Categories: Community Development

1 Aug 2011, Comments (0)

Place Making (near and far)

Author: MDC

Has been a while since I blogged onto these pages – no excuses – just busy leading my best life possible.

The consultancy continues along with myself, our core team (Sue and Kathlin) and lots of interesting visitors – spending time on projects which focus on community development, place making strategies and strengthening social and community networks. Included in this is delivering local events, community art projects, establishing a community garden and facilitating lots of community and stakeholder workshops. Here’s a pic which includes one of our client reps Nadia D and Charlotte our community artist friend. That’s me in the cream hat.

Our key focus remains public open space, community amenity and ensuring ‘life between buildings’ has meaning and adds to the quality of life experienced by all.

Some examples of what we’ve been up to:

BROWNLIE NEIGHBOURHOOD PROJECTS

The team has been working in Bentley for the Department of Housing delivering community development services for about 18 months. We’ve done this through facilitating a series of capacity building projects to support a wider masterplan project to regenerate the area.

We’re very excited about the Bentley Community Garden – which is about to open it’s new site and has SBS completing a webdoc on it and it’s members – who are diverse and energetic.

We’ve held two fabulously successful Harmony Day Events which bring together hundreds of people from all walks of life, cultures and backgrounds and we’re planning to do it all again in 2012. Locals from the Brownlie neighbourhood and reps from community groups put effort into many months of pre-planning and imagining this event.

Thanks to all including Sharon from the Salvation Army who contributed outstandingly to face painting 100′s of f faces and to Monica and Sarah from the local Division of General Practice for providing water, sunscreen and free blood pressure tests. We couldn’t do it without many others including the local Rotary who bbq 100′s of Halal sausages for us….

Charlotte continues to facilitate fun and sustainable art projects with people across the neighbourhood and in particular those involved with the community garden. Here’s some fab art assembled into totem poles, made by the 3 local schools under her guidance.

CITY OF MELVILLE CULTURAL PLAN

We collaborated with Anne Goodall consulting to work on an interesting project for the City of Melville developing their cultural vitality plan. This included a school art project, a photovoice process, an online forum and lots of conversations with staff and community members about the culture of Melville and the quality of life they enjoy and want to maintain.

CITY OF FREMANTLE YOUTH PLAN

Again in collaboration with Anne G, we’ve been involved in assisting the City of Fremantle to check-in on youth needs and aspirations. This has included one to one interviews, an online survey, dialogue with educational institutions, youth agencies and the community. I’m always amazed and re-assured about the number of amazing people out there, working hard to make a difference, in particular to help out those who find themselves in difficult life transitions and situations.

CITYOF SUBIACO, PURPLE LOUNGE CONVERSATIONS

Following hot off the heels of our ‘red lounge conversations’ carried out for Town of Claremont. The City of Subiaco approached us to implement a similar process on their mainstreet with a focus on a bigger visioning process labelled Think2030. With the wonderful expertise of Gerald A we undertook filming in various locations, engaging people on the street (with the help of team member Sue’s excellent spruiking).

COMMUNITY/STAKEHOLDER FORUMS

This is core business for us – here’s a sample of some of our clients and focus areas:

Headspace Planning Day – mental health support and education for young people
Department of Education – youth transition and participation in education
City of Rockingham – urban art…balancing youth capacity building and the aesthetics of public amenities
City of Subiaco – local business input to developing public market guidelines (this included research on best practice and trends related to public markets)
Western Power – Mundaring Substation design workshops (this was an innovative approach aimed at improving the look and feel of heavy infrastructure through incorporating interpretive signage, art and public amenity) note: great exercise but the substation isn’t going to be built in that area after all…good lessons learnt though

PROBONO AND LOCAL PLACEMAKING

I consciously involve my self in local placemaking and probono opportunities. This allows me to ‘practice what I preach’ and experiment with ideas that may benefit clients and communities in the future.

Most fun and enjoyment was summer 2011 when I was involved with the Cappuccino Strip Street Club in Fremantle (check out Linda Blagg’s video ‘at home on a fremantle street’). Influenced by our mate David Engwicht (world class place maker and authority on giving streets back to the people) and supported by City of Fremantle Council who dropped red tape to allow it to happen. Over 4 summer evenings we were able to play in various streets linked to South Terrace and in the end the mainstreet itself. This was done by a group of volunteers who simply wanted to provide a blank canvas and invite the community in to come and enjoy the space. I was also interested in experimenting with different uses of the street (as I was chairperson of the South Terrace Improvement Group at the time – which has since reported to Council and included some of the lessons learnt that summer). It really proved to me that people can self-organise and can feel perfectly comfortable in their own place if we let them be themselves and simply enjoy life. Some of the most memorable things for me were:

lots of children and families feeling safe
people laughing, dancing and connecting
someone bringing a birdbath, teaching people to mosaic and having the project finished on the night
someone bringing her canvas and painting in the middle of the street
a sewing machine set up and people making ‘why we love Freo’ flags which got strung up on the spot
lots of costumes and opportunities to engage people passing by encouraging them to try on a wig or crazy outfit
the lovely Claire being our official ‘free hugs’ gal and the look on the faces of people visiting the street when they got one
flash choirs, dancers and ukulele bands
fake green grass as markers for ‘shared space’ and cars slowing down or re-routing in order to help make it happen
local business agreeing to let it happen and local council helping making it happen (they cut red tape and provided a seeding grant of $2,000 of which we spent about $800 because so much time and spirt was donated)
the ease in which we set up for 5pm and set down at around 9pm with the street going back to it’s usual purpose

The Cappuccino Strip Street Club ‘experiment’ was noticed near and far and other precincts around Fremantle have since taken on parts of their streets or public spaces for easy and low cost activities – such as bocce at the Round House and ping pong in Kings Square. I love the fact that sometimes all you have to do is ‘give permission’ and then see what happens. Involves some trust but after all isn’t that what makes the world go round! I also love the notion of ‘use before design’ which allows us to test how people feel most comfortable using a space before big infrastructure is built or lots of $’s spent.

Watch out for more fun next summer and possibly sooner.

Categories:
Community Development,Facilitation,Living Local,People in Places,Place Making,Public Participation
Tags:
engaging on the street, facilitate, use before design

25 Oct 2010, Comments (1)

PLACE WISHING – inside and out

Author: MDC

Off to the Melbourne Place Making Conference today. Check out the link for the program http://www.melbourneplacemakingseries.com.au/ It will be fabulous to be with some of my tribe from around the world. I’m also excited about hearing and meeting one of my favorite authors/critics/public speakers – James Howard Kunstler http://www.kunstler.com/blog/ who I’m sure will stir things up nicely. He’s the leading proponent for the New Urbanism movement and his books ‘Geography of Nowhere‘ and ‘End of Suburbia‘ really helped me understand the need for creating meaning in public spaces and communities. Finding unique points of difference that create place stories rather than developing suburbs that all look the same and don’t feed our minds and souls.

As part of the Conference I’m presenting a short ‘place leaders’ session and am going to focus on the ideas of -’engaging on the street‘ and ‘use before design‘. My work and experience have brought me to a place where I’m tired of working on strategic plans… that turn into reports… that get caught in bureaucratic tug of wars… and then sit on shelves collecting dust!

I want to be involved in evoking new ways of living and helping create positive stories in places – that capture the imagination of people (well before mega bucks are spent on infrastructure and buildings).

I want to work with the people I love to create rituals that symbolize what’s important in life and communities.

I want to help redirect resources to short term programming that builds neighbourhoods and capacity.

I want to ensure that people get a say in decisions that will impact on their life and the spaces they frequent.

I want to give the voiceless a voice by continuing to be a conduit between ordinary citizens and decision makers.

I want to encourage decision makers to get back on the street and actually meet the people in the places in which they live, work and play.

I want to be surrounded by youth and diversity in order to stay creative.

I want to support positive change for those who are experiencing a less than best life – who are poor – financially or in spirit or in resources or in power or in networks.

I want to make sure that individuals are as important as systems and project processes by encouraging human to human contact.

I want 2011 to bring new ways of working collaboratively to develop innovative ideas which bring meaning and possibilities into my work and the communities I work with.

Only about 10 weeks to the end of the year – which is why I guess I’m musing about the year to come. Time to get WISHING!

27 Mar 2010, Comments (0)

Visiting wise men from the East

Author: MDC

Everyone who knows me, knows that I am a networker extraordinaire. It’s in my nature to meet new people easily and to connect with them and I can’t help myself but link them with each other too. I’m always intriqued to see what happens and if they can find synergy and ways of working together. As part of this I regularly spend time building my relationship with colleagues elsewhere in the world. This month 3 ‘wise men from the East’ visited Perth and I had the opportunity to participate in workshops they presented and chat with them about their work. Here’s some of what they had to say and my learnings from the experience.

Crispin Butteriss from Bang the Table visited Perth in early March. I’ve put up my hand to be their WA representative because I’m interested in what they do and have a desire to build my IT skills. Bang the Table provides an on-line consultation service which provides opportunities for community conversations in people’s own time and place. I think it’s an easy to use product which is friendly and well moderated. I’m exploring the use of the on-line forums in various projects I’m working on.

We recently had a forum running for the Brownlie Neighbourhood Regeneration Project my team are involved with. We had a good number of people viewing the site and a small number making actual comment. What I’ve learnt from this and observing other sites is that on-line solutions work well if they are part of a broader engagement suite of activities and if good marketing/communication takes place to let people know about the on-line forum. If an issue is ‘hot’ there is more likelihood that people will be energised to have a say and that it’s fine if they just log on to look and not make a comment. This can be interpreted in lots of ways, including that people maybe ‘ok’ with the issue/topic/project at hand. Lots of comments do not necessarily mean success. What I’m liking is where organisations have chosen to have ongoing on-line comment opportunities for citizens – check out Have Your Say at Port Phillip. I think this gets people used to the idea of commenting on-line and builds a good data base and practice. Crispin said, “commenting on-line is free and easy, it allows ordinary folk to speak and be heard in order to make a difference. Most importantly they can see what other people think too”. My challenge to you – check out Bang the Table on-line, find other on-line opportunities and make comment as an ordinary citizen yourself. Check out locally built Places for Me too (it’s a great site linking to Google Maps where you can comment on specific places). Get skilled up and remember this is going to be the normal way of the world for the next generation.

David Engwicht spent a couple of weeks here from mid March and I was lucky enough to be part of a City of Melville project focussing on adding vitality to the Canning Bridge Precinct. This wasn’t about mega dollar solutions but about finding small, short term and low cost options to growing local community experiences and life. David is an innovator and creative and really pushed our thinking. On the morning of the 15th March he ran an action learning breakfast for IAP2 where we played with ways of improving the use of an outdoor ampitheatre next to the City of Melville library, civic and shopping centre. I was thrilled with the simple but cool ideas that emerged. For example, bringing the library outdoors (and pretty well doubling their space) by encouraging book readings outside, placing cushions with disused books in zip lock bags for staff and shoppers to stop and read, holding staff meetings outside, encouraging community groups to use the space more. It was interesting, that at all the community and staff meetings we were often locked onto harder and more expensive ideas to implement and David challenged us to change our thinking and begin with good symbolic stuff that could grow the story and experiences of places. I learnt that most importantly starting small but energetically can build momentum and bring much bigger things. Quite empowering really. David said, “create strategies with what you’ve got…a space does not become a place until it is used for a purpose other than the designer intended…everything we all do determines the quality of experience people have in public spaces…including in our own homes and in the reclaiming of our front yards.” My challenge to you – go ahead put a seat or bench in your front yard, have dinner out the front, play board games, talk to your neighbours and supervise the kids playing on the footpath.

Gilbert Rochescoute from Village Well was the last to drop into town in March where he ran a Masterclass workshop focussed on place making and the art of authentic engagement. I’ve spent lots of time with Gil and it was great to have him here with his high energy and clear thinking about where the global human story is at. I’ve long been drawn to Village Well, their practices and approaches. They continue to be holistic, deeply committed and on the cutting edge. Gil and his partner Amadis are 2 of the most authentic people I know, practicing what they preach. They were recently featured in The Age because they have dug up their front verge, put in edible plants, set up a table and chairs (where they welcome people to sit and give away extra produce and eggs). They have basically created a community hub in the suburbs! Gil sees Place Making as ‘the new environmentalism‘ – an integral approach to delivering place – social, cultural, economic, environmental and spiritual. Jacque Robinson (Village Well team member and skilled community facilitator), co presented with Gil and shared her years of experience of engaging with communities authentically. Her emphasis on social justice and community building reminded us all of the responsibility we have when working with communities, to do no further harm and to hold people in the experiences we create, gently. During their presentations some of the words and things they said were, “intent is key…it is important to allow community to create their own place using their own language so that they recognize themselves and that…our projects are part of history and fit into a continuum of the story of a place.” My challenge to you – get out from behind your desks and walk the street and places you are working in, get to know the people, the business operators and those who visit there, it will make the process of engagement so much more real. Get to know your neighbour and find ways of practicing your place making at home too.

I’ve had a big month with lots of work, selling and buying a house and dealing with my own issues of needing to take personal care and time to reflect. It has been fabulous however during this time to reconnect with these 3 wise men (and 1 excellent woman), grow my friendship with them and know that I’m not alone in my desires to place make and contribute to the world we live in!

Categories:
Collaboration,Community Development,Global Trends,Neighbourhood Planning,Place Making,Public Participation

18 Mar 2010, Comments (2)

Places in the country…

Author: MDC

NEWS FLASH! Over 100 Goomalling folk came to the project launch and local business expo on Thursday night. That’s 10% of the area population. Fantastic…

My team and I are currently involved with a lovely project in regional Western Australia (WA). It’s focussed on regional resilience and helping little towns to thrive and grow into the future. It’s called Living Towns or Living Communities.

With WA so heavily reliant on the resources boom (mining and big business), we are already seeing little places that have put all their ‘eggs in one basket’ suffer when those global multinationals move out of town. Couple this with the lure of the big city and large regional centres (particularly for young people) and the picture for some towns is unclear.

Living Communities aims to help build the resilience of towns by working with local people to create a community vision that includes social entrepreneurship and new business ideas. We are embarking on a first pilot in Goomalling in Western Austalia’s wheatbelt 132 kilometres east of Perth. The local community and Shire have been wonderful in welcoming us and teaching us that little places can have big hearts and dreams. We are launching the project tonight with a community information evening and will keep you posted as to our regional adventures. We are hoping the model will spread and be applicable to other regional towns. Check out Greg Winning’s blog for more about new economic approaches to living life in 2010. Here’s a pic of some of the team including local Steering Committee members (our t-shirts say ‘help plug Goomalling’…