GLOUCESTERSHIRE GATEWAY TRUST

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  • Home
  • About
    • Vision
    • Meet the team
    • Community Partners
    • Publications
    • Our supporters and funders
    • Our story
    • Community Development Funding Criteria
  • News
    • News >
      • Competitions >
        • Poetry competition
      • Support Local
  • Blog
  • Gloucester Services
    • Growing Communities at Gloucester Services
    • Jobs
  • Resources
    • Food help and support
    • Support for older people during Coronavirus
    • The GEM Project
  • Get involved
    • Your community
    • Volunteering
    • Community hubs
  • loop
  • Contact

Blog

The ABC(D) of community development - why we won

7/6/2019

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"One of the places I feel least comfortable is at posh dinners in a dickie bow tie but sometimes necessity calls! The amazing partnership which came together to bring Gloucester Services to life has already lasted 12 years.

​Last month the Westmorland Family business and our small community regeneration charity Gloucestershire Gateway Trust together won the prestigious Charity Business Award (from Third Sector)  for Long Term Partnership. As Sarah Dunning , Laurence King and I stepped on stage to receive this award at the Third Sector Awards the judges comments about the win were read out:
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Presentation of the Long-Term Partnership Award at the Charity Business Awards at the London Marriot Hotel
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Gloucestershire Gateway Trust CEO Mark Gale (left), with Laurence King, Vice Chair of Westmorland (centre) and Sarah Dunning, Chair of Westmorland (right)
"This is a great project with a holistic and pragmatic approach that benefits and works with the whole community," said Wanda Wyporska, executive director at the Equality Trust. "It is an outstanding piece of well thought-out work with huge potential to be replicated elsewhere."
"In many ways this was an unexpected award for our partnership because there was such a strong group of larger corporate partnerships competing including Shelter and Nationwide Building Society, Innocent and Age Concern, Matalan and NSPCC, InvestTec and the Bromley By Bow Centre and several others. However I’m certain that two key aspects of what we do together in Gloucestershire marked us out as genuinely unique.
 
Firstly , it was the vision of local residents that led to the creation of the award winning Gloucester Services business. So the beneficiaries of the business charity partnership are the people and their communities who helped create it. 

​Secondly we are strong believers in Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) and we know that every community has untapped assets within them. So the Gloucester Services project is one good example of what a community can achieve when it identifies its own assets and brings them into play. Most importantly this is something almost every community could do, so as the judges most important comment was that this ‘outstanding well thought out piece of work has huge potential to be replicated elsewhere’. We hope our experience will stimulate new projects all around the UK where communities can develop their own visions and turn them into their own local reality and we are happy to share our experiences anywhere where they can be helpful."
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Author

Mark Gale, CEO of Gloucestershire Gateway Trust

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In the Gloucester Services Community space with colleagues, Mark Gale of Gloucestershire Gateway Trust and Paul and Sue of community partner GL Communities
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A service station with ethics - guest blog, part 2

25/4/2019

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"Gloucester Services has a bit of a ‘Robin Hood’ ethos to the takings where, up to 3p in every £ of non-fuel sales at Gloucester Services supports local communities through Gloucestershire Gateway Trust (GGT). We saw for ourselves the difference this is making. Our visit took us to four projects supported by GGT:
  1. Play Gloucestershire (also supported by Sport England’s Potentials Fund), which is a local charity that transforms children’s lives using the power of outdoor play.
  2. The Venture (in White City), where they have big plans to refurbish a well-used community hub and play area in to a whole lot of swinging, climbing, sliding, spinning and challenging activities and a whole world of social interaction for the community.
  3. The Power of Three – Matson, Robinswood & White City Community Partnership where local people have developed a plan that gives them more say and influence over what happens in their communities.
  4. Gateway Café and the Loop Project, that is providing a multitude of community services including an after-school homework club.
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Driving around the social housing estates of Matson, Robinswood and White City, you can feel and see the sense of pride and ownership in these communities. The streets are clean, there is no fly tipping, shops aren’t boarded up and the only thing hanging around on street corners are sheep!

So, what makes these communities continue to thrive both socially and economically (with very little additional investment)?  

Each community is different, as are local circumstances and environments. There are however, several approaches which have been tried and tested here in Gloucester, that could be replicated elsewhere, and that have made asset-based community development a success:   
  • Good quality community engagement is key. This has to be honest, meaningful and lead to a plan of action that is relevant to and owned by the community. 
  • Take the time to build trust within communities.
  • It is easier to tackle issues/challenges by working collaboratively rather than competing for diminishing resources – we see this happen all the time at a hyper local level, especially amongst voluntary community groups / services. It really does make more sense to work collectively and support each other towards a common goal.
  • Empower local people to provide leadership in their own communities and build their skills and confidence in community activism.
  • Recognise the power of play. We need to move away from this notion that activity has to be structured and in formal settings – especially for our children and young people.
  • Promote a positive reputation of our communities – the people living in these communities love it and this positive image should be well communicated. Always focusing on the negative can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy and low aspirations.
  • Helping local people to help themselves and their communities. Support some form of dedicated local capacity – even if it is a short hour contract under 16 hours to encourage those on benefits in to employment. Investing in a local person and a local resource to activate within a community can make a sustainable difference.
  • Support local small businesses to start up and grow in our communities.
  • Have a cavalier approach to system thinking which is to “get on with it and apologise later”.  
Some valuable learning to be shared here and certainly lots for us to take away and think how we can apply this form of community development to our own local delivery work in Birmingham & Solihull (the team pictured right).
 
Thank You to Mark Gale & Jo White from the Gloucestershire Gateway Trust for hosting us for the day. I encourage you all to visit Gloucester Services and spend money, knowing you are doing your bit to support local community development."   ​
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Author

Shimul Haider, Relationship Manager at Sport England

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Gloucestershire Gateway Trust is a registered charity No: 1140440.
​Company limited by guarantee
No: 06857427
Copyright © 2021 Gloucestershire Gateway Trust.  All Rights Reserved.
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