On Saturday 9th May residents from the Grangetown area of Cardiff came together to celebrate what was great about their community and to agree how it could be even better. The event was the culmination of a Cardiff University Community Gateway Project called ‘Love Grangetown’ led by Rosie Cripps, Community Gateway Project Manager.
Rosie and her team trained 14 ‘Community Researchers’ (from 7 different communities, ageing from 17 – 70+) and 7 Architectural students to be Community Researchers. This training was based on Appreciative Inquiry theory and practice. All the researchers then spoke to over 100 members of the community and asked them a number of questions including:
- Tell me a special memory about living in Grangetown (what were you doing, where were you, who was there, when did this happen, how did it make you feel, why did it make you feel that way)
- Imagine 2 years into the future and Grangetown has won a prize for being the best place to live in the UK, what would you like to see around you?
- What do you like doing in your spare time or what really interests you? Could you share this with the community?
- Which 3 places in GT make you happy?
The celebration event provided an opportunity for people to see what everyone else had shared and to agree how they could build on the best of what was already happening in order to deliver on their vision for the future. The University also provided £90,000 in order that these ideas could be delivered on.
Roger Rowett from Taith said ‘this was such an inspiring day with a wonderful group of people who really cared about their community. The work that Cardiff University has done in ‘translating’ peoples experiences and dreams into words and images is amazing. What is also wonderful for me is that Rosie was a participant on our Appreciative Inquiry Champions Programme. She took all she had learned and applied it to this project in such a creative way. The planning process was thorough and she totally involved people from the outset – wonderful!‘
