Morning everyone um we’re just we’re just waiting for a few more moments just to make sure everybody’s in the room but looks like we’ve got a good number of people coming along should be there’s over a hundred people joining us today so it’s great to see
Everyone um it’s 10 o’clock so we want to try and stick to time so I’m just going to do a bit of a welcome and then hand over to Kenna and and our speakers but um so thanks for coming along great to see all of you if we could just ask
Everyone just to keep your microphones um turned off when you’re not speaking and Kenna’s going to be pinning uh whoever is speaking so you don’t have to worry about that um and this is the first event in our place-based peer learning program uh and um uh I just
Wanted to flag that we’ve got Marie biswell and Donna West providing BSL interpretation uh and they’ll be alternating throughout the program and so I think kenet will be pinning them as well so just to give you a bit of background um before we start Arts Council England’s 10year strategy
Let’s create has a significant focus on place and in our strategy we set out a number of Ambitions and one of those is around cultural communities and with a stated goal that Villages towns and cities in England should Thrive through a collaborative approach to culture and
In order to support that goal and as part of our delivery plan we’ve been working with with Partners to grow and expand a place-based peer learning program and this has grown out of activity that we were were doing with our creative people and places program but we’re really happy that it now
Incorporates other place-based Partnerships local cultural education Partnerships and cultural compacts and this program has been co-created with Representatives of those networks so they’ve helped to shape the program and the aim of the place-based peer loaning uh is to support participants to build networks Foster collaboration exchange knowledge best practice ideas
Opportunities with other place-based Partnerships and to learn from failure as much as success uh so it’s really important that this is a safe space that people can exchange their experiences and share what works and also what doesn’t work um it will support programs to support the community uh and empower
The community to take part in decision making around their own cultural experiences and it’s also going to be open to the The Wider sector but all of this is rooted in place base uh working as and is intended to be a safe space to explore what does and doesn’t work and
We really want to emphasize that because we also want to say that we Arts Council England are learning too and will be joining some of these sessions but we just want to emphasize that this this is a safe space for people to explore uh yeah what does and doesn’t work so the
Program’s going to explore a series of different themes that emerged through the co-creation process with the Steering group representatives and the First theme we’re explore exploring and the subject of today is cross- sector Partnerships so in a moment you’re going to hear from three different speakers who have different experiences of
Cross-sect Partnerships so going to start by hearing from Annabelle Turpin who’s currently director of Stockton art center and co-director of future art centers uh and uh soon to be director of storyhouse in Chester lucky story house um and Annabelle’s going to be talking about an art center approach to cross-
Sector partnership working drawing on her experience at ARC Stockton as well as wider learning from future art centers Network and arcs developed uh a number of long-term place-based Partnerships that enhance their program and increase their reach and they helping to create a genuine shift in community ownership of the venue and
Then our next speaker is cat stock and Cat’s learning and delivery manager of West Midlands police and she was previously the lead for the community engagement and partnership working on the Coventry city of culture police team and Cat’s talking about arts and policing When Worlds Collide and we’ll
Consider how the West Midlands police and the centry City of culture trust work together to achieve positive change and our final speaker is Sally Loy who is the director from right up our street one of our creative people and places programs based in Doncaster and as part
Of part of right up our streets phase four program they’ve been doing some remarkable work in partnership with the BBY Bridge estate having committed to a three-year program working on that estate to Simply get to know the community on a a deeper level and begin to understand how the delivery of arts
And culture activity might meet the needs and interest of people who live there and Sally is going to be joined by Tracy fry From Doncaster city council and Tracy is the local family Hub manager so that’s it from me I just want to give you a bit of background as to
How place-based peer learning program came about it’s your program so do feedback to us uh if if you have any particular ideas or themes that you want to address and I’m now to hand over to Kenna and Kenna is the person that you really need to go to who’s really been
Shaping this and coordinating it and pulling all of it together so thanks over to you Kenna H good morning everyone H really nice to see you all here um I also just want to self-describe I um have brown hair and blue eyes and I’m wearing a light blue spotty dress with a gray
Cardigan um and uh I would like to welcome our first Speaker first I’m going to give you I’m going to just screen share really quickly and uh give you a little overview of um today’s event um so so welcome we’re really pleased as Rebecca said to welcome you to our first
Um place-based peer learning event um there will be more so watch this space um today after our little welcome we’re going to have Annabelle um until of about 10:40 and then cat we’re going to take a little break and then we’ll have Sally um and Tracy from right up our
Street uh followed by some small group discussions and then we’ll have closing thoughts um and then we’ll close at around 12:30 um so uh without further Ado I’m going to go ahead and welcome Annabelle um I’m just going to pin her uh so we can see her at the top of the screen
Thanks Kenna um and hello everyone how lovely to be here at the very first event um thank you very much for having me and thanks all turning up it’s lovely to see so many faces um I guess I just wanted to start by saying I’m not here
As an expert I firmly believe that we’re all just making this stuff up as we go along and uh I’m just sharing what I’ve learned in the spirit of peer learning um and I hope that if uh it’s not useful to you at least it might spark a bit of
Debate and you’ll all have lots of questions and and comments so I’m as interested in hearing from you uh in terms of feedback and thoughts on what I say is uh as I am here to share really um but it’s great to have the chance we’ve been working hard at Cross
Sector Partners at our constructon over the last few years so it’s always useful to do these things and spend a little bit of time yourself kind of reflecting on on where we’ve got to just get my slid sorted here oops so we are um so I’m going to give you a brief introduction
Uh just to give you a little bit of context for the place we’re working in uh share how our approach has changed over the years uh give some examples of the Partnerships that we’ve established and the impact that they’ve made and as I say I’m hoping that you’ll have uh
Lots of questions um as Rebecca said I’m going to draw on my experience at ARC but also uh as part of future art centers so um as some of you might know Arc is an art center situated in Stockton ones uh in the northeast of England uh which is a post industrial
Town um situated within a cluster of five local Authority areas which form the teas Valley the teas Valley is a sub region led by an elected conservative mayor and it’s been held up as a shining example of the UK government’s leveling up agenda in action uh seeing considerable investment in regeneration
Some of which has flowed into culture Stockton’s population is around 190,000 and The Wider teas Valley is around 7 100,000 so it gives you a sense of our catchment area and our communities are predominantly white an arc is situated in one of the 10% most deprived Wards in the
Country this is my favorite definition of partnership working um we’ve all been there I suspect a part of funding appears and requires a specific mix of Partners or a group of organizations get together because they know they stand more chance of securing the money if they work together but Partners Partnerships are
Relationships um I think you need to get to know each other and check you’re compatible um before you move in together or start a family um and I’ve so often wedged partnership project evaluations that have reflected on a mismatch of expectation or a lack of clarity around roles and
Responsibilities or that they’ve run ground because it turned out the partners just wanted different things so that’s the first thing that I’ve really learned is that you need to treat Partnerships like relationships and they work best when you take time to build up trust honesty and clarity about who puts the bins
Out the second thing um that I think has has been really significant for us at ARC is how you first approach establishing a partnership because definitely over the last 10 years we’ve fundamentally changed our approach so in the past we’ve be setting out to run a project or a program and
We’ve been looking for potential partners that could engage or support it so maybe we’d be working with an artist or a company exploring a particular theme or subject and we’d be looking to connect to local communities and we’d think oh such and such a chity organization would be great to work with
And we Trot off to talk to them often approaching someone working on the front line and see if they’d be interested in working with us and sometimes they would be because there were obvious benefits for the people that they were working with uh the projects would happen people
Would engage and we’d all think we’ve done a good job but those kind of Partnerships come and go and you’re sort of left with the well what’s the next project and what impact has it really made on place over and above the individuals that took part what’s the Legacy and even more
Frustratingly and we’ve definitely found this next time you want to work with that organization you usually have to start again because the relationships lapsed and the on the ground contacts that you’ve established have moved on going to just digress a little bit here and talk about future art centers
So as well as running Arc I’m also co-director of future art centers which is a network of about 130 members across the UK and currently uh one of the Arts council’s investment principal support organizations back in 2016 future art centers was funded by the esm Fairburn Foundation to support nine founding
Partners of the network to explore new models of partnership as a group of art centers we recognized that the main barriers for us as CEOs in terms of forging new Partnerships was time and access to expertise and the funding help provide resource to overcome those barriers so the project involed d a
Number of strands but I wanted to focus on two particular areas that we explored today that led to some of the learning that changed Arts approach so at the time we were constantly being told by funders by policy makers and often by members of our own boards that we should be getting
Money out of higher education so many of us had relationships with universities but they were usually very slow to develop and then temporary Because by the time they’d landed people moved on we it felt like we were P perpetually trapped in a cycle of conversations that never really LED anywhere other than to
Relatively momentary projects or very small amounts of money and we really wanted to try and understand why that was the case and how we could build more sustainable relationships and the other area that we wanted to explore was around housing providers recognizing that they housed many of the communities that we were
Trying to engage so one of our members alany and depford were developing a partnership with their local housing provider and we were Keen to see whether that was something that could be replicated elsewhere so thanks to the E Fairburn Foundation funding we were able to take
Time to go and talk to people working in those areas we spoke to Vice chancellors of universities CEOs of housing associations and also organizations working with them and there were three key things we learned universities were not going to fund Arts organizations so we needed to think about the relationship in terms of
Other benefits for both Partners housing associations were trying to improve people’s lives through housing just as we were trying to improve people’s lives through arts and culture so we have the same Mission but a different way of delivering it and we’ve never really articulated it in that way
Before and the third thing was about language oops um language felt really important in those conversations that we had and it was often a barrier so if we were going to build genuine Partnerships then we needed to learn their language and so we took that learning uh and reshaped our Approach at
ARC so this is how we work now the starting point for almost any partnership at ARC is from a position of curiosity and interest in what other organizations are doing so rather than approaching them with a project or idea aidea of how we might work together in
Minds we go in at the top and we start the conversation by saying we’re really interested in what you’re doing and we’d love to find out more and what we found is people are really happy to talk about themselves and much less suspicious if they think you’re coming to listen and
Learn than if they think you’re there to sell something to them or to secure their resources and that conversation gives us an opening to say we’re interested in that too maybe we could work together and it sounds so simple but we definitely fell into the Trap of
Thinking it was all about us and what we wanted to do and fail to see Partners as equals or to get to know them in their agendas before proposing that we work together so has this approach worked yes it has and I’m going to share some examples uh some of the Partnerships
That we’ve developed and the first one is called more stuff like this please and it’s so called because because uh during a creative consultation with um young people we asked them what they wanted and they said they wanted more stuff like this please so that’s what we called a
Program and the story behind this that I wanted to share um is that in 2017 I asked to meet the director of children’s services at our local Council and asked him what the key challenges and priorities were for the council and we talked about lots of things but the area that was occupying
Him the most was around looked after children as as they would called them we talked about corporate corporate parenting about the social and educational support that’s put in place for children in care but how no one was responsible for their entitlement to culture we talked about how art could
Help with that and we did not talk about money um we agreed to convene a further meeting with some colleagues and eventually we ran a story change process over several months involving all stakeholders including care experienced children young people obviously it cost about £3,000 and we agreed to pay for half
Each and that feels really important because they would have paid for the whole thing but this was about working together about establishing an equal relationship and about making sure that this developed into a strategic partnership and didn’t end up just being a council project and by the end of that year we’
Used our story of change to secure £40,000 from culture Bridge Northeast matched by £40,000 from Stockton B Council it never felt like Arc was asking them for money but that it was a genuinely shared project that they were choosing to invest in recognizing that we could use our resources expertise to unlock Bridge
Fones Five Years on and I’m also flet this police program with care experienced children young people continues Stockton Council children services commit between 10 and 20,000 per year from their core budget which we match with supporting kind and project funds where we can raise them that whole
Program would not have happened if I hadn’t started the relationship by asking about their priorities rather than talking about ours the second example is around our relationship with the northern School of Arts which has used our learning from uh our exploration of higher education and the northern school is based in Harley
Hall and mid middlesbor two of the other areas in the teas Valley and we’ve built an amazing relationship underpinned by anou signed with the vice principal and we primarily have worked on their ba and Ma courses in acting for stage and screen at the point they were setting up
The courses rather than think how much money can we get out of this our starting point was to think how can we work together in a way that helps us both achieve what we want to Arc has a huge commitment to supporting artists working in performance and we recognize the need to
Invest early to encourage early career artists to stay in the teas Valley so by working with the northern school we could help equip students with the skills knowledge networks and contacts that we knew that they would need to navigate a freelance performance career as well as enriching our program through
Showcasing their work work that’s made locally for and by local people reflective of their lives which is exactly what our artistic we now have a whole season of Northern school work every year all piced on a pay what you decide basis so accessible for audiences it gives us performance work
In our program that we couldn’t otherwise afford and it gives students the real life experience of presenting in a professional venue to real audiences not just to fellow students no money changes hands we just split the pay what you decide income 50/50 the courses have been running for
Five years now and so what we’re seeing is artists graduating who understand argences and want to make work for our program so the winner of the first Arc award which is given to a third-year student following a Showcase of work he’s just had his first Arts Council
Grant to make a show that we’ll be presenting an arc we’ve also Co Mission theater makers to create work with the students most notably Eve Le and the script that she wrote in collaboration with the students has since been produced professionally by Sheffield theaters and also presented
By theater in Germany so the long-term gains are evident and if we’d started with money in mind I don’t think any of that would have happened they’d probably be hiring the theater once a year to present something that we weren’t interested in and as you can see it’s working for that Two give you a second to read that we’ve also managed to build a partnership with our local housing provider this one’s been a bit of a slow burn if I’m honest not least because it got interrupted by covid but again we went in at the top asking to meet
Director and expressing interest in their work and their plans we listened to their challenges um and talked about how creative activity could help create social connections between residents and ownership over shared spaces so we developed a program that delivered creative activity co-designed with residents in their residential settings but also provided a transport
And ticket fund to enable the to visit Ark independently and this was entirely funded by 13 housing around 20,000 for the first Year’s program but again it never felt like we were asking them for money it was to do something that we wanted to do it was much more that we
Were using our expertise and our resources to help them do something that was part of their work I’m going to give a couple of other examples in brief um we have an ongoing relationship with Wellington Square Shopping Center in Stockton um which has supported and funded a whole range of
Activities we’ve helped select uh We’ve helped them select and manage the installation of a number of murals and other artistic interventions really about improving their customer experience also giving local artists work uh and we’ve accessed empty shops for radical Arts projects taking the time as a 24-hour durational
Installation piece um and we regularly perform excerpts work in the center as part of our raising awareness and kind of uh yeah engaging Shoppers um the advocacy and promotional support the center gives us is incredible we don’t pay for any of that but they’re always giving us shout outs doing announcements
In the center and we’re in the process of formalizing that relationship through memor of understanding which we hope will lead to lots more uh answer projects in the future through a local third sector Network I met the CEO of middlesbor Stockton mind and as we got to know each
Other it felt like there could be some potential to work together so when the comic relief funding for arts and health projects came out it felt natural to look at applying joint room and we’ve secured £40,000 for two-year program to work with adults with M moderate mental health conditions but the important
Thing is that the relationship came before the funding and following on from that um through the same network actually we connected with a new CEO of a local charity that works with girls and women with the experience of the Criminal Justice System uh and all sex work and
We’ve met a few times now we’ve talked about the challenges communities and Stockton are facing challenges that we’re facing as charities in in that area and we’ve started to identify where our genders overlap and it feels like we really appreciate each other’s strengths and expertise and that there’s a genuine willingness to
Collaborate so a few months ago a tender came up to deliver some work as part of the local Community Mental Health transformation program something previously I probably wouldn’t even have heard about and definitely not considered uh bidding for so we explored it as a as a kind of pet three uh
Possible a partnership of the three of us and we actually decided it wasn’t right for us um if I’m honest we thought it was quite badly thought through uh not worth investing our resources in didn’t think it would make the impact that the Commissioners were trying to make but that conversation in itself
Really helped us understand more about each other and how we could work together so now a new tenders come up to establish a collaborative model for peer link support um supporting adults who face multiple disadvantage identified through tatti yep me neither um see what I mean about learning a new language uh for
Anyone that doesn’t know what TTI is I’ve just learned it’s called it’s team around the individual and it’s about taking away person- centered approach to uh support um I can’t tell you how out of my depth I feel when I’m talking about this tender with the other two
CEOs but I am genuinely held by them um because they are much more knowledgeable in these fields and that really gives us the confidence to be part of it and they believe that Arc has a really important part to to play and some really important opportunities expertise and
Resources to bring to the partnership so I think the three of us recognize that this partnership could make a massive difference not just to the individuals it supports but to the collaborative framework around Stockton as well as to how the council commission services so all being well we’re meeting next week we’re going
To take that forward and and bid for that tender I could go on there are lots more place-based Partnerships that we’ve established but I wanted to try and extract and summarize some of the things that we’ve learned so here’s my my my list of things that um I’ve been reflecting on I
Think the first thing is that we’ve learned don’t make it about the money and yeah of course money may follow as you’ve seen some of the examples I’ve given and we all know we need it and we all know we need it to make meaningful activity happen but we’ve just found
That Partnerships are much more sustainable if that isn’t the starting point secondly we’ve learned to be really curious as I said earlier we start from a position of wanting to learn about the partner organization not wanting to talk about ours and we show up like we try and be visible we commit
To going to something they’re putting on we we demonstrate our interest through our behaviors not just through the conversation and thirdly we’ve really learned to go in at the top and I think sometimes we can be a bit apologetic in the Arts um we think we’re not as important as other
Organizations uh or that we don’t run proper businesses and I think we’ve really pushed ourselves at Art to assume a kind of position of authority to refer to ourselves as being an anchor institution and we try and go in with an expectation that never doubts they would
Want to meet us and if I’m honest it feels really awkward sometimes but you have to make them think you’re important enough to meet um and we’ve actually found that building relationships from the top and the bottom and many of these organizations really do have very old-fashioned hierarchical structures uh
Building those relationships across the organization just means it’s much less likely that the relationship will fracture when someone moves on and we loveus memorandum of understandings are fantastic things they often don’t really commit anyone to anything for me they’re just a kind of statement of intent to work
Together uh and we usually frame ours in that way but what it does is it makes it official it gives staff something to point at and it gives everyone both organizations permission to work together as I mentioned earlier we really set out to learn their language we’ve learned that it builds familiarity
And confidence that we have shared aims and values and it’s really helped us navigate those relationships as equals Google is a fantastic thing when you need it we’ve also learned not to be afraid to talk about the money when the time comes we don’t ask for it but we do talk
Really clearly and openly about how much plans might cost and we’ve learned to value our own contributions in terms of resources and expertise so in other people’s worlds they don’t call it supporting kinds um we’ve really learned to put a figure on it and include it in
The budget that is our contribution that is what we’re making and I think the final thing is that we bring the energy in the drive so we’re often the partner that keeps it going we’re the one that puts the meetings in that shares the story is that keeps everyone motivated because
You can have great conversations but if everyone goes back to their desk and waits for someone else to take it forward it it just won’t move so we’re not afraid to step up and Lead it it doesn’t mean we have to do everything but it does mean that things happen and don’t run
Ground so there’re the the top things I’ve learned and the things that I try and remember when we’re thinking about partnership working but there’s one final thing that I wanted to say about collaborating which applies within the Arts as well as to cross- sector working
And that is that I believe you have to be prepared to give up power but hold on to responsibility when you’re working collaboratively so ultimately if we really want to make a difference to our local communities and an impact on the places that we’re working in we have to
Be influenced by local people and more than influenced we have to allow others to have a say in what we do and how we do it it whether that’s individuals or partner organizations and that means giving up or sharing the power but I don’t think we should forget
That we’re here to do a job many of us receive Public Funding to do what we do and therefore the responsibility to deliver effective activity to look after the people involved to make a difference with what we do to make best use of our resources
For me that has to stay with us and I think to be comfortable giving up power but retaining responsibility requires trust and that’s why trust has to be at the heart of building any effective partnership so getting to know your partners is a way of building trust in
Them but I think it’s important to think about how you can build their trust in you as well I hope that’s been really useful um as I said at the beginning I’m not an expert in this but it’s been really brilliant to spend a bit of time
Reflecting uh and to draw out some of the things that Le uh I’m really happy to answer any questions but also very interested in hearing any thoughts or comments or Reflections for me thank Youk you Annabelle that was really interesting uh please put your questions for Annabelle uh in the chat or feel
Free to raise your hand um and you can unmute um and ask your question um uh I will be monitoring the chat uh with the help of my colleague Lucy um as your questions roll in um I’m Gonna Get Us started with a question Annabelle what
Um you said don’t be afraid to talk about money how do you Broach that subject and you know you said you don’t necessarily bring it up directly so how what is your approach to that I think it’s about when you bring it up so what
We try and do is you as a say get to know the organization get them excited about things that we could do together then cost them up and then take those cost back and say if we want to do this together this is what it’s going to cost
Not with an expectation that they’re going to cover the cost or just pay for it it might be about looking for external funding together and as I say we’re always very careful to cost in our costs in that not just show them a supporting kind even though in the end
You know that may well be what we contribute so I think it’s more about timing of the conversation about money and just being honest about what the costs are to realize the plans that we’ve developed together rather than going with a project and saying this is
How much it would cost if you want it okay thank you um we do have a question in the chat um from Rebecca um do you have any thoughts on how this might translate to something like a Consortium of Partners a local cultural education partnership for example how can they operate um like
This collectively if that makes sense yeah I mean I suppose the principle of getting to know each other first is really important um and I often think that going to something or doing something together is a is a great way of getting to know people having a bit
Of extended time um you know you can go to a meeting for a couple of hours and you can come away thinking oh that person was interesting but actually that opportunity to spend a day together or go and see something spend a night together not literally um so you know
That breeds that kind of trust and collaborative nature uh that I think you really need I know when I first went to the teas Valley it felt very competitive it felt like everyone was really nervous about sharing um I think I’ve seen that culture really change over the last 15
Years I’ve been there and I think it comes with confidence it comes with being confident to go this is what we do this is what you do you know what can we do together um I think in terms of kind of consortia or or Partnerships then approaching other partners it’s about
Clarity so it can be really confusing you know for someone in a different sector to really understand who we are what we do what we’re proposing so yeah for me it’s just always about being really honest and and having a real clear uh yeah whatever the opportunity
Is or whatever the conversation is is going with a sense of clarity thank you um we have a question from Joe Gordon um have you found uh your local Authority has been supportive of these partnership Endeavors um have they offered any further support in making suggestions or introductions um and is their involvement
Positive yeah look I should probably say I feel like I work in the best local Authority area in the country in terms of support for arts and culture and support for Ark um and I’m definitely going to miss them when I move on uh Stockton boa Council are fantastic in
Terms of supporting us and I always say that support goes well beyond money it is about Partnerships it is about opening doors it you know the fact that you can just contact the director of children’s services and he will come and meet you and have that kind of honest
Open conversation I’m you know I’ve I’ve worked in a local Authority before where I just know that wouldn’t have happened but I think it is about assuming that Authority it is about you know stepping up and and recognizing that you are an anchor institution in that in that place
Whoever you are it’s not about size or scale it’s about the value and the impact that you’re making um it’s about being persistent and it’s definitely about seeing positioning yourself as a contributor to what they’re trying to achieve so I think when I first went to
Arc you know we were very much seen as an organization that the council funded and we really to change that and one of the reasons that we aligned ourselves with the volunteering Community sector in Stockton and joined the kind of third sector umbrella organization and we’re
Quite active in that um at the beginning and have continued to be is that we wanted to be seen as an organization was providing a service um and that might feel a bit icky to some Arts organizations but we felt like it was going to be much more beneficial for us
To be seen by our Council as an organization that was providing something um in the way that another third sector organization might be than is a kind of nice to have Arts organization so I think it’s a little bit about how you position yourselves and we definitely set out to build
Relationships across the whole uh Team of directors we knew that we had Champions um I always imagine a virtual table of the kind of uh the the sort of corporate management team of the council and we knew we had a massive champion in the director that led you know for for
Culture and Leisure but actually when they’re looking at the budget you know Crossing out things that they can’t afford we wanted to make sure there were other Advocates that Arc around that table so it was a very sort of strategic approach to try and build those relationships with children’s services
And Adult Services and some of the other directors thank you uh we have a question from Pete uh if you have pre-existing relationships at a lower level can you still go in at the top without making them feel overlooked yeah I think it’s how you do
It and it’s about making it clear that you’re doing it to support what they’re doing not to undermine them or or kind of override them or to sort of devalue the the opportunity or the the work that they’re doing um so we’ve we’ve definitely done that but I think nobody
Wants to find out that somebody’s met their boss without them knowing so again it’s just about being open and saying we really want to go and talk to whoever because actually you’re doing a brilliant job and we want to try and help you unlock more time and capacity
Resources to do the things that we want to do together so I think as long as you get the approach right definitely don’t think it should should stop you thank you a question from Shota KH uh thanks annal for a great presentation agree in regard to the value of
Investing time to build relationships um how can the established Partnerships support slash encourage newcomers I think it’s about being generous and open and recognizing that as I said at the beginning we’re not the experts so whoever’s coming into that field you know whether it’s a new Arts
Organization or a new partner it’s kind of what can we learn from you it’s that Curiosity um so yeah being generous with the resources and the support and credibility reputation maybe that established organizations might have built up and and sort of using that to embrace newcomers and you know treat
Them as equals it’s not it’s not about kind of parents and children it’s what we can learn from each other great thank you I’m gonna take one final question from the chat um in what ways could the local Authority nurture these Partnerships without taking over interesting one I
Mean there’s part of me that thinks and I think this is you know true to a certain extent in the in the te Valley in the Northeast in the area that I’m in at the moment is that it’s quite paternalistic um the culture is is quite paternalistic in terms of people having
Expectations of local authorities and what they’re going to do so there’s part of me that says well we need to step up as independent organizations I appreciate there will be local Authority colleagues here but you know we need to step up as independent organizations and
Go to them and and you know not not expect them to to do all the work and I think there is a tendency for that sometimes because they’re perceived to be the people with the contacts and and people with the kind of influence and and resources um but I think it’s asking for
Things that don’t cost money um I remember when we were setting out to build relationships with the housing providers um someone who worked in the housing department at Stockton B Council was incredibly helpful in coming and talking to me I just wanted to pick his brains about who the you know the big
Housing providers were what the kind of culture was in each of the organizations and at the end of it he said well I can introduce you to all of them how about we conven a meeting with all of them and I was like this is amazing so I think
Again if if you if you it’s sort of flatter people in a way I suppose um you know recognize the expertise that local authorities have and see that as a resource that is sometimes as valuable if not more valuable than any money that they might have to to support what you’re
Doing thank you so much um I’m going to introduce our next speaker now who is um Kat Stark from the West Midlands L um cat would help if I un muted myself wouldn’t it right um so unfortunately I can’t see anyone whilst I share my slides so um I
Will as as we’ve done with Annabelle I’ll I’ll answer any questions at the end but please do pop them in the chat as as they come so um hi my name is cat thank you very much for having me today uh for anyone who would benefit from an audio description
Uh my 37y old white female I’ve got long brown hair green eyes and I’m wearing a red leopard print blouse today um so I’m here today um from westmin police to talk about the partnership that we had with the centry city of culture trust um and I’ve entitled this presentation When
Worlds Collide because um policing and the Arts industry really are two very different worlds and and we learned a lot about that uh which I I’ll get into more as well but I think the key thing to think about here is um potentially how you could work with Partners um who were probably
Mostly oblivious to the Arts and the benefits the Arts can bring and and how that kind of world works as well and and then what the benefits that you can achieve together are as well uh so very quickly um as I’ve said my name is Kat I am currently a learning delivery manager
With westm police but my previous role as Kenneth said was um uh Community engagement partnership working problem solving and evaluation lead on the westmin police country city of culture team um and what that actually looked like is um we were part of a very small embedded police
Team um during the uh country city of culture not just the year but before and afterwards as well so about two and a half years spent on that and the reason that came about is that when centry won the city of culture title uh we saw that
As a really unique opportunity for this partnership and for us as the police to learn more about the benefits of arts and culture and how we could utilize that and bring about change as well so yes we did a very traditional policing um kind of role in terms of Safety and
Security for everything that happened throughout that year but my area of business was all about that understanding and building of those Partnerships and how we could work together to as I’ve said achieve that positive social change very quickly for those who who don’t know um Coventry was one of um was
The most recent UK city of culture and this is is something that happens every four years and and cities bid for this essentially it means that they’re given a year-long focus on culture for that City so for centry that looked like lots of different events projects programs
Happened all throughout the year so not just public facing but a lot that went on behind the scenes as well and it was all geared towards positive social change for the city and when we’re were talking about Coventry um it’s probably worth mentioning that there’s a population of of about 440,000 it’s part
Of the wide West Midlands but it is also um as Annabelle said of her area one of the most is in the top percent 10% of of the most deprived um areas in the country it’s also the most youthful City in the UK um and it’s also in the top 10
Most diverse areas in the UK as well um and when we started working with the the city of culture trust who were the organizing committee behind this um as an embedded team one the first things that we found is that we really did have those joint objectives especially in
Terms of the sorts of um Community groups that they were looking to work with um and some of the themes that they were looking to Target throughout the city of culture year so we we were both looking at mental health uh we both wanted to work with young people
Especially those at risk of exploitation people with lived experience of homelessness Refugee and migrant communities and also a key element was that collaboration with communities and um as the police we were interested in how the Arts might help us to reduce crime um support victims but also Community engagement how we might better
Collaborate and engage with communities especially in mind uh with the um kind of huge loss of trust and confidence in the police in recent years as affected by lots of different factors and events going on um but it was really important for us to see how we might be able to
Build better relationships with communities and also change our policing practice so why I um I do have a background in the Arts um before I started working for West’s police and so I I know and you know I’m sure you all know and it’s very widely researched in
Terms of the the impact and the benefits the Arts can bring especially around social health economic benefits and actually when you’re thinking about policing those are all things that we need to Target as well those are all things that we want to improve they’re all factors that can influence offending
They can influence uh vulnerability and victimization and so if we can bring about positive change in those areas it’s going to benefit us as the police as well and make country a safer City very quickly how do we seek to do that so we looked at our shared objectives
And um there was a huge bit of the start before um the city of culture year even started there was a real time and effort put into building that understanding of what the crossover was that we both have the same objectives in terms of that positive social change but then on our
Part from West Police um because the city of culture trust um was built up of a lot of Freelancers not a lot of them actually lived in the local area so as the police we were able to bring that local knowledge we were able to bring some very existing Partnerships and we were
Able to show them also some of the additional benefits the the the trust hadn’t necessarily thought of that so that the the things they were aiming to do in the communities they were aiming to work with they haven’t necessarily considered that actually this might make those areas and those communities safer as
Well and bring about um the sorts of outcomes that the police were seeking then on the flip side the trust brought brought huge Ben to us as the police from this partnership so um yes that understanding is how as the police we could use the Arts but also um multiple opportunities um and
Involvements they broken a lot of relationships as well which I’ll talk about in a bit more detail soon um and they also offered a third-party facilitation so one of the key things we knew is that the communities we wanted to Target and wanted to engage with
Didn’t really want to talk to us and so this was an opportunity for us to to try and come about that in a different way and and um the trust um sometimes offered that third party facilitation to help us to um not maybe engage directly with the community but to understand
Their thoughts and feelings about the police and use that to impact how we might interact and behave with them in terms of our involvement in in all the kind of projects programs Etc there kind of four tiers with a with a with a fifth that I’m going to tag on
And and the first element was just offering that advice and guidance so when potentially as I said with that local knowledge when potentially the trusts were looking at areas to run events with the local knowledge we had we were able to maybe steer them towards more deprived areas or areas that we
Knew didn’t have a lot of um community events going on and that sort of thing also advice and guidance around um Safety and Security as well so we were there as um in that capacity for a lot of the planning and strategizing as well the second here is in that kind of
Active engagement presence so when there were events going on that was a really real and incredible opportunity for us to just be there not as I said in a kind of um Safety and Security way necessarily but just to be able to be at an event to to talk to members of the
Community um and to be visible presence there for them the third tier then is actually we had officers and staff who actually took part in events or performed in events as well and I’ll give you a couple of examples of that and then the fourth one are that there
Were actually some um projects and programs that we as the police co-designed and co- delivered and that was a huge benefit to us um one because we were part of that planning process and we were able to shape those shared objectives and outcomes but also by
Being part of the delivery we were able to try and build those more positive relationships and Trust from those who were taking part in the programs um and especially an element of that was we were able to try and humanize the police um and and generate empathy whilst at
The same time us better understanding um those communities and groups that that we were um engaged with the fifth TI that I mentioned briefly was then we also did some kind of self-driven um events and projects as well which again I’ll give you just a couple of examples of to see what that
Looked like so thinking about those uh those tears so this is the kind of the one where we just turned up so the we had a series of um community events called party on the green that happened at different places throughout cry here are some of our lovely officers with the
Chromatics so that was a chance for us just just to be there yes provide reassurance but to talk to um that local community and um to to give them a local face to the police as well this is an example of that third tier I talked about so there were two
Performances um one was called theater of wandering and one was called faith and um you can see our lovely pcso on the left there Ella who actually played kind of herself for a pcso in um a traveling theater piece about dementia and then also another traveling theater piece called Faith where again they
Needed a couple of officers just to walk past at a particular point and because of the relationship we’ built up and as part of the embedded team we were able to provide that this is that kind of uh fourth tier where we’re talking about that codesign
And co- delivery as well so this is um this is part of a wider piece where they were looking to increase murals and streetart across the city and we offered the end of our um of country Central police station as um as a location for a mural but the mural is actually designed
By both the police and those who LIF experience of homelessness and it was that cocreation process that was so important and yes then it um accumulated in this this beautiful mural that was in a very prominent place in the city center um but the the whole point of working
Together to try and co-design something and have this output enable people to share experiences to decide what it was they wanted to say and what they wanted including in this mural and that was a very valuable process we also had what we think is the very first artist in Residence with a
Police force in the UK and we had an artist called K Rafi who you can see in the bottom right image there the Gent in Orange um who came in and spent time with both West’s police and young people in centry to understand what the barriers are between positive
Relationships what those young people’s experiences were of the police and how that shaped their attitudes and perceptions and then what role arts and culture might have to play in Building Bridges between young people and the police and that’s an ongoing thing that we’re doing and we’re using the outputs
You can see a couple of images there he produced a series of photographs and videos presenting kind of both sides and both um both size of perceptions and we’re using those as provocations to try and bring about behavioral change within the police we also had something called
Forest Camp which is an Outreach project with um local young people we thinking about their Mental Health Health how we could better engage them with green spaces through creative practice so they did um they did some vlogging they did podcasts they did music making they did film making they did outdoor cooking
They did Bushcraft you can see lots of different examples here um but getting them to really think about what the reasons were that they didn’t necessarily Engage The Green spaces in their area and a huge thing that came out was safety which is why the police
Were involved in this so we could work with them to understand um how we could improve safety and access for young people in their local area and also to build those uh relationships so we did have officers and pcsos who were were there and helped to facilitate these
Sessions then these are just a couple of examples of um the kind of police driven projects that we did so this was a mural that was arranged by the local um police team and they worked with um some of the the community center and some of the
Local community groups to design a mural that they wanted for their area hillfields is one of the most prived areas in the country um and they were looking at ways of kind of bringing about more of that Community cohesion but again building and fostering some of those more positive relationships with the
Community we also had and I didn’t know this before we started the project um a British police Symphony Orchestra which is um made up of entirely voluntary um musicians who also happen to work for the police in some capacity and they also do Outreach programs so they came
To centry and ran uh what they call uh play out um so several sessions with different schools in the area um building up engagement through um kind of music and musical instruments and they we also delivered um a a concert at the end of the year um celebrating hope
And celebrating um coming together as well which we offered um free tickets to the community to come and attend and that was a really great successful event so just some examples was there of how it worked so what what happened as a result of that um benefits wise we did
See some positive change within the shared objectives and War at University evaluated the project and they were able to pick up some of that obviously it’s hard to pinpoint exactly because there was there was so much going on but we did have a lot of positive feedback and we did see some positive
Outcomes we’re also able to make sure that everything happened in the right places with the right people and there was a huge amount of learning generated for both W West Midland Police and the City of culture trust um these points were taken from that evaluation that I noted that war
University did and an interesting one was around building relationships so the police building relationships with creative practitioners and with communities and this his comment here around kind of the very Foundation of policing lying within communities police officers have to be seen conversations have to be had with the local community
And unfortunately we have seen that kind of method eroded because of austerity so this in introduced a really interesting and different way to to try try and rebuild that and build those more positive relationships um I will talk more about the relationships kind of creative practitioners in the challenges section as
Well what we also saw was really good feedback about the police’s willingness to engage and I think a lot of people were um very surprised that that the police were willing to do this and you see there you know they’re willing to listen that’s what I admire they really
Did want to listen and there was a willingness and curiosity from police to be involved um so that was a real positive for us and and really really good outcome what was also really important is that especially through the co-creation and co-production we were able to build more Equitable spaces and
Rebalance power so they can see that kind of historically is a very binary relationship between people in Authority the police and people who don’t have any power and actually through this kind of co-creation we were able to um facilitate more of a power sharing more of a cooperation the police were on the
Same footing as the community members and and that was really powerful in terms of um building understanding and empathy and speaking of that and I’ve I’ve mentioned it briefly that humanizing of the police and of the community um and the quotes there as well you know it’s been an opportunity
To connect on a human level um it strips away the uniform it strips away preconceptions of people and job roles and authorities it puts you on a level which is human and again people saying you know I think people forget that the police are people at the end of the day
And I think sometimes the police can forget that you know the community of people as well because they have to deal with a huge volume of of stuff going on and so to actually bring people together and to and put human face on things was was very powerful and we we’re
Continuing to build on that and understand how again we can use that to impact on how we police communities and our policing practice as well especially in light of um the casy report and some of the observations that have come out of that so um those were lot the benefits
Challenges wise and I think this is reflected as well in what Annabelle spoke about earlier um that wider police practice was key and you you know you see that um Illustrated here in that people said you know the reality of the police offic on the ground they’re still profiling they’re still stereotyping
Still breaking the relationships they’ve before they’ve even been built and so yes um our involvement in these kind of projects and programs was was seen as great and and people were surprised and delighted by it but the kind of um perceptions of policing still as a whole hadn’t really shifted which showed us
That we we really need to maintain um that that practice and that involvement but also we need to show people what the police are doing as a result of what we’ve learned and how we are making those changes also very interesting is um there was lots of Suspicion about the
Police objectives and as I said we put a huge amount of work in at the start in terms of building Trust an understanding um but people from the trust kind of saying it’s not ful trusting that the police aren’t just trying to gather loads of data around the listening to
People are they just trying to get a bit of Intel about what’s going on in the area instead of actually just wanting to listen to the community and what they have to say and so there needs to be real Clarity around that and that trust
Needs to be built um in order for for it to function together I think what we also found was that um within the Arts Community we see a of activism there was a lot of mistrust anyway in the police and we did have some artists and some creative practitioners who refused to
Work with us and I can understand why as well um but luckily some some did say that that they would and consented to do so and I think both parties learned a lot from that another challenge I’ve kind of touched on it is you know just the individual or The Wider institution so
Someone’s saying hey you know off the was very understanding they said what we wanted to hear but I couldn’t shake the feeling if in a completely different scenario know they wouldn’t be speaking to me with the respect that they’re speaking to me with so it’s that so what
What are we going to do then as the police with what we’ve learned here on the other end of it the buying was difficult I think as the police we um we love sport Sports our go-to it’s our engagement tool we understand it it’s very clearcut um and the art is a bit
Mysterious um and so part of the project was was trying to to change that and to generate that buying and and we did to quite a broad extent um but also it’s the whole kind of Engagement approach and some officers kind of see their job
As you know we are here to arrest people and that’s how we police we keep people safe by taking bad guys off the streets now it’s not as black and white as that but you know the West BS police is comprised of um 14,000 employees and you’re going to have um you know
Different viewpoints within that um but but generating that buy in as to um both the approach Ro and the benefits of arts and culture was was also a bit of a challenge but but that we did succeed against to to a great extent then also the time and resource was a real problem
Um you’ll know that public Cuts have uh decreased the numbers of police that are available uh the West Midlands faced one of the biggest proportionate cuts um and really struggle with capacity and so we did get push back saying you know we haven’t got enough staff to go to
Robberies in progress and shootings and then expecting them to go and decorate a police station window it just it just doesn’t feel that the priorities are right there so even though we know the benefits of what we were trying to achieve for our communities uh There Is that real pressure of
Priority so Warick from their study came up with some recommendations out of this that I think are very helpful in a broader sense but also going back to what I said at the start thinking about um working with a partner who probably has has very very minimal understanding
Of the Arts industry and how it works and we did find that um kind of the way the way policing World operate operates and the way that the Arts industry operates was was vastly different and adjusting to that was was huge and that was a big part of that partnership at
The start and kind of understanding how we both operate and like coming together to figure out how we slot in together and how these worlds come together rather than rub against each other but war was saying here that they would recommend that um there’s engagement with that institutional
Police culture change so centry city of culture was the opportunity and a start of things it’s what we then take away and do with that that broader and wider change um and that is what people will need to see as a result of this partnership which is a longer term piece
Of work but it is ongoing there’s also that need to build the strong long-term relationships with organizations and networks and um we’re really pleased to say that we had new and improved Partnerships through this opportunity but those Partnerships are being maintained as well as we go forward but with the police there are
There’s a huge amount of churn in terms of kind of staff and roles and and movement within departments and out of departments so that longevity can be quite hard to maintain so it’s about finding ways to do that and maybe have someone who is responsible for a particular um partnership no matter what
Their role within the organization is there’s also that establishing of shared objectives and I tie I’ll tie this into that um ethical commitment which is number four as well and this is as I spoke about the kind of mistrust of what the police were all about and why we
Wanted to be involved um and we needed real clarity as to what we were there to do it wasn’t that we were trying to sneak about and gather Intel um in a sneaky way it was that we were we were trying to build these relationships with communities and this is the reason why
Because it enabled us to help make those areas safer um it helped us you know to to have more positive relationships helped us to change perceptions with these communities also considering the remit of our influence as well the police really like to be in control and again this this
Something that Annabelle talked about in terms of you know having to having to give up that power but still take responsibility and I think we we needed um and we learned quite quickly the establishing of what the police’s role was within a particular project or program and what it wasn’t as well um
And what we could control and what we couldn’t and what would be useful for the for the trust for instance we were able to share um intelligence about an area and what the risks might be in terms of um putting event on there so they were able to plan their security
For it Etc but what but what wasn’t appropriate to share and what wasn’t appropriate for us to expect of them also considering the police practice and police presence and what’s um an interesting bit of feedback we received was um you know whil we saw all these
Events is a bril oh brilliant this is a great opportunity for us to to get out there and to talk to our communities is um we need to be very cognizant of the um the nature of the event and the nature of the community group and especially in terms of kind of historic
Police relationships for instance we had um a kind of regain Caribbean Festival that we thought that would be a great opportunity for us to go engage with our black community and our Caribbean community in centry a feedback we got from the public was that it was overp policed there were too many officers
There and that was because it was a black event and we really had to take that on board and think about what our presence is saying to the community as well as um finding these opportunities and finally yet that respecting of organizational difference so we you know it was two worlds
Colliding and it was um finding that Common Ground finding ways to work together adjusting to each other’s different ways of working um in a way that was that was beneficial for for both parties um so I’m going to move on on now I just say thank you to any
Questions and I’m going to stop sharing my screen so I can see people I don’t know if any have comes through on the chat um but I will open up really interesting please share your questions in the chat and I will read them out um as before um
So we have one from Charlie um the police artist residency is so interesting and thank you for being so honest about the mistrust and the challenges throughout the projects um how did the resident artist navigate that with the work they created that is you know I could talk I
Could talk for hours about this residency and I’m happy to share some resources and also the the wari uh paper that details a bit more about it so I don’t talk forever about it now but uh what was interesting is that um firstly we found it really difficult to find an
Artist who was willing to come in and be a resident in a police force the one that we did find Kay is actually a police abolitionist and so for him it was um he was very open and very honest to say that actually he despite being an abolitionist he had very little
Understanding of the police and how they operate and he saw this is a real opportunity to come and see that side as well um it was difficult because there were you know we wanted to open up ourselves as much as possible to K but also the you know there are some things
That due to um security and safeguarding and all those sorts of things that we couldn’t share with him but we just gave as much opportunity for him to experience the policing side as possible he went out on Patrols in neighborhoods he went um out in a um with a response
Team to emergency calls he spoke to our gangs team offender managers our um public protection unit our diversity and inclusion team our chief Constable um so we gave him opportunity to speak to and interact with as many people as possible and then as I said equally he spent time
With young people mostly he would had negative experiences of the police in centry and was able to build that um he didn’t come in with a precon ception of what he would produce at the end of it he wanted that to be kind of LED especially by the young people and they
Decided that they wanted their stories and experiences told through this photographic and film-based medium and that then made um quite a nice situation in that we you know we wanted this residency to open up a dialogue and by having the young person’s perspective visually that was part one of an opening
Gambit to a dialogue that then he had the police response to which was two sides of a dialogue and then we were able to use use that visual provocation um to continue that dialogue and conversation going forward I don’t know if that’s answered your question but hopefully gives a bit more
Context great thank you we have a question from grahe um sorry if I missed this but where did the money for this come from was it holy city of culture funded right so um sly conry city of culture does now but didn’t come with any funding so um the conry city of
Culture Trust were a charity and they relied on donations and charitable funding um we did provide funding from within the police as well to put to put towards it so it paid for our time obviously as the as the team but it also um we we did inut funding into some of
The projects I think that was the most difficult thing to kind of um because it was a real proof of concept and we hadn’t tried this before we were very lucky we had senior investment in terms of this as an approach and and were’re able to put some funding towards it
Great thank you um we have a question uh thank you for acknowledging or highlighting the significant challenges related to the police um Personnel churn you have S suggested that having a named person regardless of portfolio as lead for Partnerships is this something that West medin Police have
Adopted um yes I’m no so I’m I’m kind of the de facto um arts and culture stuff person now for W’s police um so despite kind of moving role luckily I’ve gone into the Learning and Development Department which means that you know this is still part of how we learn and
Develop as an organization um it’s trickier on a local level because we do have a Partnerships team um there is someone who is is responsible for local Partnerships and also we’re looking at how they develop More arts Partnerships as well that person will change though but the role will still be responsible
For that so yes that makes it hard because you have to build up the personal relationship again but um but it is has kind of designated a responsibility to hold those Partnerships as part of a local Department um Jackie who I believe was part of the centry city of culture team
Um just wanted want to acknowledge that police did much more than just turn up to party on the green they helped tell everyone in the neighborhood about the event and they acted quickly um when half the sound equipment was going to be still in the night before the event
Um uh um Rebecca also had a question about the real what the Legacy has been um and is this kind of approach still happening yeah I mean it’s it’s difficult because um obviously City culture was such a you know it’s it’s a Once in a-lifetime opportunity for the West Midlands um and
It was kind of even though it last a year it’s it’s it’s fleeting and it was there and how do we then make the most of it I think the um we have maintained a lot of those relationships um but as a as the police
I think we have um looked at then how we and I am still looking at how we use that learning in terms of how we go about things so for instance we’re looking at um how we can use arts and culture based approaches in in our training and
Looking at virtual reality we’ve used outputs from the artist and residency to um review and look at how we enact our our warrants processes um we’ve got a new role who’s a kind of a liaison officer for households that have had a warrant executed at them as well so it
Has it is having a legacy in terms of um changes that the police are making but also in centry I think um as I said those relationships are still there um working with the art sector we’re looking at how we can replicate that in the other areas around the West Midlands
Now great thank you so the last question I’m going to take is from Emma um how long before the year of culture did you start to think about this approach and how long did it take to establish a mutual understanding and approach um so the the kind of I came
Onto the team a year before city of culture actually launched as it were um but there was planning before that for for a good eight to 10 months as to what the approach would be and what the team would look like and what what we would
Try and do so it was really kind of a three to four year project in terms of the the pre-work and then the uh the Legacy work afterwards as well uh but it took a long time I think it was useful that because we’re an embedded team Co
Made it hard because we weren’t in a shared workspace but we were in shared virtual spaces and just building those um personal Prof relationships was really valuable and that stood Us in really good stead I think um going forward having that trust having open conversations um
Etc thank you so much that was really interesting we’re going to um take a break now so we will see you at 1125 um so we’ll come back for our last speaker thank you so much okay welcome back everyone um we are going to get started again with um presentation from Sally lcky
Um from r your right up our street a creative people um places project she is going to be accompanied by uh Tracy fry from the city of Doncaster Council um you want me to go yeah sure hold on let me just make sure you’re pinned to the top yeah sure go ahead brilliant
Thank you um so good morning everybody um as Rebecca mentioned right P Street is a creative creative people place this project for Doncaster um we’re currently in our 11th year of delivery um the project has shifted and changes changed as we’ve learned more about the community and one of the biggest shifts
Has been opening out our delivery to cover the full Bor I wanted to talk to you today about a new area of work that’s right at the beginning of its development um so as part of our phas for program of work we’ve committed to delivering an IAL three years artist and
Residence program within the Balby Bridge estate here in Doncaster as a means to get to know the community on a deeper level and to begin to think and talk about how best to program a meaningful program of co-created and Cur um curated work over the past 11 years
Um we’ve learned that to develop a meaningful program it takes time and key um to this is building Trust through an initial focused period of time we hope to build that trust and agency and a firm understanding of needs and ultimately how we can collectively shift a leld narrative about a community
Um here within Doncaster um we’ve learned from Tina over at West Coast that the best way to open doors in a social housing estate is to invite that social housing provider onto your Consortium and and that’s what we’ve done slide there we go um so the office for National
Statistics says that the estate BBY bridge is currently ranked 55th uh most deprived area uh in England that’s out of 32,000 neighborhoods and the community itself as you can see is surrounded by a dual carriageway making it an estate that people very much view from the
Outside um the area itself has um now developed a stigma attached to it for various different reasons um not helped by uh the local media um so yeah so doncer free press and the Yorkshire post have got this the the following things to say about this estate in Doncaster um and negative
Stories like this have been in existence for a Generation Um and growing up in Doncaster this was the perception that I developed this particular estate myself as well um and it’s compounded by stories like this one uh in 2014 the um only uh foot Bridge leading
Into that estate was uh fell down after it was struck by a lry passing underneath it um and it was never replaced um the estate itself also doesn’t really have a name I’m calling it The BBY bridg estate but the more people we speak to the more we realize
That different people have different names for it U whether that is the BBY Bridge estate the St James estate the island BBY Flats um these views and opinions um of the wi bough um have led to to the people living there thinking less of themselves also these are some of the um
Conversations that we’ve had um getting to know the estate we’re really Keen to Baseline uh where the estate was when we first started working there so these are some of the comments that we we captured from uh online surveys um so nothing nothing positive as you can see it’s really quite
Sad um what I’m Keen to do today is talk to you um on a little a deeper level about what we already know about the estate I personally love the estate I think that it’s super interesting and I want to share a little bit of of why that is with you
Today um so it was built in the 1960s um the estate has a relatively small footprint and was built in response to a need for greater levels of housing stock in the town I particularly love this image so this is the architect’s original designs um when they were planning the estate in
Donc town center um so it was well considered it was well planned it has plenty of Open Spaces play parks community centers it has shopping crins a primary school a number of churches serving different religions and a mix of housing stock from sheltered accommodation masonet flats and of course the occasional Pub or
Two so these are some of the other community groups um that are based on the estate as you can see it’s it’s incredibly well served and this again is one of the reasons why I love this particular area of Doncaster um I also wanted to share some stats
With you about this particular community so if you look at um the ethnicity of bulby Bridge compared to the rest of Doncaster um it’s hugely different it’s culturally rich and very diverse um making it a super interesting place to be and to work um another interesting um data
Slide is uh the representation of the different religions on that estate as well again very different from the rest of the burough of Doncaster I wanted to show you this too and so going further back in time um beneath where one of the tower blocks currently stands is very little of the
Remains of this particular building um so this building is called the sandh house um and it was created in 1850 50 by someone called Henry senior um a Victorian businessman and Sandstone Quarry owner when they were Excavating the Sandstone out to be used as as Building Stone
Um Harry uh Henry senior rather um instructed um his workers to carve out the shape of a mansion in his Quarry um and this became his home the sand house um and beneath the sand house um he also created a series of tunnels and sculptures um and I I think it’s it’s
Stunning and it’s so super interesting and it’s a beautiful story but what um is also important to me and to that Community is that um unless they say so it’s not relevant to the program of work that we’re about to develop on the estate but it will be there and it will
Be something that we will discuss with them so in order to open and get to to know the community a little bit better um over a year ago we embarked on an artisan residence program we wanted this program to be led by the community and give them the opportunity to influence
And engage along the way um I will say that the AR and residence program is something that we as I said have in place for three years as a means to get to know the community but we were really aware that we needed to program the
First artist um we we needed to do that because we’ve not built relationships with the people living and working on the estate yet um but I’m also aware that our knowledge and experience of working in the Arts meant that we could choose somebody who they the estate would respond well
To so um we chose to work with a photographer called Jamie Bob and now why Jamie Jamie’s from the area Jamie understands Balby has spent time in b Bridge um he’s also a photographer um his particular practice focus focuses on storytelling and understanding the community and people that he documents
So it felt like the right approach to start initiating conversations with the people that live and work on the estate this is a little quote by Jamie I particularly love so over the course of a year um Jamie’s been thinking and developing a project one which would do exactly what
We would hope um to start talking to as many of those Community groups and residents as possible to use the project by stealth I suppose if you like to get to know those people a little bit better and then to start having conversations about what’s important to them about the
Estate what is the what’s the need on the estate how can we develop a program that responds to that need um so Jamie’s project um initially started out as being called 100 faces of baly bridge um where Jamie was inviting members of the public um to come and have their
Photograph taken and but not not just have their portrait taken he wanted to instill um a sense of agency in those individuals um so he asked them to bring an item object that was important to them into that photograph he also allowed them to change the color of the
Flash filter so that they could um add a different color to their own individual portrait um and he also gave them the click so that they could take their own photograph when they were ready and in their own time and so this is Jamie in action some
Of the groups that Jamie had so far has started working with include uh the smile group on the estate um that supports the needs of um adults with learning difficulties um he’s also been working with uh the de Society uh on the estate again another community group that are
Based there H that we’ve struggled to open doors to and reach and have conversations with so it’s really helped enable us to do that um he spent time working with Atlas Primary School um again it’s one of the more uh diverse primary schools in Doncaster I believe there are 28
Different languages spoken within that Primary School um so he went in presented his work um and then he worked with a group of young people who became his team his inhouse lighting crew that helped take photographs and these are some of the portraits that he’s been producing on
The estate that we absolutely love them and I think they are truly as you can see this is one of my favorite ones um this particular image again is one of my favorites uh so this gentleman attends the conversation Club um which is a voluntary organization on the
Estate that supports refugees and Asylum Seekers so this gentleman was Keen to create an image that represented who he felt he was so um he’s a farmer um and hopes one day to be a farmer again so he spent time um finding plants that he could curate in his photograph and
Obviously adding a a green filter to his photograph to represent his love of of nature um so the first year of working with Jam is now coming to a close um with a final exhibition taking place this weekend uh it’s no longer called um 100 faces of BBY Bridge
Because he took far far more than a 100 images I think we’ve got around 200 now of the community there um what we’ve learned so far about that particular Community um is that yes it has a long-term negative stigma attached to it and but what we’ve found is that the
Community has a really strong social uh sense of social responsibilities um that as I said many community centers there all looking after different people and their needs some of them voluntary some of them not not um but what was happening was that those Community groups were very much
Operating in Silo due to um budgetary and time restraints but the Willing was there the willingness there to to speak to one another to work together and and collectively support the residents and the people that they serve and so it made best sense to us and to Jamie to create an outdoor
Exhibition of those images so this is just a markup of what it’ll look like at the weekend but we’ve created a trail um that wraps around the estate that takes people out and guides them through uh the people that live and attend um the estate with little bits of information about each
Community group again as a means to um inform the community that live and attend the estate about what else is going on there and hopefully to make them feel welcome in the other venues and community centers we also will use um the the celebration event um at the weekend as a
Means to talk to the community about what they would like to see next what would they like to see happening in their Community next um and at this point I really want to bring in uh Tracy so Tracy fry is the family Hub um manager um and has been a huge supporter
Of ours um across the last year um I’m going to just quickly change to an image of the family Hub and I’m going to hand over to Tracy talk to us a little bit more about this particular image and the work that we’ve been doing in partnership with her thank you Sally
I’ve been itching to get in and uh and speak about everything that you’ve been saying I feel um really proud to be a part of uh of what you what you’ve uh what you’re doing in the community um as the family Hub manager um we’re AC Cross
Central Area we’ve got three family hubs but the one that we’re focusing on in Balby bridge is right in the heart of the community um talking about Jamie’s project the 100 faces we’re really pleased that we’re going to be the host venue for for that celebration event um really as Sally was
Saying there is a lot of different partners involved in the community um and since Co I’m really sorry can you hear my dogs sorry somebody’s just knocked on the door um that it they’ve gone quiet now um so yeah we’ve been really proud to to be part of the community um since
Co we have lost the Partnerships um slightly just as as it’s worked we’ve all ended up working in Silo and trying to just manage our own sort of um service but we were involved in so with the we did things with the de Society the Quaker house the Asylum Seekers and
Refugees and although we’re still working with those people we’re just not in there work the Partnerships has been lost slightly so right up our street putting this event on is is going to be great for us and I’m really looking forward to Saturday to make those links again um
They’ve sort of brought that to us and create give us more capacity to be able to do that in that one event and they’ve sort of managed the whole lot so we can just come along and um and just Network and get those uh get those Partnerships
Up and running again it it’s been great actually the picture that you can see online now for the um that’s the wall art that we had we had done um again facilitated by Ral P Street and they come come to me and said this is what we’re planning uh would you be willing
To to sort of um let us do this on your wall and we were so excited straight away we’ve always felt like we’ve been thoroughly involved right from the onset um right up our street for Haley the project manager for that as she come in
And with the deser with Rob Le who was the the artist um they really listened to us we got the community in Partners in and we had a working group to say what what do you want it to look like what is this estate and what is it that
You’re trying to sort of achieve um and as you can see all the lines and the colors they’re based on our family Hub logo for um the colors were based on our family Hub logo we wanted everyone to be able to see what we were what we’re
About and to make us really stand out and I think it’s really achieved that we’ve had such good comments from uh families from communities and from Partners as well who have said oh we’ve heard about you all art and we’re we’re looking forward to coming to have a look
Um so I feel really proud of it and I feel really proud that this is happening on the estate um some of the feedback that we’ve had as well is as we’ve got some more of the wall art is in the different Community venues as we’re walking along it’s just it really
Connects us so as we we can see and and I’m thinking I can’t wait until Saturday to get into that building that’s got the same art as what we’ve got um and just to have a chat with them about what how that feels and how we can work together
And and what it’s meant for them and their experience as well so just feel really really lucky to be part of this and to watch how how things are improving on the estate as well and and just what the community are thinking and and feel feeling around that so
Yeah I feel like I’ve bubbled and I might have missed a little bit um of what I’m wanting to say but yeah is I’ve just feel like I’m really passionate about it and I can see what what this is doing for our community and it’s it’s definitely changing the profile for the
Community as well which is just nothing but positive from us so thank you thanks Tracy and I I will say that and Tracy and her team have been like a second home for us and and this is what we love about our job we get to know a community
We talk to them we ensure that we listen and whatever we create is co um created co-curated um and that’s really important um yeah it’s been a wonderful experience and then to be able to then offer uh the family Hub as the hub for our celebration event for another
Project at the weekend has been brilliant and and really demonstrates the strength of partnership I think of us being able to work together I think it’s also important to say that this particular project we we always said the first three years of this artist and residence program would be purely a
Getting to know the community um and and or exercise and less about outcomes and outputs however um we were given the opportunity to apply for um some shared Prosperity money via the space to create fund um in Doncaster um and it was one of those pots of cash that quite thick
And fast and it it would have been a shame to pass up on applying for um but because the the work that Jamie had been doing and opening doors and starting those conversations with new partners it meant that we were able to go straight into working with Tracy and her team uh
Invite community members in and create something that that is beautiful um that enables them to be seen because that was a lot of the conversations we were having with the community was about the fact that they they wanted to be more visible um so we were able to do
Something as I said thick and fast and beautiful for the community and one which looks on to Atlas primary schools so it helped us to build a relationship with them as well with ro Ley the artist going in and having conversations about his work um I will say also that he got
Harassed every day by school children in the playground he would shout at him through the fence um telling him that he could do it um and how amazing the work was so we had this constant fan base that were distracting him from doing his job um so I also so quickly wanted to
Mention the second round so we were obviously we were successful with that space great money um and a second round came up and we’d had um had conversations as I said with numerous Partners on the estate um and the de Community Center had said oh well you know we’d really like something like
That as well you know we feel hidden in the estate we don’t feel seen um so we worked closely with them and an artist called hickie that who featured is a lot of hands within her street art um and developed um a second piece of street
Art on the estate which has BSL embedded in it um as I said they were really Keen to be seen um and a little bit about it to to it to talk a little bit about who they feel they are as you’ll see the design is slightly different because
Obviously it was it was created in collaboration um with the de Community Center so they’ asked for certain elements of it to be changed and flowers H to be changed they felt that the sunflower was much more welcoming and representative of who they are um so uh going back
To the work in the wider estate other things that we’ve been able to do on the estate was to um invite our community advisers so that’s our community group that help us to H decide who we should be working with and where H to hold our quarterly meeting on the estate again I
Think it’s really important that our community the people that we work with get to know the estate get to know the real estate so having them uh meet within the estate and hear a little bit more about Jamie’s project was really important um and what we’ve learned so far is that
Perceptions do feel like they are shifting now and as I said we’re collecting data and surveying throughout we’re really interested to see how people perceive themselves on the estate as well as how other people perceive them so this was a really lovely comment um that we were um we came across
Um I like this as well I stole it on Facebook um so so what else is happening now is instead of people being fearful of this estate that they know nothing about other than what they’ve been fed by the media is that people are seeing that there is street art on the estate
That they really want to go and visit and so it’s becoming this place that people um who are interested in street art want to go to and want to visit which is which is really nice so we’re creating a little bit of of jealousy within the estate within Doncaster as well
Now um if you were to Google the free press and headlines about BBY Bridge uh instead of those original Three headlines that I showed you these are the top three that are now coming up they’re all in relation to the art on the estate and the things that are
Happening there um so um we’re really Keen to see how that perception as I said from outside changes how people feel about this state and what that does to the people that live and attend the estate and how they feel about where they are living and and where they go for their
Education um he also included this I mean who doesn’t love a cat story um I mean it does beg the question would would this particular story have been featured if we hadn’t have developed such a good working relationship with the Free Press in Doncaster um because as I said historically the stories have
Always been very negative um but I love that they’ve just featured this was like I think last week the week before Tracy I don’t know when you saw it anyway I love that they’re featuring a story about a cat rescue on the estate um and uh what do people want to see
More of so as I said whenever we have a celebration event we had a celebration event for the launch of the work at the family Hub we’ll be having another one this weekend we’re trying to find as many roots into asking the community questions about what they deserve what
They’d like to see more of and these are some of the things that are coming after of that inquiry um we also have um coloring in sheets for children so they can create their own street art and buildings in BBY Bridge so all of those things are being harvested and they’re
Fed into our understanding of what’s needed and what’s wanted and what should come next and then lastly outcomes so far so we have a third party evaluation team um we’ve been evaluating this project from the beginning and these are some of the findings that the evaluators are already
Seeing emerging from this program of work um so that’s all I’m going to talk about today um it it’s obviously only in its first year I hope at the very least it’s a three-year program of work and at best it’s something that we’re able to continue um and for for much longer than
Three years but ultimately that we do shift perceptions about how people view um the estate of bulby bridge and how those individuals view themselves um and the way that they engage with the work that we’re developing thank you so much Sally and Tracy that’s really interesting really positive comments coming in the chat
About the um visibility and inclusivity of the project a question from Ali um about how long the photographs were able to be showcased I think they were Jamie Bub’s um photographs yes so um the artwork I’m actually going to start putting up this afternoon with the team so it’s going to
Be in various different places there’ll be window vinyls in all the partners buildings there will be on lamp posts there will be on garage doors um So the plan is that they will stay in situe for a week um and then and I should say it’s it’s super important that whatever we
Produce with and for the community that that work is seen there first and it’s for them everybody that was photographed also gets a copy of a photograph for themselves to keep um but then whenever we produce a project at R to pass Street we try to make sure that we make the
Most of it and that that work is seen as much as possible and celebrated as much as possible so those um final artworks will then feature in an exhibition that sits alongside our festival of light in November so that it’s given much more uh much broader status much more um
Audience engagement and I’ve actually just been sent an email this morning from darts dast the Community Arts asking if it might be possible to show some of the images in their Gallery space as well so we love that any opportunity to show the work um because I think it’s really important that we
Share people’s stories as I said first and for foremost where they live but then with a wider Community after that great thank you I’m glad but it’s getting more interest um it deserves to be shared far and wide I think um so a question from Vanessa um who says I think there’s an
Interesting thought around place-based consortia working groups who are Frontline delivery and partnership that are more strategic how do they align oh ask me that one again so I think it’s about your the kind of alignment between Frontline delivery and strategic partnership within working with your place-based consortia any thoughts I mean it’s it’s
Been really good for us to be able to invite s Leah homes to be a part of our Consortium that was a conscious decision that we made about two years ago because um it’s really important that we understand the needs in the communities that we work with but but it also means
That we’re able to reach into those communities making best use of their facilities and their resources um but then working with people like Tracy and the family Hub it also enables us to better understand uh the needs of the people that that she serves because she and her team are the
Specialists in their area of delivery um so you know when when we talk about programming we always start with the need um and to fully understand the community takes a very very long time so having access to um profession like Tracy who have a firm understanding of
Of her community and can help us reach into that Community really helps us to to Fast Track that relationship I I suppose but but also better understand it so did that answer your question so Vanessa um yes my dog’s barking yes thank you um question from from Emma um it
Seems that this community is quite well served in terms of infrastructure in many ways um what do you think was the barrier to people working together previously and with the community engaging with the support try do you want to say a little bit more about that is that
Okay yes that’s fine so I think um before we’ve been there for oh I think around 20 years now and I think we did were well established and we did have some really good um links and partnership links um I think the barrier for the working with professionals or
For the community engaging do you think because I still think maybe although we had the good links we would as family Hub staff we would actually go into the other venues to support so whatever their key um area for delivery is we would support that by going in and supporting the children and
Families whilst they were getting the key messages that they wanted from that service so if it were for the Asylum Seekers and refugees whilst they were getting the messages of what they needed to what they needed from there we would be helping with the children’s side and
Um so the partnership just really worked because we were able to provide families with lots of information and services whilst the just in one spot rather than having to come to all of us so I think Co really really sort of disjointed all of that um and
And during the process of covid not only were we not able to go into the other places Staffing’s changed as well so it’s them them key links that you had have just sort of gone um but not only that we’ve been really short staffed and I think everybody’s had the same issue
So we’re in a bit of a recruitment crisis as well so we just haven’t had the time to be able to make those links again to start those Services back up and running that we had before that seemed to work so well so I think um definitely this project is going to
Enable us to do that because we’re having big events that are just oneoff things that are allowing us time they’re on a Saturday as well and we don’t generally do many things on a Saturday working Monday to Friday and I think that’s just out it’s just out to our
Capacity because we’re not trying to do something else at the same time as our everyday job so does that answer okay yeah I I I think so yeah I mean again just from an outside’s perspective and getting to know the community it does seem to have done
Quite a lot of damage um covid and and speaking um in relation to uh the conversation club that support refugees and Asylum Seekers they had to stop delivering for two years during that period And So It meant as you say a lot of those contacts um were lost but also
A lot of the communities uh Community groups that that meet and um service that Community are all very very different in their delivery and the people that they serve so you know they mightn’t it’s almost like the Project’s giving people an opportunity and excuse to start those conversations again so
You know the the adults with learning difficulties for example or the de Community Center to start talking to one another again um because they’re so busy recruiting H getting back to where they were preo that they’ve just not had the the impetus the opportunity um to start relationships and thinking about how
They could work collaboratively again and and arts programs are giving them uh that opportunity and the additional uh capacity that we can add is helping to enable that as well but it’s all been done from a joyous perspective as well I think that’s what wasth saying you know
Everything that we try to do uh deliver as a program um is a celebration of people and their culture um so to do it in a joyous way I think is is really helpful thank you Sally that’s wonderful I think that was the last of our
Questions in the chat we had some great comments though sometimes about the experience the contrast between the experience of people working on the ground with arts and culture versus those who are higher up and doing the budgets and cutting the funding um other shared experiences about um negative media in certain area areas
And the impact that can have um so I’d really like us to have as much time as possible in the breakout rooms uh so I’m going to put you in small groups to discuss and reflect on what’s been shared today and to share your own experiences of cross- sector
Partnerships um so when we were co-creating this program with representatives from creative people and places projects um local cultural education Partnerships and cultural compacts um it came up a lot that one of the most valuable things that we could provide was just informal time for people to chat with each other um and
Share experiences and help each other kind of problem solve and brainstorm um so our place-based prayer learning program is going to consist of a fair amount of that time where we can so today I’m going to kind of give you about 20 to 25 minutes to just um be in
Small groups and chat to each other I provided some guiding questions which I’m just going to post in the chat um and your uh discussion leaders will have those as well each group has somebody to just kind of guide the discussion on a kind of casual um informal kind of way
And we also have a jam board for uh you to kind of share resources sometimes um because the breakout rooms the chat is sometimes difficult to save so um what we thought was we would create a jam board um and then people can uh share resources and Thoughts with each other
And we can share that afterwards um if you require BSL um please let me know and I can put you um in a group with one of our wonderful interpreters who’ve been working so hard through this event uh so I’m going to put the jam board
Link in the chat so everybody has it and I’m going to um open the breakout groups in a moment discussion I know we had a good discussion in our in our group and um we’ll share any information that was on the jam though I have to confess I
Didn’t get into the jamble but that’s probably just me though I’m being honest there um so just wanted to say thank you so much to everyone for coming along today and thank you so much to all the speakers fantastic talks from all of you and really insightful useful things that
We can keep thinking about and a big thank you to our Steering group as well who whove all the input they’ve had and obviously to Kenna and Lucy um in shaping this um what we just want to to flag to you is that um we we will be
Making a recording available o of this uh and um we will be um actually offering space each months just to chat and connect with Partners to learn from your colleagues across the country um and so each session will be themed and there’ll be guiding questions but um essentially it’s really about providing
People that space to network and connect because that’s what people asked for and if you’d like to join in any of those connect and reflect sessions the link to register for them uh is in the chat so do do join up to that and then um if if that’s something you’re interested in
And then the other thing we wanted to let you know is that we’re in the process of launching a social networking site for place-based peer learning excuse me and it it’s on a platform called hivebrite and we’re going to be able to share all the resources and recordings
And uh people will be able to network with each other on that uh on that site and you’ll also be able to have discret groups for um cpps for eleps for cultural compacts but also crossover groups if people want to set up their own groups to to talk about rural issues
For example then there will be an opportunity to do that on this networking site we think it’s going to be really good and really useful but of course um sometimes these things are only as good as the people who use them so we just would encourage you to
Register for that and as soon as it’s live we we’ll send out the joining instructions to that to anyone who wants to so um once again uh we hope you found it useful thank you to everyone for coming along and uh yeah we hope that we
Can see you all again at uh future events and certainly the next one in September thanks everyone