From Street Party to Community Ownership

A few years ago, Future Catalyst instigated a Street Party 'on the green' in their local community. While the Street Party was a great success with over 70 residents joining in the fun and bringing along food & drinks to share, the benefits have stretched long after the event, and have the potential to stretch to further Community Development and possibly Ownership if the need should arise.

The benefits to date include:

- neighbours greeting each other by name
- neighbours looking out for one another
- friendships
- car shares
- skills and knowledge sharing
- exercising together
- recognition of diversity needs
- signposting to local business and charities
- dog walking for someone in hospital
- etc

All this has made the street a friendly neighbourhood, and a couple of new neighbours have been welcomed since that time. With this in mind, a few residents are getting together to plan in another neighbourly get together at Christmas time.

Recognising the power of this simple exercise, it would be interesting to see whether - with the increased use of our beautiful green - whether neighbours would agree to working together to keep the green tidy? This would venture into the arena of Community Participation and possibly Community Ownership.

With Future Catalyst's expertise in relation to the Collaborative Economy, Community Development and Engagement Models and Social Renewal, I note some definite similarities with the approach as taken above. The book 'Nourishing Social Renewal' written by Dr Dick Atkinson OBE expands on this model through multiple case examples, by suggesting costings for the approach and a complimentary organisational structure for Local Government partners, helping a move from a Welfare State to a Welfare Society.

I am sure you have heard the saying 'It takes a whole village to raise a child'. I would like to plant another seed 'It takes a whole community to offer a proactive and personalised approach to individuals within the community'. As neighbours/fellow citizens, not one of us is fully dependent or independent. Welfare, most definitely stems from being interdependent!

In the spirit of the Collaborative Economy, let me know if you would like to borrow the book! ;)