Overview
Despite our love of formal training, much of the evidence suggests that learning happens between people and is best facilitated by peers. Creating a learning environment is key to all our work and, although never directly funded, our focus during our work in Newsham Park was to create an enabling network. This meant that we worked hard to foster relationships between different groups within the local community.
These differences in ethnicity, age, and socio-economic status were only reinforced by the ways in which funding was targeted at particular groups or particular problems. To overcome that, we deliberately sought to keep all activities open to everyone, not only on paper but in spirit. We also sought to create a safe psychological environment that enabled people to connect across perceived differences and find common ground between them.
The evidence of the success of this informal network can be found in the number of ongoing friendships between former participants and the extent to which the network-enabled people to share resources, help, experience and advice in ways that did not encourage dependency or foster shame.
The Enabling Network
NEWSHAM PARK
The following organisations and initiatives Tree House is either working to support or aligns with their values around social prescribing, social wellbeing, mindfulness and connectivity.
The following organisations and initiatives Tree House is either working to support or aligns with their values around social prescribing, social wellbeing, mindfulness and connectivity.
SERVICES
About Tree House
Project Delivery
Partners & Clients
This initiative was conceived as part of the action plan designed in 2013. It was a challenge to the torpor that had set in regarding the poor state of our local high street. Changes in shopping habits had transformed what was once a source of pride to a series of poorly maintained shops and graffitied walls.
By linking shopkeepers to local artists and helping facilitate opportunities either to enhance local beauty or hide ugly spots, 13 art installations were created between 2013 and 2019. Of these, 8 remain in place and are completely free of graffiti, one has been interacted with and, of the 4 that have disappeared, all but one is the result of the site or the abandoned building now being developed.
This initiative and our Clean Up Flash Mobs encouraged other partners to act to net the railway bridge to stop pigeons roosting there and defecating on and around the bus stop as well as clearing some areas of long-accumulated rubbish which were in plain sight but hard to access. This was another example of how a small positive local initiative could galvanize people and organisations to use existing resources in partnership with others for a greater collective and sustainable impact.
Street Art & The High St
Overview
