What can social work and social care learn from asset-based community development?

Summary

The video script from 'Exchange Exchanges' at Cardiff University discusses the integration of community work in social care. It emphasizes the historical connection between social work and community development, the importance of an asset-based approach, and the need for social work to embrace community contexts. The session includes case studies and a call for practitioners to reconnect with community development to foster social change, empowerment, and address inequalities.

Takeaways

• 📚 The session focused on the exchange of knowledge between practitioners, academics, and policy makers, emphasizing the importance of community work in social care.
• 🤝 The discussion highlighted the historical connection between social work and community development, and the need to reconnect these fields in current practice.
• 🌟 Keynote speaker Fiona, a professor from Swansea University, stressed the alignment of social work and community development in values, theories, and practices.
• 🔍 Fiona's research into the history of social work revealed that community development was intrinsic to early social work approaches, as seen with pioneers like Jane Adams.
• 📉 Keith Popple's paper critiqued the conditional nature of community development under government agendas, suggesting a tension between top-down initiatives and local needs.
• 📈 The paper from the Australian Journal of Social Work discussed the retreat of community development in social work and the need to reintegrate it as a method of social change.
• 🏘️ Dave Horton from ACE shared the organization's asset-based approach to community development, emphasizing the importance of local ownership and co-production.
• 🏛️ The KAYA Heritage project, a collaboration between ACE and Cardiff University, was presented as an example of an asset-based community development initiative leveraging local heritage.
• 📖 The session concluded with breakout room discussions that surfaced themes of connectivity, asset identification, and the importance of storytelling in community development.
• 🌱 The power of stories and the 'most significant change' approach was emphasized as a method for capturing individual experiences and community transformation.
• 🔑 The importance of considering the wider community context in social work was a recurring theme, along with the potential of the Social Care and Well-being Act in Wales to foster community-focused approaches.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the session at Exchange Exchanges based at Cardiff University?

The session is focused on community work and its connection to social work, aiming to exchange information and knowledge between practitioners, academics, experts by experience, and policy makers.

Why is community development considered important in the context of social work?

Community development is important in social work as it aligns with values of social change, empowerment, addressing inequalities, and is considered an integral method of social work as per the International Federation definition.

What is the historical connection between community development and social work?

Community development has been an intrinsic part of social work since its origins, with early social work reformers like Jane Adams advocating for collective approaches and community involvement in social work practices.

What does Keith Popple's paper 'Community Development in the 21st Century: A Case of Conditional Development' discuss?

The paper by Keith Popple discusses the context of community development under the New Labour agenda, highlighting the tension between top-down prescribed community development agendas and local participatory processes.

How does the paper from the Australian Journal of Social Work view the current state of community development in social work?

The paper laments the loss of community development in social work practice and emphasizes the need to bring it back as a method of resisting and critiquing government agendas, and supporting local initiatives.

What is the 'Bank of Ideas' initiative mentioned in the transcript?

The 'Bank of Ideas' is an initiative that showcases asset-based community development through the story of a town in New Zealand called Bull, which rebranded its local businesses using the name 'Bull' to capitalize on its unique identity.

What is the role of ACE (Alien Kairos Ely) in the community of Ely and Cairo on the west of Cardiff?

ACE is a community organization that aims to put the community in the hands of local people, enabling them to manage projects, employ staff, run buildings, and generate income through an asset-based approach.

What is the significance of the ACE organization's philosophy of being place-based and rooted in the local community?

The philosophy of being place-based and rooted in the local community means that ACE bases all its work on a network of relationships and principles of social capital, which not only forms the infrastructure for their work but is also an outcome in itself.

How does the ACE organization challenge the narrative that their community is a problem that needs solving by outsiders?

ACE challenges this narrative by adopting an asset-based approach that focuses on the strengths and resources within the community, enabling local people to contribute to solutions and build community from within.

What is the 'Kaya Heritage' project and how does it relate to community development?

The 'Kaya Heritage' project is an asset-based initiative that builds on the rich heritage of the Ely and Cairo area in Cardiff, aiming to foster a different sense of place for the communities and provide opportunities for education, social capital building, and skills development.

What are the key outcomes of the 'Kaya Heritage' project?

The key outcomes of the 'Kaya Heritage' project include a large number of active participants, the involvement of various institutional partners, the creation of wider social networks, and progression of individuals to higher education from an area with historically low university attendance.

How does the 'Most Significant Change' storytelling approach contribute to the monitoring and evaluation of community projects?

The 'Most Significant Change' approach involves collecting individual stories of change, where people reflect on the most significant changes they experienced as a result of their involvement in the project. These stories are then used to understand and draw learning from the project's impact on individuals.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Introduction to Community Exchange and Social Work History

The session begins with a warm welcome and an introduction to the Exchange Exchange platform based at Cardiff University, designed for knowledge sharing among practitioners, academics, and policymakers. The speaker expresses excitement about discussing community work, a topic central to social care. Fiona, the session chair, and Alison, a professor from Swansea University with a background in social work and community development, emphasize the historical connection between social work and community development, citing the International Federation's definition of social work that includes social change and empowerment. They also touch on the fluctuating presence of community development in social work practice over time, particularly noting its retreat in countries like Australia.

05:02

🌐 The Role of Community Development in the 21st Century

This paragraph delves into Keith Popple's 2006 paper, which critiques the conditional nature of community development under the New Labour government in the UK. Popple discusses the tension between top-down government agendas and community-led initiatives. The paper also addresses the language of deprivation often used in community development, contrasting it with an asset-based approach. A second paper from the Australian Journal of Social Work is mentioned, which calls for community development to reclaim its space in resisting government agendas and supporting local initiatives. The importance of viewing community development as a resistant space is highlighted, echoing Paulo Freire's ideas on social justice and human rights.

10:02

🏘️ Asset-Based Community Development in Practice

Dave Horton, a community worker from Ely and Cairo, west of Cardiff, introduces the community organization ACE, which focuses on asset-based community development. He discusses the history of the area, the loss of traditional employment, and the resulting social and economic challenges. Horton emphasizes ACE's philosophy of challenging the narrative that views the community as a problem to be solved by outsiders. Instead, ACE promotes an asset-based approach that values local contributions and co-production, aiming to shift the community's self-perception from passive recipients to active participants in social change.

15:05

📈 The Transformative Power of Stories in Community Development

The speaker discusses the importance of storytelling in community development, using the example of how the community of Ely has been stigmatized by past riots. The organization is working to reshape the narrative by highlighting positive aspects of the community's heritage and individual contributions. The 'most significant change' method is used to collect and share personal stories of transformation, which has become integral to their monitoring and evaluation processes. The story of Billy, a volunteer turned staff member, exemplifies the personal growth and community impact that can result from this approach.

20:06

🏛️ Unearthing Community Heritage: The KAYA Heritage Project

Ollie, a lecturer in archaeology, describes the KAYA Heritage Project, a collaboration between ACE, Cardiff University, and other partners. The project leverages the rich but underused heritage assets of the Ely and Cairo areas to foster a different sense of place and provide educational and social opportunities. The project has involved the community in various activities, from research to conservation efforts, with the goal of breaking down barriers to higher education and promoting local heritage.

25:06

🤝 Co-Production and Community Engagement in Heritage Projects

The paragraph focuses on the co-production principles of the KAYA Heritage Project, which involves community members in all aspects of the project, from research to site management. The project has been successful in engaging a wide range of participants and partners, creating social networks and enabling progression to higher education for some individuals. The project outcomes highlight the mutual benefits of long-term commitment and the power of community engagement in heritage preservation and promotion.

30:08

💡 Reflecting on Community Development and Social Work Integration

In the final segment, participants are encouraged to reflect on the presentations in breakout rooms, considering the connectivity between community development and social work. The discussion aims to identify key messages or implications for social work and social care practices. The feedback from the breakout rooms reveals themes such as the importance of connectivity, the need for a compendium of best practices, the challenges of short-term funding, and the potential for a more integrated approach between social workers and community development workers.

35:08

🌟 Embracing the Collective Power of Community and Social Work

The closing remarks of the session underscore the value of community engagement and the potential for social work to reconnect with its community-focused roots. The presentations have sparked thought and discussion on the importance of community assets, the role of stories in transformation, and the need for a more collaborative approach between social workers and community development practitioners. The session concludes with a commitment to continue exploring these themes and their implications for future practices.

Keywords

💡Community Work

Community work refers to the process of enabling individuals and groups to identify and act upon their needs and interests by increasing their control over the planning and decision-making processes that affect their lives. In the video, community work is central to the discussion, with a focus on its role in social care and the importance of putting it back on the agenda. The script emphasizes the connection between community work and social work, highlighting their shared values and practices.

💡Social Care Agenda

The social care agenda encompasses the policies, strategies, and initiatives aimed at addressing the needs of individuals and communities, particularly those who are vulnerable or disadvantaged. The script discusses the desire to see community work re-emerge as a significant part of this agenda, indicating a recognition of its importance in empowering communities and addressing social inequalities.

💡Community Development

Community development is a broad term that describes the process of working with communities to improve their conditions of life. It involves mobilizing community resources, empowering people, and creating self-reliance. The script discusses the historical connection between community development and social work, emphasizing the need for a resurgence of community development practices in social work to address social exclusion and inequalities.

💡Social Work

Social work is a profession focused on the well-being of individuals, families, groups, and communities. It aims to address life challenges and problems, from mental health issues to interpersonal conflicts and poverty. The video script discusses the historical intertwining of social work and community development, suggesting that social work can learn from and integrate community development practices to enhance social change and empowerment.

💡Social Change

Social change refers to the transformation of social structures, institutions, and cultural norms to improve the well-being of all members of a society. The script mentions social change as a key objective of both social work and community development, indicating that these fields aim to empower individuals and communities to challenge and change oppressive or exclusionary social structures.

💡Empowerment

Empowerment in the context of the video refers to the process of increasing the autonomy and self-efficacy of individuals and communities affected by various forms of social exclusion and marginalization. The script discusses empowerment as a central goal of community development and social work, emphasizing the importance of enabling people to take control over their own lives and make meaningful contributions to their communities.

💡Social Exclusion

Social exclusion is a term used to describe the processes that lead to certain individuals or groups being marginalized or isolated from mainstream society, often due to economic disadvantage or social discrimination. The script refers to social exclusion as a critical issue that community development programs under the new labor agenda aimed to address, highlighting the importance of inclusive policies and practices.

💡Asset-Based Community Development

Asset-based community development is an approach that focuses on identifying and utilizing the strengths and resources within a community, rather than focusing solely on its needs or deficiencies. The script provides examples of this approach, such as the 'Bank of Ideas' story from New Zealand, illustrating how communities can leverage their unique assets to create positive change.

💡Co-Production

Co-production in the context of community development and social work refers to the collaborative process where professionals and community members work together to design, plan, and deliver services and initiatives. The script discusses co-production as a fundamental principle of the community organization ACE, emphasizing the importance of doing things with people rather than for them.

💡Holistic Approach

A holistic approach in community work involves considering all aspects of an individual's or community's situation, including social, economic, and environmental factors. The script mentions that ACE takes a holistic approach to challenges, using the assets and resources within the community to address a range of issues comprehensively.

💡Cultural Heritage

Cultural heritage refers to the tangible and intangible elements of a community's culture, such as historical sites, traditions, and expressions, which are inherited from past generations and are cherished in the present. The script discusses the importance of cultural heritage as an asset in community development, particularly through the KAYA Heritage project, which aims to leverage the rich heritage of the Ely and Caerau areas in Cardiff.

💡Social Capital

Social capital refers to the networks, relationships, and norms of trust and reciprocity that exist within a community, which can be leveraged to achieve mutual benefits and social cohesion. The script mentions social capital as a grounding infrastructure for the work of ACE and an outcome in itself, emphasizing the importance of building extended social capital for community members.

💡Most Significant Change

The 'Most Significant Change' (MSC) technique is a method used to track and document the most important changes that have occurred as a result of a project or initiative. The script refers to the use of MSC in ACE's monitoring and evaluation processes, where individual stories of change are collected and analyzed to understand the significant impacts of their work.

Highlights

The session emphasizes the importance of exchanging information between practitioners, academics, and policy makers in the field of community work and social care.

Fiona, a professor of social work, discusses the historical connection between social work and community development, highlighting their shared values and practices.

The International Federation definition of social work is cited, emphasizing social change, empowerment, and addressing inequalities as key components.

Fiona explores the waxing and waning connection between social work and community development over time, particularly in Australia.

Keith Popple's paper is introduced, critiquing the conditional nature of community development under government agendas.

The tension between prescribed community development and local participatory processes is discussed, with a focus on the constraints and language of deprivation.

A call to bring community development back into practice is made, with a focus on resisting and critiquing government agendas.

Dave Horton introduces the ACE organization, based in Cardiff, and its focus on community development and asset-based approaches.

The importance of place-based roots in local communities and the role of social capital in community development are highlighted.

Dave discusses the shift from a deficit-based approach to an asset-based approach, focusing on co-production and the contributions of community members.

The role of storytelling in community development is explored, with examples of how it can lead to personal and community transformation.

Ollie, a lecturer in archaeology, discusses the KAYA Heritage project, which applies asset-based community development principles to heritage sites.

The project's focus on fostering a different sense of place and the use of co-production principles in all activities is explained.

Examples of community involvement in research, education, and conservation efforts are provided, showcasing the project's impact.

The use of storytelling in monitoring and evaluation processes to capture individual experiences of change is introduced.

The session concludes with a reflection on the importance of connectivity, asset identification, and the potential for social work to learn from community development practices.

Transcripts

welcome to today's session

and welcome to exchange exchanges

as you know based at cardiff university

and

as the title suggests it's about

exchanging

information and knowledge between

practitioners academics

experts by experience and policy makers

so

really pleased to have you here i'm

particularly excited today to be talking

about community work something that is

very close to my heart

and something that you know we really

really want to see

um back on the social care agenda

thank you very much i'm going to hand

over to

flaherty and really looking forward to

today's session thank you fiona and

thank you very much alison um just echo

your comments about how wonderful it is

to be at a session that's about

community development

and social work so thank you to the

organisers for having me

as part of this session so um i'm

kicking off and i've

decided to focus in on that question

about what can social work

learn from community development and

community development from social work

and come at it

from that angle so just to preface my

comments i

come from a community development

background so i work at swansea

university

um professor of social work social care

um i'm australian i'm actually

i'm dialing in from australia at the

moment which is where i've been since

the lockdown so

i'm coming from i'm here in australia um

so my background was community

development so i worked as a community

development worker before i did my

social work training

so i went to do social work and then

from social work went back and practiced

as a community development worker

so i for me social work and community

development

have always been connected they've been

connected in my mind connected in values

connected in theories connected in

practice

and certainly when i read the

international federation definition of

social work

i'm talking about social change

empowerment

addressing inequalities and looking at

some of the recent global agendas

in my mind community development is very

you know firmly

in that agenda and an important method

of social work

i've been i'm interested in my

particular kind of research area i've

been interested

in social work history um particularly

the history of

sociology and community development in

social work

and when i go back to look at some of

that history and read

some of the early kind of pioneer social

work

writers so um reformers like jane adams

and alice solomon from germany and

and others from across the planet in my

reading

community development was always an

intrinsic part of the social work

approach and social work ideas um so it

can be traced back to the origins of

social work where community development

or collective approaches

were in the mix of what it is that there

was this thing called social work

and david burnham's written a really

good paper called selective

memory a note on social work his

geography

and he cites um professor vivian cree

who wrote that in 1900 social work was

anything

and everything from case work of the

charitable organization societies to the

social

reform-based settlement movement to the

institutional care provided by a large

number of the poor laws

and voluntary agencies so in my mind as

a somebody who's

keen on community development i think

it's really important to be reminded of

that history and anchored

to that history of community development

and social work

and certainly if we look at different

theories and paradigms

even if you're working on an individual

orientation

there's an agenda for social change

whether it's

radical or transformative but over time

that connection between

social work and community development

has really waxed and waned

and i've seen that in my own country of

australia where i've

done my practice we've had periods where

community development was to the fore

in social work and then when it's

retreated

and certainly i think we're in a period

now um in some countries like australia

where it has retreated

so places that were really strong on

community development

where you were allowed to be part of

supporting social action

as well as locality-based community

development it's shrunk to

a role of case management which is

important but

that you know ability to attend to

social contextual factors and

work for the person and the environment

has really shrunk

so when i was thinking about what i

could offer as a kind of

preface to hearing from the

practitioners we're going to hear from

the case examples

is i went to the social work literature

and i trawled through and i just picked

out two papers

about community development so two

papers from social work journals

one from the british journal of social

work written by

keith popple so he's a professor of

social work

at london south back university and

author of the book

analyzing community work from 1995

and he wrote a paper in 2006

entitled community development in the

21st century

a case of conditional development so i

want to just overview some of his ideas

and then pick up a paper from the

australian journal of social work that

was published

late last year online but in print

in 220 and these are writers who are

really lamenting

what's happened in social work with the

loss of community development

and that it's really important that we

pull it back into practice

so first of all keith popple's paper

um he's he has a pattern of doing

critical commentary on community

development

and sort of a bit of an assessment about

where it's up to so he wrote this paper

six years into the the new century

um and he approached it by doing a

painting a picture of

contextual factors so labor was in power

there was accelerated globalization so

looking at the geopolitical context

in which community development is being

located and really

talking about the fact that under the

new labour agenda um particularly the

banner of social exclusion

there was this real thrust forward for

community development

programs were being funded monies were

flowing an expansion of schemes

but in his critical assessment of it and

he draws on the works of three

community development writers to pull

his case together

but he analyzes what he calls

conditional community development

so from his assessment community

development

having two objectives

yes i've just been asked to put the

names of the papers in the chat and i'll

do that

when i finished um so

two objectives for community development

at this time in 2006.

so one is community development to

support local initiatives local

participatory processes

and supporting and building civil

society and then on the other hand

community development um in a more

prescriptive way so a government agenda

whether it's

um talking about as a social exclusion

or promoting health

or neighborhood regeneration but it's

kind of

top down to use that language community

development agendas

and what he was pointing to in his

debate um or his argument

is that some of the top down prescribed

community development

it's inherent in that is constraint so

there's a tension

between what is prescribed and

and what is kind of necessary and what

is what is

um what local people wish and want to do

he also talks about the language so the

language of the time

being the language of particularly the

social exclusion debates the language of

deprivation so deprived communities and

deprivation

and community development being a method

and approach

and a kind of quest to um address some

of these issues

now that language two minutes

yeah holy moly sorry about that and

yeah so the language of community

development um

as deprivation and

that is at odds with an asset-based

community development approach and we're

going to hear more about that

the second paper published this year

is a real core and this is published in

220

looking at two case studies one in

australia one in ireland

and by this stage um you know

those initiatives have gone we've had

the global financial crisis

austerity cuts across the board

and what these writers are saying is

that it's really critical

that community development comes back

into the space

of resisting and critiquing and

reflecting

on government agendas for community

development and

getting behind supporting um local

initiatives

so they talk about the need to view and

practice community development as

resistant spaces

so that's kind of got echoes there of

paulo freie and

his ideas about community development to

question the social policy trends

that stymie the pursuit of social

justice and human rights

and develop alternative worldviews and

practices

so in my minute left just just a bit of

a

story peter kenyon um has got an

initiative called the bank of ideas

and he tells the story of a town in new

zealand called

bull that was having a tough time

economically

and they realized that one of the assets

in their town was their name

it was called bull so because of that

what they did is they went round and

rebranded all of their

clubs and facilities and shops using the

word

bull so there's a shop called full as a

bull

the veterinarian clinic is called animal

hospital

and the library is called readable and

the church is called forgivable

and i really like that particular story

because to me it illustrates something

really powerful

about asset-based community development

so i've just said a bit of a scene i'll

put those papers in the chat

but i'll hand over now to our next

speaker

dave horton so thank you yes thank you

very much

hello everyone i hope you can hear me

tell me if you can't

i'm going to say some slides so again

tell me if you can't see them

uh i hope you can see that

my name is important i'm a community

worker in eli and cairo on the west of

cardiff

um i live in cairo as well with my

family um

and uh ace is a an organization um

based in cardiff in a building called

the dusty forge i'm basically going to

tell you a little bit about how we work

today just really briefly

um why we set the organization up what

our values and our philosophy

is um and what that means in practice

but i'm then going to hand over to my

colleague ollie who works at cardiff

university and we work very closely

together on

a heritage asset based heritage project

called kaya heritage

and all he's really going to go into

quite a bit more detail on one

particular project we developed together

as a kind of example of how this asset

based approach works

um no thank goodness for that thought

wasn't going to move on for a minute

okay so quick introduction some of you

may know alien kairos a

really large housing estate on the west

of cardiff um population about 26

000 really interesting history in the

area um eli was built after the first

world war on garden village principles

and chiva after the second world war

under bevin's kind of housing schemes

it's a really interesting quite radical

social housing policy that is

um at the foundation of kind of the

encourage history

and we had lots of employment in the

area um it could be the largest paper

mill in europe

ely paper mill which had about 450 to

500 employees when it closed in the

1990s

children's jam and pickle factory a

couple of brickworks lots and lots of

well-grounded rooted employers and based

in the community

who provided sustainable um secure

well-paid work and they were quite

integrated into the community in

interesting ways

and all that was lost through the kind

of 80s and 90s

and i guess we have a legacy of of

unemployment and in particular

an issue that's got worse in the last

kind of ten years we've seen it happen

while you've been here

um issues of inward poverty so people

struggling with the fact that

they work but it tends to be now in city

center-based

um social services kind of work social

sector kind of work

um services sector i mean um insecure

often part-time um low-paid

so we get people coming in and out of

the center training up to do

construction-based work in a three-week

contract and then back looking for work

again and we get a whole range of issues

around low income

um people on and off benefits and

getting into debt because they're behind

with

with benefit payments and that kind of

stuff so there's lots of issues related

to poverty and when we establish the

organization through the community's

first programme

what government communities

have been developing through that

program but importantly as a way of

putting that community away in the hands

of local people

enabling them to have something based

rooted right in the community that could

manage projects

employ staff run buildings and generate

income

so what's our philosophy we're very much

about having roots right in a local

we're very place based

roots in a local community um and that

what that means in practice is we base

all our work on a network of

relationships and on on

principles of social capital really and

that is both the grounding kind of

infrastructure for how we work

and enables us to do we do but it's also

an outcome in itself so creating

extended social capital for people both

within the community

and in into groups that they wouldn't

otherwise have contact with

is a fundamental part of what we do and

how we we solve kind of local challenges

but i guess

what i'd say if i was asked to say what

we're about in

one sort of concept is really

challenging this idea that's been

associated with our community and

communities like it that our community

is a problem that needs solving by

people from the outside

uh and what we find is that that once a

community owns that kind of narrative

the individuals within it begin to own

that narrative and they see themselves

as

not not people who have something to

contribute um who who are kind of unique

and

and that we all need to be part of a

solution to local problems and to

building community

but people who need services and things

done for them and we're really trying to

undermine that with a what we call an

asset based approach in the face of that

sort of traditional deficit based

approach

and fundamental to that is notions of

co-production and how we do things with

people not kind of tool for them

and the concept that everybody has

something to contribute so whenever we

gather our membership

we're a member member based organization

we give them that message really

strongly

everyone has something to contribute and

if anyone is unable to contribute for

any reason then

everybody loses out as a result and

that's the kind of underpinning

principle of everything we do

and as a result we've been able to build

an organization that's led by local

people

local people are staff trustees

volunteers members participants

and it's really a kind of very much a

grassroots locally run organization

where people grow and develop their

skills and are able to contribute

and we take a holistic approach to the

challenges that we're realistic about

being asset based doesn't mean that we

we deny that there aren't

the there are challenges

and we take holistic approach tackling

those using the assets and resources

that we have in our community

are really quick just to touch on what

we mean by assets we have a very broad

definition of that

um we're talking about social networks

that exist and those are very strong and

easy because it's not a transitory

community people tend to live here all

their lives and have family here

our skills knowledge experience and

creativity

um our organization itself is an asset

now and other organizations in the area

you'll hear a bit more about how we see

sort of heritage and culture and and

looking at that in quite a unique way as

a real asset and something we can build

on

and make work for the benefit of our

community

and then things like buildings um land

and equipment

you know the the the bouncy castle stuck

at the back of the church hall

uh you know all that stuff that gets

unused but could be bought into use to

build community and people's time as an

asset

i'm not going to talk about dusty forge

but it's our community center and it's a

good example i guess of how that comes

together in a place

that's become a home of

uh community asset approach

it's our major asset one of our major

assets and we've developed it in a kind

of diy

approach with local people um you know

bringing back into use and turning into

a thriving kind of center

i'm just gonna finish because my guess

is i'm coming up to the two minute mark

um just talking about stu the role of

stories and how important that is in

what we do

and how we've been able to build that as

a kind of fundamental aspect of

um our research and monitoring

evaluation

um one of the things we're trying to do

all the time and this is a really strong

theme in our heritage car heritage

project

is is tell a different story about our

community a classic example of this for

us is that um

ely has been associated with an incident

that happened in 1990

and which came to be known as the ely

riots or the bread riots

um which was the three or four nights of

disturbances on the streets in north ely

about the time there are similar

incidences happening around the uk

and that story has become associated

with our community in a really damaging

and unhelpful way

in a very stigmatizing way and a really

good example of what that looks like in

practice is is

about six or seven years ago it was the

20th there's a um 25th anniversary so

it'd have been sort of 2015

of the eli riots and even then the local

paper

the uh south wales echo had a double

page spread about the riots with all the

old photos coming out and kind of

it was just dragging up something that

for the for the community itself is just

long in the past and actually people's

interpretations of what happened locally

are very different from what you see

when you read in the papers

so that's a that's a kind of story

that's become associated with our

community and that you kind of carry

around as a burden

and so what we're trying to do is tell a

different story about our community and

our heritage and

the particular role of cairo at the

center of the development of cardiff

historically

is a different story that actually is an

empowering story for people who get to

tell it together and to own it

so we're really trying to tell a

different story about community and one

of our key ways of doing that

is to enable as part of that process

individuals to tell a different story

about themselves

and to kind of seize the initiative in

their lives

and to make a contribution in the

context of community action

and to tell a different story about how

they relate to their community and to

the world around them and how

they live their lives and what we find

is when people are able to do that when

we're able to

to identify with someone their

particular skills and interests and

talents and passions um and we're able

to support them to put that into action

in the context with other people and to

make a contribution to a collective

community their action and to celebrate

those contributions

that is when we see the most substantial

and um

and uh significant transformation for

individuals

and it often extends through whole

families and i'm going to give you a

really quick example of that in a minute

but that's where we see real change and

that's what we're looking to tap into

all the time

and we've been able to work with nick

who's on this call and nick andrews good

friend of ours

to build that storytelling approach into

our monitoring evaluation using

something called most significant change

so we collect individual stories of

change

um and we we ask them what the the most

significant changes for them from their

perspective as a part of being

in as a result of being involved in aces

work um and they unpack that for us and

with us

and then we use panels of people to

discuss and compare those stories and

those panels include local people and

staff and

partners and to understand and draw

learning from that around what was the

significant thing that made the change

for that person

so we've been able to build those

stories into our monitoring evaluation

processes and they're fundamental now to

how we work

but also that collecting and sharing of

stories has become a really important

part of celebrating change

of enabling people to become role models

for others in their community

about 30 sorry seconds billy's story

he's the guy in the middle on the

picture on the right

with the cap he came to us about five

years ago

unemployed um he'd been on jobseeker's

allowance and was told he had to get

six months of voluntary work which is

compulsory 30 hours a week

he begged us for a volunteer placement

he'd been unemployed for about 10 years

at least

had two lads in the house who were

suffering from depression as he was

and were isolated in their rooms playing

computer games billy came and did some

some

maintenance and work for us he was

brilliant we very quickly um

established the real people skills you

make people welcome to the building

we get emails from flying start who use

the building saying we just want to say

how welcoming billy was

and we ended up taking him as a paid

staff member he applied for a job after

six months with us

and he was the caretaker but with so

much more than that he's just just

finished with us now

after five years and he's moving on to

other things and it's totally

transformational for him after

years and years of unemployment and ill

health he felt he was unemployable

um to to discover that his um talents

were needed and

were taken up into this bigger story and

for him now it's been transformational

his boys are in college and studying

and that's just a good example of that

personal transformation that happens

through

um nurturing people's contribution in a

community context through an asset based

approach

i hope that's helpful i'm gonna shut up

and i'll look forward to speaking to

some of you in the small groups

yeah yes thanks for the intro

hi everybody i'm just going to share my

screen

um

there we go so hello um

i i fill a bit of a pilgrim in a foreign

land

here today i'm not a social worker i'm

not a social scientist

uh i'm not a community development

worker either i'm actually a lecturer

in archaeology um but

i have learnt

the community development kind of way of

working has really infused

my ways of working both academically and

out when i'm working in communities

so i'm going to tell you um a bit about

a project that is

a collaboration between ace and the

university and a whole raft of other

um project partners called kaya heritage

so this is a

um an asset-based project that is

building on

the really rich heritage of this

particular

and part of cardiff

um as dave mentioned you know

elie and kyra are do not do not have

um the sort of traditional economic

assets i guess

that many other communities have such as

you know the really big employers

um those kind of things are left in the

in the 1980s

um but it does have a particularly rich

suite of heritage assets i mean i guess

every community

has its own heritage it's what makes

places and communities unique after all

um but eli and kaira seem to have a

concentration

of not just regionally not just

nationally but actually internationally

significant

heritage archaeological historic sites

concentrated in this kind of

smallish area of cardiff and all very

much

well up to a certain point relatively

undervalued or

mainly underused as assets

and which they would be if say they were

in a different community if they were

you know some of these are in north

cardiff or you know

um over in which church or something

some of these sites would be very very

well known and well visited

um here's just a kind of a range of

things i've put on this slide here from

medieval churches through to

roman villa in the in the park

and also you know the parkland is where

there's interesting modern history is

where the cardiff um

racecourse used to be where the welsh

grand national used to be runs there's a

really interesting suite of resources

but

the the jewel in the crown for me at

least

is a site on the southern side of the

estates you can see there that's labeled

fort

down in the bottom the bottom middle and

that is actually

what we call a hill fort it's um dates

to about

uh well the hilltop dates about 500 bc

so it's about two and a half thousand

years old

and it's enormous it's enormous and it's

very complicated yeah

very complex architecture and it's

really

you know it's the biggest and most

significant hill fort

um in this part of southeast wales

but nothing had ever been you've done

with it um partly because archaeologists

like me tend to like

working in very rural areas um

where you know you don't have to deal

with communities

um but actually you know another part is

that

you know there isn't a huge amount of

archaeology um that's been done

um on iron age sites in this region um

per se

anyway so it's got you know the area has

got this this kind of really rich

heritage

um resource now we i recognized

well i i amongst others that had

recognized this for a long time

i was particularly interested from a

research perspective in the hill fort

and i started to go out into the

community to kind of speak to people and

i met

dave and other community members

and you know dave when they when they

originally started ace

um had done a community um audit and had

identified the hill fort as an

asset but not really knew not really

knowing what they could do with it

and so kind of we made that link between

the university and ace and that that

kind of

link has been at the heart of everything

that we do we've kind of learned off

each other and drawn from each other's

networks and skills and experiences and

been able to bring in

a whole set of other project partners to

work on

a whole raft of different activities and

and various projects over the years so

we started back in 2011 so it's been

going for a long time now

and it's yeah as i said it's a

collaborative project between the

university

ace but also local schools other

heritage organizations

local residents local groups local

community groups

um and a whole raft of other interested

individuals and organizations

everything that we do um we attempt to

use

the co-production principles so it's not

about the university parachuting in and

doing something then going away again

everything all the activities we do um

are co-produced to some extent are they

completely bottom-up

no probably not are they completely

top-down definitely not we were kind of

a

middleweight project but we aspire to be

much more bottom-up than than top-down

we had um at the at the announcer kind

of a range of

um underpinning objectives um and again

these were co-produced

from com from conversations and meetings

we were having when we bring people

around the table

um but you know at the top of that list

was kind of trying to foster a different

sense of place for for the communities

in this

in this area trying to tell that sort of

different story that dave

dave was talking about but we also saw a

whole range of other opportunities

providing

educational also what we call new life

opportunities building social capital

social networks

promoting skills developments

raising interest in local heritage and

kind of putting it on

uh people's agendas not only in kyrani

but kind of wider

wider field in cardiff and also for me

and i'm passionate about people coming

to university so a big part of this was

about breaking down

barriers to higher education very few

people from this area go on to

university and

you know i i believe it can change your

life um so i want more people to come

through

two minutes ollie two minutes oh my god

okay

um okay well i'll go through to some of

some of the methods

um so you know we've involved people in

every aspect of the project from from

undertaking uh you know internationally

significant research

you've got individuals and organizations

here school groups involved in

excavations and other historical

research which then generates positive

news stories about the area

it builds confidence in those

individuals involved

we work very closely with with with the

schools particularly the secondary

schools in the area but also the

primaries

about kind of widening participation um

develop curriculum development so we're

actually developing resources about

local history and heritage for the

schools to use

adult learners too so it's not just

school children or people of school

children ages adults

engaging with the project engaging both

formally and informally so we run a

whole suite

of accredited adult learners courses

we've run

maybe seven or eight now got a whole

load more in the pipeline

um these are run at what the university

calls level

zeros at well level three now um

but it's a way of getting people back

into education particularly targeted at

those who've been out of education for a

very long time

um that called the live local learn

local scheme um and the idea is that we

try and bring people through

who well part of it is about raising

confidence

and things like that but it's also about

potentially bringing three people

through

to higher education a number have gone

on to

what we call pathway to degree and then

subsequently a number have actually gone

on to degree as well

um over the years so it's been quite a

successful part of the project

um just sort of mentioning here that

yeah it's not just history and

archaeology you know we engage people in

all sorts of different

ways through creativity through art in

particular

art is a fantastic way of getting people

kind of thinking about things they

didn't really

you know want to think about in in in

other ways perhaps

we work with a range of kind of local

and uh nationally

uh national artists

um volunteering too is a is a key

part of of what we do so it's not just

about doing excavations or doing

research

it's about working with people to

improve

um the management and the kind of

the aesthetic of the historic sites in

this area to try and encourage more

people to come and visit them and in

doing so come and see what the area is

actually

you know kind of try and break down

those kind of barriers to why people

don't necessarily come to to kyra neely

so we've got a range of quite successful

volunteer groups where individuals come

and get involved in things like

conservation

um pathway creation or management

and a whole range of community-led

campaigns that are trying to address

some of the

the issues that the the site like cairo

hill fort suffers from anti-social

behavior and those kinds of things

so we kind of do that regularly and kind

of keep up that regular

contact um we're at the moment we were

kind of running these on a weekly basis

but obviously during lockdown that was

significantly harder just going to

finish

with i've got i've got two more slides

and i think they they're reasonably

important so it's going to finish with

these just to

think about some of these these kind of

project outcomes you know we've got the

traditional

academic outcomes um

which perhaps are less important for for

many people on here but um

you know in terms of kind of social

outcomes you know huge numbers of people

actually involved in projects you know

almost 4

000 active participants in project

activity

um huge numbers of different

institutional partners um

involved and in doing so kind of

creating wider and wider social networks

or social capital for the people's

um involved and then there's an idea of

progression as well

managing to progress people through to

higher education from an area where very

few people go on to

to do higher education so you know you

know some real tangible

um outcomes uh from this project which

have been

yeah i think the sentence at the top

there is probably quite important

mutual benefits from long-term

commitment i don't think any of this

would be possible

without us having been working in this

area for for a very long time almost 10

years now

i think that continued kind of

relationship

and finally just kind of pick up on i

might leave this up

for a couple of minutes but you can read

them for yourselves really just to pick

up on what dave was saying about most

significant change and

the way that people tell their own

stories and what they think is

um significant and here's just a few

examples of those stories from this

um project and you can see that it kind

of you know

you the stories you get sort of um focus

on different aspects for some people the

thing that's really important is the

site itself the heritage the place

for other people the most significant

thing is about getting involved in

something

and building that confidence back up

feeling valued

about what they're doing and what they

can give and seeing that other people

value what they can give to the project

so there's a whole range of these that

we've actually managed to get now and i

love some of these the way that we can

kind of reflect

back on on some things that you think

actually you know for me as an academic

i didn't think that was very important

but actually for someone else

it's massively important so you know one

of the excavations of six-year-olds was

um was with us on the site and found one

of the first neolithic

really really important artifact they

found and they imagined they took it to

a professor

who was staying nearby and had a

conversation with that professor about

um about this object and for them that

was that kind of yeah this is an

unbelievable experience where they got

to engage with an academic they would

never

ever you know perhaps engage with

elsewhere

so it's you know those kinds of things

that we can kind of tease out of this

of this process i've gone on for too

long i know so i'm going to stop

i'm going to stop there

am i uh am i handing over to nick yes

hello

okay there's three fantastic

presentations and um

so much food for thought so um

one of them the things when you when

you've been presented with such rich

information the dangers it can go in one

ear out the other so for the next 20

minutes we want to put you into

breakout rooms just to to reflect and

chew over

some of the things that have been shared

so what we'd like to do we also want to

make sure that everybody not just the

extrovert people get it get a get a

voice

are able to say what they think so we're

going to put you into breakout rooms

and we're going to ask you to think

individually and share individually

in a sentence only in one sentence or at

the most two sentences

what strikes you most about what has

been shared so that's the question

we'd like to pose to you what strikes

you most about what has been shared

and then what we would like you to do

then it might be and it's important to

point this out that you might agree with

something or disagree so it's not you

think it's all marvelous you might

actually want to challenge what's being

shared

and that's why i've got this picture of

the elephant metaphor we encourage

people

to have different perspectives so that's

really important

um and then what we'd like the group to

do to feedback

we're looking at the groups running for

about 20 minutes the breakouts

and then coming back at 12. we hope

you'll bear with us for the last

20 10 minutes to 10 12 past 10 past 12

for a bit of feedback what we'd like

each group to feedback on is we'd like

them to agree

or come up with a key message or

implication

for social work or social care so it's

just for each group to come up with

um a message or an implication for the

way we do social work and social care is

that okay

so so sean is going to put us into

groups and your question

is everybody to have a little think and

say what strikes you most about what

has been shared is that okay shonda i'll

pass over to you now to do the magic of

breakout rooms

so shall i start with our little group i

think we were group one

and one of the things that came up was

just this

whole thing around possibilities when

you connect people

especially when you connect to diverse

people with different ways of seeing the

world and thinking

and sometimes we said social social work

and social care tends to be

all around pre-planning you have your

national outcomes framework you set all

your predetermined outcome measures

and you try to look at distance traveled

rather than

just get people together and see what

happens and see what emerges and learn

retrospectively so i think our group

we're really keen on just look at the

possibilities and think outside the box

that was a key message from our group

would you like to pass to the next group

then allison

uh yeah jan do you want to talk from our

group

jan you're on mute

that is the the the phrase of 2020 isn't

it you're on mute

um in our group i think we we

had quite a few people who are already

quite active within the community

development work i think the the the key

element

for them was that it's all about that

connectivity how do you

actually join with people together and

they talked about how

um they're already developing really

good connectivity between different kind

of projects and

and individuals within the role but then

they raised the question about how do we

actually make sure that we get that

happening

across wales so those little areas of

good connectivity

can join together for for a bigger

connectivity

and something around the the need for um

a compendium of um better

better practice so that people can

actually learn from from

each other and rather than reinvent the

wheel i think the final point which was

particularly the the thing that most

third sector ngos will will know

is that short-term funding actually

works very much against

connectivity because there's that kind

of connected uh that that

competition or the one fight over

funding that

stops that block i think that was

rough yet uh somebody can slap me across

the head and remind me if i have missed

any

uh key points no i think that

summarized it well yeah yeah and i

i don't have the list of groups now so

does anyone else want to volunteer to

be spokesperson for for their group well

you know the list

fiona was in a group weren't you fiona i

was in a group a fantastic group that

had a very passionate conversation

so just a couple of things one is about

um what struck

um someone was the power of the stories

and the most significant change

so that kind of method but then we had a

really good discussion about

how do you keep the passion going in the

moment how do you build the momentum and

sustain it and

light the fire for change agents within

local communities and kind of really

keep it moving and then how do you

influence commissioning processes to

enable

those kind of processes to be kicked off

and sustained

so our conversation kind of focused on

that and went into all sorts of

different

um tracks stemming from that

red but you're in a group yeah we had a

really lively discussion

sophie buckley from pavs is going to

feedback to us

about our our key theme

hello hi hello nick hi everybody

um so yeah um sue and sandy and

reb were in the group with with myself

and

myself and uh sue and sandy talked about

the

the covert response in our in our

counties that we've seen

um and sort of the different responses

in terms

of uh either grassroots community action

or kind of the coordination of

volunteers in other counties

um but basically what we felt was

important was

the the kind of um

of identifying assets um

and working alongside community groups

as a supporter um you know

community groups you know need

information

sometimes and they may need advice and

so it's important that they know

where to go um but we mustn't stifle

community action um

but rather empower community members to

to use their assets um

and to um to support those around them

thank you sophie and then we've got

ollie you had a group holly

i did yes thanks um just it well

i think that there were two main themes

that came out of ours

um group members please feel free to

jump in if you think i've missed

something here

and there are actually two things that

have kind of already been been mentioned

which is interesting

um the first was kind of thinking about

assets themselves

what constitutes an asset um kind of you

know

what actually is a community asset and

so there's yeah there's a there's a

whole

you know um discussion there to be

unpacked i guess around you know

are they economic social everything you

know

where the where does an asset begin and

end um

and how do we identify them um and then

the second

aspect um was again picking up on jan's

point about connectivity

um so there was a yeah so some

discussion around the potential sort of

schism between

um social workers and community

development workers or there's at least

a gap between

between them and and how do we kind of

link them up how do we link up community

development workers with the social

workers so

the idea that um some social work you

know you're taking people

out of their local communities and

putting them in

other communities whereas in fact if

there was that kind of link up

you might find that there are the assets

the projects the activities going on

in their own communities and so how do

we kind of link those

he'd link those two groups of people up

better

last but not least we've got dave dave

horton and your group

yeah thanks nick so uh yeah we had a

really good conversation

[Music]

what kind of um feedback i would give is

that there was a sense that there was a

real

there was a desire amongst social

workers to to work

with the individual and family in the

wider context

um to look at sort of the community

context and wider networks and the the

good things and the assets already

happening around

um that that person or family

but there are challenges identified

around kind of resources

and caseloads and things like that but a

couple of interesting sort of areas of

promise if you like or things we should

be focused on one was that it was

pointed out we have a

unique legal landscape in wales with the

social care and wellbeing act and other

aspects

that actually puts collectives and

cooperatives and approaches like that

as part of the mix so that is there to

be kind of um

developed and and engaged with um

albeit with all the challenges we've

already said about resources

particularly sort of

um post austerity and then and then the

second thing is just the idea that there

is a history of this as

and there's an idea that we could move

back to the roots of um

social work that are in social justice

and human rights

um which allow for this sort of focus on

communities

um on families in that way the community

context i think that was that was kind

of a broad

quick summary but if anyone from my

group wants to chip in they're very

welcome

i'm thinking i'm reminded of the

philosopher martin buber says all real

living

is meeting and this the possibilities

and things that happen when people

connect

and so i think that's probably the

prevailing message for me i'm going to

hand over to um alison

because i know people be ready starting

to get their tommy's rumbling for lunch

so alison did you want to close the

session just to say um you know

it was really thought provoking really

interesting very well

put together presentations and i really

really enjoyed it

and for me personally it really made me

think about how individualistic

we are in social work which is my

particular field

and and how much we forget community and

how you know much there is

uh for us to be going out there and

doing so i really enjoyed it we probably

i didn't have enough time to get

all the discussions but hopefully it set

lots of um

thoughts racing that and um people

have asked a lot about the different

pieces of literature from fiona

which she has put in the chat but sean

will

send out um the references to everybody

who's attended

and there was just one final query about

a paper by david burnham so perhaps we

could just add that piece of literature

in when we send

out so thank you very very much for

coming i think it's

been absolutely fascinating and i've

really enjoyed it so

on behalf of exchange thank you very

very much