Developing our ideas
In our work we regularly speak to people who feel isolated from their communities. This is why we approached people from care homes, community groups, churches and people we knew at the HSCP to see if we could hold a series of events to make people in communities feel less alone. People from these groups then introduced us to more people they knew who might be interested, including schools, the Libraries team and more community groups and churches. We then joined an informal group of people from a range of organisations and community groups, including Outside the Box, Generations Working Together, East Renfrewshire Council, East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure and local care homes to see what the next step would be.
Folk in the planning team were very committed to this process and made sure they did what they could to help. There was a core group of four people of us with others helping out as and when they were able. We used locations that were available to us at for free through the organisations and staff teams who were in the planning group. This was places like libraries, health centres and family centres. We also went to meet people at their groups or at services they used so we could reach people who would find it difficult to get along to the sessions.
We also wanted to make sure that we thought about what good things already existed in the community so we could make the most of these. We started speaking to people in East Renfrewshire about what might be possible. The reason we chose to work in East Renfrewshire was because the group were already building good connections with people there and we knew there was already good work happening in the area.
The initial plan was to have a few sessions where people came together over tea and cakes and had space to talk. This grew as people came up with more suggestions.
Planning the events
As 29th April was international intergenerational day the group thought that organising an event for then could be a good way of bringing people together to celebrate this. This then became a series of small events in venues across East Renfrewshire spread over May 2017. We hoped that the festivals would be a space where older and younger people could join together to get to know one another and share their skills.
“I felt good about myself”
“It was nice talking and sharing ideas”
“It has shown me that there are possibilities”
Helpful things people did
The whole process was made easier because so many people helped us along the way. We contacted the local press who put a short article in the Barrhead News and a poster was designed by Sorina which we sent out to the people we wanted to invite before and in between each session. Both the poster and the article helped us reach lots of people. We also worked very well as a team as we broke up bigger jobs into smaller ones so everyone was able to do something and we were able to be organised in plenty of time. We knew that we did not always have an organised group for each session and we worked in a way where we let things develop naturally. This way of working meant that members of the public felt happy getting in touch with us to let us know how they felt about the events and what we were trying to do. Our way of working was also really helpful for creating a laid back atmosphere so people didn’t feel uncomfortable at the events.
The format we used
We used this process at the events:
- We set the rooms up before people arrived and had information on display about some of the services available in East Renfrewshire.
- We put graphic paper on the wall and floor and had posters asking people to write or draw what they would like to see happen in their local community.
- Hazeldene Family Centre provided some coloured pencils, crayons and paper. This process worked really well and helped people use their imaginations more.
- We wrote to East Renfrewshire Good Causes asking for a donation to cover things like graphic paper, stationary, a gift voucher for a prize draw and ther things. We received an award of £200 which was great.
All together there were six events, with over 160 people coming along, plus more chats with other people at the groups and places they went to. People told us about activities that they wanted to see in their communities and the skills that they could use to help people in their community. Take a look at our blog to see what we heard from older people at the events.
What is happening next?
Organisations in East Renfrewshire are taking ideas that people gave and making it part of the activities and services they provide. We are looking at how to take on more ideas that people gave for new activities.