We Love KingsHOME!- ABCD in action
We Love KingsHOME! is a great example of the Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) approach which informs many of our projects.
The Heritage Hub, home to Gloucestershire Archives and heritage partners, is located in Kingsholm, an inner-city area of Gloucester. The neighbourhood is in the top 10% of deprived communities in England (according to the Office of National Statistics’ Indices of Multiple Deprivation). It features a bail hostel next door, a shortage of green spaces, with many larger properties in multiple occupation or used by drug and alcohol services. 39 languages are spoken at the local primary school and there is a higher-than-average density of social housing.
What is ABCD?
Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) is an approach which looks at what resources exist within a community and how they can be brought together for the common good- “start with what’s strong, not with what’s wrong”. ‘Strong’ elements in our locality include our near neighbour “Roots “a social enterprise café with community space, Kingsholm Primary School graded outstanding by OFSTED, and Gloucester City Homes, a social housing provider. The Heritage Hub has the potential to be an asset to the immediate neighbourhood but needs to have a relevant offer which can engage the local community. This gives ABCD a role to play in both community building and audience development.
Who was involved?
The We Love KingsHOME! partnership project originated in 2017 from contacts facilitated by the new Community Builder based at Roots Community Café (and funded by the Barnwood House Trust, who support ABCD community-building throughout Gloucestershire). He facilitated discussions with Fair Shares, the local GP surgery, Gloucester Rugby, the local food bank and others. Out of this emerged the three-way partnership between us, Kingsholm Primary School (KPS) and Gloucester City Homes (GCH) which underpins ‘We Love KingsHOME’.
What were the aims?
The intention was always to bring young and old together, to look at what is good in our neighbourhood, and to celebrate Kingsholm – its history, its people and its places.
Because the project was all about place – neighbourhood, community and pride in one’s local area – we called it “We Love KingsHOME!” as it was always meant to be a joyful celebration of heritage in an area of Gloucester called Kingsholm, which is where the Heritage Hub is located.
What did you do?
We initially worked together to develop a programme of activities for class visits. These included a child-friendly ‘behind the scenes’ tour, a conservation miniworkshop, a “Gloucester Olympicks” (involving cheese rolling, and traditional games) and a story telling session based on place, using local landmarks and streets. An inter-generational element was introduced by inviting GCH residents from the tower block opposite the Hub to help with the ‘Olmpicks’ We also ran a “university module” for year 6 children who were taught to conduct and record oral history interviews. By 2019 confidence in the partnership had built to such an extent that we ran a “take over” day for 24 children aged 10 and 11. The children were engaged in real tasks which included answering the phone, welcoming visitors and helping to move books between strongrooms. We planned to repeat ‘take over’ day in 2020, with the new element of inviting in parents/carers to be shown round our facilities by the children, but the COVID-19 pandemic prevented this event from happening.
What were the outcomes?
The partnership between ourselves, GCH and KPS is now on a really firm footing. Links forged through this project have also had an impact on other areas of our offer to local people. Gloucester City Homes chose the Heritage Hub community garden for their 2019 community impact day, providing materials and skilled workmen to build three raised beds and a fence. Our relationship with Kingsholm Primary School led to the use of the Dunrossil training suite by Adult Education to deliver ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) classes to KPS parents. This in turn led to us recruiting an asylum seeker as a volunteer.
