The South West Burnley Together group meets at Howard Street
Community Centre to discuss issues relevant to residents in the area – who have
an open invitation to take part.
The meetings are a terrific opportunity for the Ground UP
team to begin to identify opportunities to start conversations with people living
in South West Burnley. So far the group have discussed issues around the funding
of the Stoops and Hargher Clough Community Centre, which in part led to Cath
and Iain getting involved with banner -making for the big London march last Monday.
Through the group we have learned about Groundwork’s
proposals for improving some underused spaces in the area and heard about the
consultation methods they employed. A consideration of how to engage people in discussion
and encourage ownership of the new spaces elicited a wealth of local knowledge
from those sitting around the table. In particular we talked about what
motivates people to get involved in this sort of activity. We thought about how
younger people might be involved. Their aspirations (and sometimes their
poverty of aspiration) were considered along with the power of geographical boundaries both political and conceptual. Moreover,
residents who have experienced ineffective consultation can be suspicious about
those who make promises. All of this only served to reinforce our confidence
that the Ground UP approach is worth exploring.
In our last meeting we talked a lot about home economics and
Alicia described some exciting schemes she has developed to help people manage
their finances and eat more healthily.
Potential project ideas emerged from this discussion, especially with SW
Burnley resident Wendy who works with older people and saw the potential for
inter-generational cooking hints and tips. Combined with Alexis Walker’s WorldWar II reminiscence sessions this could be a great opportunity to get people talking
about sense of place in SW Burnley!
