The view from Robinswood Hill: a story of asset-based community development and a community-based participatory research partnership in South Gloucestershire

ABSTRACT

The Gloucestershire Gateway Trust (GGT) is a social enterprise initiative in Southwest England focused on Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD). This article describes a six-year action research collaboration that has sought to support the GGT and its local non-profit organizational partners using a variety of action research methods, including community surveys, Group Level Assessment, Future Creating Workshops, and arts-based methods. The development of a community resident research team (CCRT) model has been a core aspect of this partnership that honours local knowledge and experience while providing training and employment opportunities to local residents. This initiative and the action research partnership described here offer an innovative approach for using AR to support effective community development that could be replicated in a variety of other contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Asset-based community development
• community-based participatory action research
• social enterprise
• non-profit sector

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. In 2019 the neighbourhoods of Podsmead, Tuffley, and Matson and Robinswood were ranked amongst the most deprived 10% of neighbourhoods in England in the Index of Multiple Deprivation. Available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-indices-of-deprivation-2019

2. The M5 is a major motorway that runs from the city of Birmingham southwest to the city of Exeter. It is within close proximity of the neighbourhoods where the GGT work in South Gloucestershire.

3. To find out more about the services, see their website: https://gloucesterservices.com/about/

4. Sue Porter’s scholarship and activism continue to be a significant inspiration to our research partnership with the GGT. You can read more about her life here: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2017/january/sue-porter.html

5. We have also conducted short qualitative interviews (2017) and ‘customer intercept’ surveys (2018 and 2019) with visitors to the Gloucestershire Services to find out about their experience of the sites and awareness of the social enterprise model. Led by Denise, this part of the research has been crucial in supporting the GGT to understand the level of awareness around its role in supporting local residents into employment and funnelling a portion of the profits back into local communities.

6. Universal Credit was introduced as a key part of the UK government’s welfare reform in 2013, against a backdrop of public sector austerity and cuts. It marked a significant change to the welfare and tax credit system, combining six separate welfare benefits into one monthly payment. It has substantially reduced the incomes of low-income working-age households, in particular families with children, leading to a rise in debt, housing insecurity and food poverty, as well as having a significantly detrimental impact on physical and mental health (Cheetham et al. 2019).

7. Our understanding of wellbeing is based on the definition provided by the What Works Wellbeing Centre, available here: https://whatworkswellbeing.org/about-wellbeing/what-is-wellbeing/

8. The booklet, ‘Once Upon a Hill: Adventures on Robinswood Hill’, is available to view online: https://brigstowinstitute.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/project/once-upon-a-hill-an-action-research-inquiry-into-community-engagements-with-robinswood-hill-country-park/

9. While she doesn’t take credit for her amazing work, we have to thank Rebecca Boseley from the GGT for capturing the key findings and implications of our work. The reports are published on the GGT’s website here: https://www.gloucestershiregatewaytrust.org.uk/communitysurveys.html