coach, is this truly an example of community building?

ü There is evidence of ‘activity snowballing’, in the sense that people coming together around one shared passion (e.g. dominoes) gradually recognise another shared interest (e.g. gardening) and develop activity around that

ü The CB’s involvement with much of the activity that has cropped up under the Ahead project is ongoing to some extent. Once a CB helps a group to come together around shared passions, when is the optimum time to step away?

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6. Conclusions and recommendations With reference to each of the specific building blocks of ABCD as set out by Nurture Development, the following observations and conclusions can be offered: Finding a Community Builder Team – The Ahead project was able to start by employing a team of 5 CBs and, although there has been considerable ‘churn’ in the CBs, the project has had CBs on the ground in most target communities for much of its lifespan so far. The CBs who have been in post over the much of the period have drawn on mentoring and support from Nurture Development23. The Community Builders have been busy working on the ground within the target neighbourhoods engaging with local people and other groups and bodies. As a direct result of this work, a rich mix of things have happened on the ground that would not have got going without their efforts.

Recruiting a Community Connector/s – Nurture Development’s training and mentoring encouraged the CBs to find a small team of CCs to work with them and broaden the impact of the community building work. While the CB’s monthly reports identify a number of CCs, the role that Nurture Development envisages for the CC in ABCD has not materialised to date. Indeed, as time has progressed, finding and mobilising CCs has been recognised by both the CBs and other members of the project team as being a very difficult and challenging aspects of ABCD. In some instances the CB has taken on both roles (CB and CC) and in other cases the CB appears to have abandoned the idea of recruiting CCs. If the CCs are a key building block in ABCD, further exploration is required to explain what the root cause of the difficulties are. Hosting community conversations to discover assets and what people care about - Over the two project areas, CBs report around 3,800 contacts (or discrete conversations) with over 700 individual residents have been made, plus additional contacts with existing groups and service providers. While the conversations opened up by the CBs have explored peoples’ ‘dreams’ for their community and the things they care about, there has been little systematic ‘mapping’ of the assets that they have and that can be drawn on in collaborative action with neighbours to address their joint concerns or realise their shared dreams (i.e. ‘using what they have to provide what they need’). The example given above of ‘asset mapping’ in Wallacetoun appears to be one of a few instances of where this activity (that matches peoples’ concerns with their capacities, and preparedness, to act) has been carried out. Engaging community groups and associations – Although over much of the first year of Ahead, the CBs concentrated their efforts on engaging with residents that were not already active in existing community bodies, this has since shifted. Over Year 2, there has been more engagement with groups and associations within the local neighbourhoods. It is a shift that has been encouraged and welcomed by most of the professional participants in Ahead, who have argued that local ABCD work needs to be realistic and pragmatic, accommodate other local work that is taking place, and work with people who are already linked into activity and groups within their communities.

23 It is not clear what training and mentoring will be in place for new CBs starting late in 2016 and after.

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Building connections through social interaction and sharable opportunities – As a result of the conversations opened up by the CBs, many new connections between residents have been made and new ‘shared interest’ associations have formed. We have visibility of up to 20 separate activities (i.e. residents coming together to do things that interest them), some of which had started during the first year of the project. Much of this has been driven, at least initially, by the CBs and would not have happened without this resource being on the ground. Groups of local people (like school children) have been connected to other groups (such as adults living with mental health problems) to their mutual benefit and wellbeing. There is also evidence of connections being made between existing assets (like schools, third sector organisations and small businesses) and residents and community groups/associations as these assets have been engaged in asset-based work through the efforts of the CBs. Visioning and planning – In the training and mentoring by Nurture Development, it was envisaged that a citizen-led plan for change would gradually emerge as a result of ABCD (e.g. as noted earlier: individual energies get connected, amplified and multiplied through the building of new associations and ultimately over time, an association of associations… using their shared agency to contribute to their community’s wellbeing.) While residents have been encouraged to express their dreams for their community in conversations convened by the CBs, these have yet to take shape as a community-wide vision or plan. Indeed, it is difficult to see ABCD leading to a ‘resident-led’ plan for change emerging in the foreseeable future, unless some kind of formal community action planning process, like that implemented in East Ayrshire by the Council’s Vibrant Communities team (see appendix), is followed. Indeed, in one of the Ahead neighbourhods – Fullarton in Irvine – this is precisely what has happened. Here an established community organisation (Fullarton Community Association) followed the same community action planning process as in East Ayrshire, but this commenced before, and is not linked to, the Ahead project. Implementing change (doing and reviewing) – While we have not yet seen a citizen-driven agenda for change (as described above) emerging to date through ABCD, many small-scale, ad hoc changes have taken place. The additional resource committed to the Ahead project has meant that work on the ground in the local communities has been able to extend beyond what existing community development services would have been able to do given existing resources. Some things (engaging with residents and other local assets) are being done differently, and arguably more innovatively, than would have been possible through existing institutional structures and controls. While many of the activities reflect new and innovative ways of working, the visible impacts of the project remain fairly small-scale. The project’s contribution is certainly valued and welcomed by many, but there does not appear to be much prospect, or indeed expectation among some of key practitioners from participating organisations, of a larger-scale impact over the next year. With reference to Nurture Development’s primary questions for ABCD (see p.8), perhaps a more realistic aspiration for Ahead in the short to medium term is to continue to help groups of residents to get to a point where they are clear about what they are ‘best placed to do together’ on their own terms, and then, if it fits their agenda, to move on to consider what they are also ‘best placed to do’, but with help from outside agencies. This perspective may well see groups of residents deciding that what they want to change can be progressed

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by participating in Participatory Budgeting, or by engaging in the co-production or co-delivery of services in their area, or by playing a more active role in Locality Partnerships. Fostering celebration – Encouraging residents to reflect and celebrate positive things about their community has been a very strong feature of how the CBs have gone about their work. Organising photo parties, for example, are some of the techniques used by the CBs to bring people together to share happy memories and celebrate community. Many new connections and associations will have developed as a result of these activities. During training and mentoring by Nurture Development, CBs were introduced to and encouraged to work towards convening an ‘Ideas Fare’ that would showcase and celebrate a range of resident-led ideas for change – i.e. things that people had expressed a willingness to give their time to that would involve sharing their skills and gifts with others to address common concerns or pursue shared dreams. While numerous resident-led ideas and activities have emerged, these have not yet been used as a celebratory platform to draw the wider community together in an event like an Ideas Fayre. Health and wellbeing - The numerous activities that have sprung up under Ahead will be making a valuable contribution to people’s quality of life and wellbeing. Through the lens of the 5 Ways to Wellbeing, we can point to Ahead’s contribution to connecting people with others and other groups and activities, encouraging people to give some of their time to community activities, drawing people together with shared interests, learning new skills, and activities that enable people to enjoy physical activities of some sort. Project funders will, however, be interested in harder evidence of how health and wellbeing are being improved. At a community-wide level, there is the option of re-running the baseline survey of social connectedness and self-reported health and wellbeing (in South Ayrshire only) towards the end of the project. In addition to this, it should be possible to gather feedback directly from a relatively large number of individual residents who have been ‘touched’ in some way by ABCD and explore what their experience has meant for them (see Recommendations below). Recommendations The ‘Methodology’ section above recognised some limitations in the insight and understanding that has been gathered so far. As the project moves into its final year, it is recommended that the framework for data gathering is revised and refreshed to enable a project-wide picture of ABCD’s contribution and outcomes to be developed. It will be important to develop a clear picture of the extent of new social connections being made and the new associations between previously unconnected residents that spring up as a result of community building. The recommendations are for:

• A tighter and more robust set of indicators and data gathering on these indicators • The CBs being actively engaged in gathering and regularly updating data • Project team members actively monitoring and questioning the data from CBs • The CBs gathering residents’ contact information to allow follow-up engagement • Engaging with residents through survey or/and group-based work.

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The overall framework should reflect the theory of change outlined above that sets out the underlying thinking of how ABCD might work. It is recommended that the CBs and others in the project team are directly involved in developing this framework, checking that it is realistic to gather information specified, and considering how this information best can be assembled. At this stage a suggested list of possible indicators to work with include:

• Identifying examples of where residents have come together to have conversations with others in their community about things that they are interested in and may want to do something about

• Specific examples of community building taking place, i.e. where residents have come together and have started to ‘use what they have to provide what they need’

• Brief descriptions of these examples, including: when they started, the number of residents involved, the skills being used, the amount of time residents devote to the activity

• A description of how each of these examples formed, highlighting the role (if any) played by CBs, CCs and any relevant others

• The number of residents who are performing the role of a Community Connector as envisioned by Nurture Development in ABCD work

• Instances of where individuals, or small groups of residents, have been connected with an existing community activity or association, or with a service

• Information that would allow an assessment of the likelihood of the community building activities being sustained and growing, including input (if any) from external sources (e.g. Small Sparks funding)

• Feedback from individual residents involved in (touched by) community building activities about perceived changes in their social networks, skills and confidence, health and wellbeing etc.

It is proposed that the above is discussed, developed further and agreed with the project team and CBs. There needs to be clarity on how the information will be gathered and shared on an ongoing (say monthly) basis. One possibility is to establish the framework as a ‘dynamic excel sheet’ that each CB feeds into on a monthly basis, possibly replacing the existing CB’s monthly reports. The dynamic excel sheet could provide a key focus for project team meetings, allowing participants to consider emerging outcomes on the ground and ask further questions as appropriate of the data presented. In this way, a robust picture of the project’s impact on the ground would be gradually built up: for example, are new social connections being made?; how did these connections come about?; was a CC involved?; does the activity represent local people recognising and mobilising their assets?, and so on.

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Appendix - Community Planning in East Ayrshire

In East Ayrshire, ABCD resources made available from the NHS Endowment Fund have been used to support an existing programme of asset-based work: Vibrant Communities, Community Led Action Plans. This programme has been up and running since April 2013 and its impact on local people and communities in that short period of time has been far reaching. Vibrant Communities works with all sectors of the community, including children and young people, adults and older people and the wider community to develop sustainable communities and reduce inequalities through prevention and early intervention services. Vibrant communities works ‘with and for’ local communities, rather than ‘doing to’ them. The aim is to balance the relationship between those who design and deliver services and the people who ultimately use them. This work has started to change culture and unlock the knowledge, skills and experience of local people and employees, to harness the enthusiasm, talent and the ‘can do’ spirit that exists across East Ayrshire. Local communities are embarking on an exciting journey that will reap significant rewards and long lasting benefits for years to come. Vibrant communities has been successfully helping to make connections between communities and partner agencies which, over the last three years, has been seeing a real transformation in how communities are developing and engaging with each other. Vibrant Communities focuses on empowering and building the capacity of local people and communities and developing strong social networks. It does this through the deployment of dedicated Community Workers to: support communities to identify local assets and bring together local groups, associations and communities of interest; prioritise actions through local surveys and consultation; and develop a five year community led action plan for their community. Work is well under way to support the development of locally-led action plans in every one of East Ayrshire’s communities. So far, 16 Community Led Action Plans have been launched. The following short accounts highlight the progress that has been made in a couple of these communities, although progress is taking place across all of the 16 localities; New Cumnock “New Cumnock was one of the first communities in East Ayrshire to produce such a Community Led Action Plan. In consultation with the local community and with support from the Great Steward of Scotland’s Dumfries House Trust (GSSDHT) and East Ayrshire Council, the village is now currently undergoing major regeneration. New Cumnock Town Hall has been completely transformed and re-developed for community use, while a £3.2m community square project will see the site of the library, games hall and community centre being redeveloped into a creative public space. A completely new frontage and new side entrance is being created for New Cumnock’s outdoor swimming pool which will be transformed into a traditional style lido and a new community garden, heritage centre, community café and adventure play park also feature in the plans.”

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Newmilns “Newmilns is another one of the communities in East Ayrshire to produce its Community Led Action Plan, have progressed and developed into Newmilns Regeneration Association since the launch of the plan in 2014. This has seen individuals grow in confidence and strong connections being made across the community, with neighbouring communities and with the local authority. The Association has achieved much over the last 2 years; undertaken numerous community Clean ups, acquired the old post office building to develop into a Heritage Centre/Office Base, purchased and sited street furniture across the community, created its own branding and website, organized Christmas Street Fayre for the whole community, and most recently delivered its first Food Festival attracting over 4,000 people to the area. The group has been nominated for the Queens Award for Voluntary Service and the Chairperson was recently presented with the Jim Dunlop Memorial Award for Volunteering and also a finalist in the West FM Cream of Ayrshire Awards”

(Suzanne Brodie, Vibrant Communities Team, East Ayrshire Council). The approach underpins the Council’s commitment to transform its relationship with the communities it serves, ensuring that communities are empowered to plan, prioritise and progress community-led regeneration in their area. Communities who have developed an action plan have been involved in a wide range of activities including: large community events and festivals; village clean-ups; improved signage; and developing local brands, products for sale and websites and improving village appearances, path networks and traffic management. NHS Endowment Fund The funding received from the NHS Endowment Fund of £35,000 has been used for training for community representatives and staff to add value and support the embedded process taking place, whilst also supporting the communities to organise and run their main Community Event linked to their Action Plan process. Some 14 of these Events have taken place, feeding information back to the wider community whilst supporting community connections to be made. Over the last two years, community representatives have had the opportunity to attend a Communities Conference each year: ‘Inspiring, Investing, Invigorating’, facilitated by Vibrant Communities staff where delegates shared their experiences, made connections with others, engaged with council departmental representatives and external agencies, whilst also heard from international speakers from the USA about community-led regeneration, as well as national funders and the business sector about various funding and investment opportunities. In total, over the two years, just over 150 people have participated representing the communities that have (or are) developing their Community Led Action Plan. Very positive feedback has resulted in this becoming an Annual Event for the community representatives to look forward to, to help shape and to participate in. Other bespoke training has taken place throughout the past two years to support the community representatives, targeting at least 195 people, in particular to develop their

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confidence in a range of topic areas such us; Funding & Investment, Governance, Interview Techniques, Analysing Data, Presentation Skills, Social Media, Community Engagement, Community Planning, Community Empowerment, Business Planning, Community Asset Transfer and Development Planning. Representatives have also had the opportunity to attend national conferences where appropriate and local training sessions with Cormac Russell from Nurture Development.

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