Communities in their places

Too often community improvement projects are decided by councils and governments without asking people who live in communities what they would want.
We believe that people who live in communities should help make decisions on projects that affect them and their local areas and so this project aims to put communities at the heart of our decision making.

We have set up a Community Panel to help us achieve this. The panel will make decisions about how the project runs and how we can improve our communities by agreeing on good practice examples of living and working sustainably in our communities.
Our panel is made up of 23 people from diverse cultures, communities and places across Yorkshire, including Bradford, Castleford, Harrogate, Hornsea, Hull, Leeds, Pocklington, Scarborough, Sheffield and Wakefield.

Our panel represents the voices of those who are often underrepresented or marginalised in research and policy making, and experience inequality in their everyday lives. Members include young people, older people, neurodivergent people, those living with disabilities or long term health conditions, migrants and refugees, care leavers, LGBTQ+ people and people with experience of homelessness, poverty, mental health issues, addiction, racism, and the criminal justice system.

The panel meets four times a year either in person or online. Members have also been nominated to join each work package team, and to represent the panel on the YPIP Governance Board.

Understanding community-led and community partnered social action across Yorkshire and Humber helps to understand what makes these initiatives effective through what motivates them, the ways they work and the benefits it brings to the community. The review covers initiatives working across different communities, geographical locations and purposes. It both informs the next stages of work for the Communities in Their Places team and adds learning to how policy makers can better support and engage communities.

One of the main priorities for YPIP is enabling communities to make a difference for themselves. Working collaboratively with five demonstrator community-led organisations and social-actions across the Yorkshire region, the Communities in Their Places team will work to provide a bespoke co-owned report that evidences the impact that the demonstrators have through their community centred ways of working. In doing so it will provide communities with the tools to influence regional inclusive-growth, and sustainable living strategies.

This pilot activity is designed to amplify community voice by building collaborative spaces where difficult conversations can be held to build trust around new ways of working, relationship building and co-learning between participants for joint change between communities, the Voluntary and Community Sector and local authority stakeholders. participants. This will be piloted in Hull, North Yorkshire and Sheffield where we will co-create generative spaces (through dialogic workshops and forming a community of practice) facilitated with training support from a community-based knowledge-exchange organisation.

Please get in touch with the team if you’d like to know more about this work, and to explore potential opportunities.