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

"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:

Presentation of the Long-Term Partnership Award at the Charity Business Awards at the London Marriot Hotel

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

In the Gloucester Services Community space with colleagues, Mark Gale of Gloucestershire Gateway Trust and Paul and Sue of community partner GL Communities