Prince Charles, Duke of Cornwall in a speech to the World Health Organisation in May 2006 sited the Beacon Project as an excellent example of how a small tenant led organisation has helped to improve the health of local people.
Since 1995, the former Carrick District Council and more recently Carrick Housing have been working closely with a prestigious community action group called the Beacon Community Regeneration Partnership. The Partnership is a resident-led community action group which draws together multiple public agencies and Non-Governmental Organisations into dialogue with residents, in order to affect real change for local neighbourhoods. Examples of bodies active within the Partnership include the Local Authority, the NHS, Police, Social Services, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the Probation Service, Tenants and Residents Associations, a school and Carrick Housing.
However, just ten years ago, this inter-agency collaboration and sense of community spirit did not exist. The geographical remit of the Partnership has grown, but in the early days was centred around the electoral ward of Penwerris in Falmouth. Penwerris, which was described by Tony Blair as then being ‘in the grips of strife and fear’, was within the poorest 10% of wards in Britain according to the Indices of Multiple Deprivation (2000). Rising to the challenge, the Partnership adopted a fresh and innovative approach to tackling a wide range of social problems and has achieved startling success.
The breadth of the Partnership’s activities has included encouraging dialogue between government bodies, charities and community groups, as well as partnering with residents in order to deliver new services. From the Partnership’s neighbourhood headquarters at the Beacon Community Resource Centre, a number of courses are provided including healthy living, employment and welfare advice, Stop Smoking, IT and first aid. It has also provided impetus for a number of listening forums as well as acting as a general drop-in centre. The net results of the combined regeneration activities have included significant reductions in crime, ASB, post-natal depression and Child Protection registrations, whilst there have been increases in health, education, fundraising and community groups (including TRAs and Neighbourhood Watch schemes). Looking ahead, the Partnership is now keen to establish a number of community social enterprises in order to manoeuvre it into a sustainable future.
At Carrick Housing, we are delighted with the social improvements that have been made in one of our largest housing estates, and are keen to achieve further progress based on the foundation that has already been laid. We also appreciate that the significant reversal in fortunes of an estate in West Cornwall is not just of localised interest, but that there will be other organisations elsewhere who are keen to learn from the success and methodology of the Beacon Community Regeneration Partnership. We would therefore like to welcome all interested parties to visit the Partnership’s offices for an exchange session, during which members of the Partnership and Carrick Housing can showcase the community work to wider audiences, followed by questions and answers, and a tour of key places in the neighbourhood. This includes the new £1.3 million Dracaena Centre which is a hub for youth, sport and community activities.
The Partnership is happy to host groups of tenants or housing professionals who would like to learn more about the ongoing work in the community. For example, a group representatives from tenant organisations in South Wales visited the Beacon Partnership in August 2009 in order to learn valuable strategies which could be tailored and implemented back home. The visit was co-ordinated by Newport City Council but was chiefly aimed at helping tenants from both areas to mingle and learn from each other (pictured below).
Another example of cross-pollination between tenants occured when tenants and staff from East Dorset Housing Association (part of Synergy Housing Group) visited the tenants of the Beacon estate in November 2009. A number of practices and documents were shared, especially surrounding how tenants on the Penwerris and Beacon estates can become inspectors of a variety of works, including repairs, planned maintenance, gas servicing and ground-source heat pump installations.
For further information or to organise a visit, please contact the Tenant Participation Unit at Carrick Housing on 0800 138 5552 or at info@carrickhousing.co.uk . More detailed information about the points raised above can be found in the source document, Rebirth of a Community; for further information about the work of the Beacon Community Regeneration Partnership, please visit www.bcrp.org.uk or call 01326 212784. Please also refer to the Partnership's ten year Strategy for 2008-2018 attached below.
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