When tenants in Lanner, Cornwall, realised their estate's image was a liability, they took matters into their own hands. Three years on, says Saba Salman, they're teaching other people how to make tenant participation count
When Anicka Dyer's children came home from school and told their mother they were being teased for living in "Giro City", she knew she had to do something to tackle her estate's image problem.

Dyer joined a fledgling tenants' forum in West Cornwall, later named Vision, and helped to galvanise her community on the Strawberry Fields estate in Lanner, near Redruth, into improving their estate.

Three years on, thanks to Vision's dialogue with Kerrier district council and local landlords such as Devon and Cornwall Housing, the 250-tenant estate has new public spaces, play facilities and a youth forum.

"The milestone for us was getting an under-sevens play area," says Dyer. "We got an amenities grant of £13,000 from our landlord, Devon and Cornwall, but it took us 18 months of letter writing, lobbying of councillors, planning and other council departments, researching play equipment and budgeting before it finally opened."

Dyer says the biggest challenge was getting people – both other tenants and the council – to listen. "We were a small group, we were inexperienced, but we kept plodding on." She says that once the play area opened, everyone realised the impact that determined tenant campaigning could make. The play area meant that children were safe, they were not out playing in the roads; everyone could see the results.

Vision, meanwhile, has grown from an informal group of 12 tenants to a network of 35 tenants' and residents' groups, with one full-time development worker. Dyer says tenants on other estates became interested in Vision's work as it helped them set up fun days or secure grants for refurbishment projects.

"It was partly word of mouth, it was also our members visiting other estates. We began holding open meetings on different estates so people could come along and find out more," she says.

Learn how to speak consultation
Vision's aim is to help tenants build their skills so they can be more involved in making decisions about the future of their estates. Although social landlords and local authorities are keen to encourage tenant participation, they sometimes overlook the fact that not everybody is well versed in deciphering consultation exercises, speaking at public debates or applying for funding for a new creche. Vision offers workshops and individual mentoring in issues as wide-ranging as first aid, health and hygiene, how to run a committee, fundraising and IT.

The project's £34,000 budget is funded by the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit's community empowerment fund. Vision has also spawned a sister organisation, the county-wide community development charity Cornwall Neighbourhoods for Change (CN4C), which now employs Dyer as a community development worker.

As well as helping tenants carry out procedures such as risk assessments or understand health and safety issues for fun days, Dyer manages an employment project that helps those wanting to return to work. The project offers training and financial support for essentials like tools, clothing, travel and childcare. By March last year, it had helped more than 450 people into work.

Dyer says: "After starting as a volunteer three years ago, I've now got a job and I'm proud of what I've achieved. What makes it more worthwhile is that my work means I help other tenants every day."

Vision covers the tenants of not one but three social landlords – Devon and Cornwall Housing, Kerrier Homes Trust, Penwith Housing Association – and three district councils – Carrick, Kerrier and Penwith.

Guest tenants from neighbouring authorities are invited to speak on major projects that they have helped steer. Tenants' views also feed into the local strategic partnership, a multi-agency forum of public sector, voluntary and community groups that decides how funding will be spent.

"The Vision project grew out of concerns that social housing tenants weren't getting to share in some of the regeneration funding coming into Cornwall," says Fergus Murray, chief executive of Cornwall Neighbourhoods for Change.

West Cornwall's idyllic seaside and sailing image hides its pockets of acute poverty – the Penwith and Kerrier districts, for example, are rated 25th and 55th in the national index of deprivation, which rates every ward in England according to need.

"Vision was an attempt to raise the profile of the needs of the area," says Murray. "Usually you don't get that cross-boundary activity. People tend to be concerned with very localised problems, rather than looking across the region."

Complementary medicine
The work of Vision complements that of CN4C. The former still has a grass-roots feel about it and is seen as more of a lobbying body. The latter has 50 staff and an annual £1.5m turnover, funded by European cash, the Housing Corporation, the ODPM and the South-west England regional development agency. CN4C runs various neighbourhood-based development projects and manages Vision's one development worker. Meanwhile, three of CN4C's six tenant board members are elected through Vision.

Veronica Vickery, CN4C community development manager, says residents contact Vision for help with anything ranging from applying for funding or refurbishing a community hall, to advice on holding a fun day. The first step is for Vision's tenant volunteers or its development worker to meet with tenants to find out how they can help.

A current project, for example, involves supporting a residents association with the refurbishment of a village hall. "It can be hard in deprived areas where people don't have the skills or the confidence to know what to do," says Vickery. "We might help with something like IT support, or listening skills – so they know how to pick up information at public meetings – or how to speak in public. We might even help with how to cope with one dominant person at a meeting."

Vickery says getting involved in this kind of project can really change people. "Some residents think they would never get involved or do public speaking – and then there they are, talking at a major council meeting about what they want on their estate. It boosts their self-esteem, and it's exciting seeing people grow like that."

Vickery says that in community work, the biggest challenge can often be overcoming apathy. "Sometimes you can come across a sense of frustration – the community might have been trying to get something done for years but nothing's happened. You have to try to persuade them that this time something will come out of it." In West Cornwall, with the help of Vision and CN4C, chances are that it will.

Source

Housing Today