Stories, reflection and learning from the NTW partnership
Background
Neighbourhoods that Work was a £3.1m, 5-year partnership initiative, led by Great Yarmouth Borough Council with seven partner organisations which ran between 2015 and 2020. NTW aimed to connect local communities to the benefits of economic growth by increasing community resilience, by improving the responsiveness of Voluntary Sector support services and by increasing the participation of communities in driving forward sustainable economic development.
Our vision was simple: We worked with local residents to build stronger communities. Our work focused on people, neighbourhoods, and the things that matter most.
The programme centred on Community Development approaches to working with local people, in the places they live, to identify and act upon things that matter most to them. NTW built upon 15 years of work in Great Yarmouth, growing existing and award-winning community development infrastructure, incorporating active and engaged local residents, neighbourhood boards and an array of varied and diverse community and voluntary organisations. These continue to be supported by a range of resources from the Borough Council and partners, coupled with the willingness and need to transform amongst those who locally provide services to the public.
An Asset Based Approach
The NTW approach was unique in being 'place-focused', and 'asset-based' from the outset. We knew people don't exist according to theme or category. Instead people live in neighbourhoods where there are multiple ages, backgrounds, strengths, capabilities, and where with the right enabling environment, people can be supported to create thriving communities. This vision was transformational in itself, resulting in the largest ever revenue award from the National Lottery Community Fund at that time.
Values and Language
Introducing people to colleagues, often done in person, rather than referring them, changed the way people accessed a service. Calling people 'residents' rather than 'clients', 'cases', or 'service users', enabled an important shift to happen; from seeing people as passive recipients of support, to individual human beings with a range of interests, skills and talents. This meant that workers were able to recognise and nurture people's strengths to achieve sustainable outcomes, instead of only focussing on what's wrong and doing a quick fix.
We learned that language matters. We used 'resident' rather than 'client', and 'introduction' rather than 'referral'.
