Exploring Spaces and Places with Neighbourhood Stewards
‘Spaces + Places’ is an ambitious new project bringing together local people to decide how to invest £1 million in community space in Barking and Dagenham. At the last meeting the group marked up a map of community assets and identified gaps in the borough.
In the seventh session, a group of residents, Neighbourhood Stewards marked out where they live and the places that they pass daily; the places of worship, the libraries, train stations, shops, community centres, old unused pubs, schools, parks, restaurants, health centres, allotments, residential areas, film studios, high streets and all the other places that make up the rich, vibrant borough.
Stepping back from the map, we were able to see the areas that didn’t seem to have much going on, which led to the question of whether that was true or if it was because we didn’t know much about the area.
We noticed that Beam, Village, Alibon, Becontree, Barking Riverside and Thames were areas that the participants didn’t place many labels. Is there really nothing going on in those areas?
This is where you can help by sharing what you know of these areas, and what is on offer there. It could be a brilliant local shop, a buzzing community centre or a trusted support group.
Tell us what you like or rely on in your area – and please share it with your local friends and family too.
Complete the form to share your thoughts!
Once we’ve got a better idea of what’s on offer in each area we’ll build a digital map to share the assets that local people value more widely.
Keep reading for a summary of the last session from our new Programmes Manager, Rukiyah Khatun, where she shares first impressions of the project and photos from her first meeting with Neighbourhood Stewards.
About Spaces+Places
With the Spaces + Places programme in full swing, I have a lot to learn and catch up on. The residents, or Neighbourhood Stewards, had already met seven times exploring, learning, questioning, breaking things down and building things up as they set out to develop ideas for investing the funding into a community asset that will benefit the community.
Our seventh session (my first one) aimed to explore what already exists and what better way to do that than by spreading out a massive map of the borough and literally marking out the places that already offer opportunities.
It showed us there are gaps in our knowledge of the borough which we need others in the community to help us fill. See the form above.
This exercise also highlighted things that do not currently exist in the borough or could be developed further. Could the allotments better service community needs? Could there be better infrastructure for people to use bikes around the borough? Could there be more pockets of economic activity in residential areas?
Thoughts and ideas have started to spark with each session deepening the understanding of the ambition and the possibilities of the Spaces+Places project.
We’re excited for what we can learn next with input from more residents so please complete the form above.
For my very first session, the Stewards’ energy and enthusiasm shaped my induction to the project. One of the highlights for me was hearing how the experience felt for one of the them:
“For the first time in a long while I’ve experienced a sense of community”
