Day two in the Local by Social house…
Energised and excited by the a day of thoughts, talks and cups of tea, the Local by Social Midlands team arrived at the Moat House Leisure and Neighbourhood Centre eager to get going on the three ideas that came through from Friday’s inspiring local talks and group work.
In a quick catch-up, Dominic recapped on the three main issues we were going to try and crack with a little help from the web:
1. How can the web connect the young(er) and old(er) in Coventry?
2. How could we help the police and residents communicate more effectively?
3. Could we create a space online to bring together local residents as a hub for their local area?
All participants, from local residents of all ages, community police officers, designers and web developers, teamed up to work on the idea that interested them most. Ahead was a busy day of ideas swapping, sharing experiences and a smattering of building websites to see how far the groups could go in turning their ideas into action.
The groups were a winning combination, with everyone working remarkably hard (some straight through lunch – and on a Saturday as well!), turning their ideas from Friday into a reality. One group even hit the streets of Coventry to grab some snaps for their site (you can check them out here).
Social Media Surgeries
Among all this frenzied action, Nick Booth ran a social media surgery for anyone who wanted it, spending time with residents to work through a way of using the web that worked for them and getting them up and running there and then. By the end of the day Nick had created a whole bunch of digital converts. Below is local resident John talking about his surgery experience:
John had a day that he won’t forget in a hurry, not only becoming a first time blogger, but a grandfather (again). Nick trained him to set up The Unity Action Forum, which wants to “seek to represent black and ethnic interests in WEHM – the Wood End, Hanley Green and Manor Farm neighbourhood in East Coventry”. Other successes included one group producing deed more, a small resident-led what’s on website, as well as Henley Green Residents Association, which already has a post up promoting the next community night out to raise money for Help for Heroes.
Sharing the work
The day went in a flash, rounded off with presentations back from the three groups, each idea managing to get something up online and really taking the ideas on to the next level.
Here Adrian Coles from Purple Patch gives a quick summery of each of the ideas – thanks Adrian!
MoathouseJam – music through the generations
MoathouseJam will address two challenges: to build stronger relationships between generations, and; to motivate older people to use technology and social media. Music is enjoyed by people of all ages and so this site will use it to bring people together, particularly in local secondary schools where students will be asked to link with an older person – whether their own grandparents or people from local community centres – to discuss music across generations.
All participants will have their favourite music track loaded up onto a MoathouseJam site, comments of the personal significance of the track, stories and a personal photograph. This will produce a “catalogue” of music tastes of different generations in the local area. Older people will then have an incentive to visit the MoathouseJam web-site and students will train them on how to access the site. There will also be a music event where different generations are brought together and the site is publicised. All this will open up the possibilities of the Internet and social media to all generations involved.
We took a few snaps of the idea in progress… click below to have a look!
Our Shout – connecting residents and deliverers
Over the past few years the social capital in the neighbourhood has increased. Relationships between residents and agencies have improved as they have worked together for ten years jointly making decisions about the area. A local community magazine co-ordinated by Coventry NDC called Your Shout has helped this as has a neighbourhood website, Your Guide – that has been developed by Coventry’s first communication social enterprise Purple Patch and Tribeweb.
Our Shout will build on this theme by using social media to increase the ways residents and service providers, public services and others communicate and connect. Residents will be able to post up blogs, photos and comments about the area to express their views to each other and to agencies. Agencies will be able to not only respond to these, but to proactively put up information for comment and to have consultations with local people through this means.
Here Vicky, a local community organiser, chatted to us about working on Our Shout – and how she hopes it’ll help to reach out so all Coventry residents can become active in the area:
And you can check out all the thinking from the group below…
Safe in Wehm
Police and residents have good dialogues about community safety issues. There is also a Neighbourhood Agreement in place that sets out the responsibilities of police and other agencies. This initiative can build on this through a website to encourage residents to discuss crime concerns and local policing with each other and the Police and other community safety services.
Ways of doing this might include: a blog linked to the Facts-about-Coventry website that encourages residents to discuss information such as police response rates and causes of crime locally. It can also make use of police tweets and facebook page; links to useful organisations to promote reporting of crime and crime prevention and a Flickr page celebrating local young people who turn away from crime.
Check out the group’s thinking below…
We managed to have a chat with Adrian as the groups were getting ready to present where he talked to us about what he hopes will come from Local by Social Midlands – and why Coventry New Deals for Communities decided it was important to get involved:
One Coventry resident summed up his lesson about finding his voice online:
“What I’ve learnt from today – is that technology isn’t difficult. If you can write an email, you can write a blog.”
Everyone involved in the day left enthused by what they’d achieved, but also keen to continue using their new found web savvy to make the sites a real success in the area. A massive thank to all involved – we look forward to staying in touch and seeing where next from here.
For Local by Social, the next stop will be Bristol to see how the south-west is using the web to connect their communities.
Want to get involved? You can register your interest for all future Local by Social regional events here.
Blog post by Lauren Ivory from FutureGov.
