Community safety is a major priority for residents of social housing. With over 200,000 new homes planned for the Thames Gateway area, a significant proportion of which will be ‘affordable’, the challenge will be to build new neighbourhoods and communities in which people feel safe to live and work. Free Form’s ‘Safer Spaces’ programme, supported by The Housing Corporation, offers an opportunity to achieve residents’ aspirations through creative approaches to community safety.
Working with Registered Social Landlords and the communities they serve within the Thames Gateway area, Free Form has developed approaches that capture the imagination of residents and tenants to become involved in designing public spaces, increasing a sense of neighbourliness, which in turn has a significant affect on people’s perception of crime and fear of crime.
The Safer Spaces approach is about making ‘places for people’, developing the culture and identity of housing estates and integrating new developments within existing communities both in new-build estates and making existing estates more ‘liveable’. Safer Spaces enables tenants and residents to assess their own safety needs, analysing the root causes of crime and anti-social behaviour, to encourage problem solving. So what exactly makes people feel safe? Adults prioritise street lighting and physical security as important factors. Importantly adults also feel intimidated by groups of youths who are often perceived as the cause of vandalism, crime and drugs on estates. In comparison, for most young people it’s being with their friends that make them feel safer in their own neighbourhoods. So we can see that there is some conflict here. By getting members of all ages in the community creatively working together we can find solutions to improving neighbourhood safety. Art can cross boundaries regardless of ethnicity, age and gender and provides a form of communication that can be understood by all.
Case Study: Harford Street
The new Harford Street development in Stepney is a mixed used development, which will consist of homes, a community building and open spaces for public recreation, including an accessible waterfront area on the Regent’s Canal and the Central Avenue.
The developers are Bellways Homes and their RSL partner East Choice Housing (part of East Thames Housing Group). They see Free Form’s approach as important in achieving their objectives for the development. “We aim to enhance neighbourhoods improve community safety and build community spirit. Safer Spaces will help us do that.” June Barnes, Group Chief Executive, East Thames Housing Group.
Free Form’s Public Art and Community Involvement Strategy for the Harford Street development has identified a range of opportunities for public artworks, which embrace the site’s rich heritage. “The fascination of this area is finding the extraordinary stories of the lives of ordinary people. ” Jack Kirby, Director of the Ragged School Museum.
Summer workshops at the Ragged School Museum in Stepney provided local children with an opportunity to actively get involved in the creation of a floorscape feature for the development. The children drew inspiration from the site’s waterfront location to create a series of colourful and imaginative tiles, made from 100% recycled glass by the Green Bottle Unit. Young people’s involvement is pivotal to ensuring safer communities. “By including youth within the design stages, giving them a valid contribution to the design process, and a stake in their Neighbourhood is key to developing local pride and citizenship.” Alan Rossiter, Associate Director, Free Form Arts Trust
Free Form’s strategy has received a remarkable amount of support from clients and community partners, as well the planning authority and the Greater London Authority. On a wider level, the application of community arts to new build estates is an excellent way to integrate the development with the existing community and yet give the new estate its own identity.
Case Study: All Mead Gardens
On the Kingsmead Estate in Hackney, Free Form worked with RSL Kingsmead Homes and landscape architects Parklife to develop strong community involvement in the realisation of a play park on a difficult derelict site, which had suffered years of vandalism.
Local people of all ages were involved in its planning and design– and most importantly in reclaiming the sense of ownership of the area through picnics, art workshops and festival events. The garden has a nautical and Viking theme, based on the historical presence of Vikings in the area. The Viking Society delighted the local community with weapons displays and heritage talks at the play park as part of a special programme of family events. This also formed the basis for a workshop programme with local residents to contribute to the design and decoration of the garden. Two local young people renamed the play park as part of the ‘Name the Garden’ Competition. Its new name ‘All Mead Gardens’ was chosen because of its inclusiveness.
“Previously this space had been abandoned by adults – our task was to convince the whole community that to create a safe play space for their young people meant that adults had to get involved too – not only in saying what should be there but also in creating and using the spaces.” Hazel Goldman, Associate Director, Free Form Arts Trust.
So does this creative approach work? Yes, on Downside Estate South in Bedfordshire, Free Form is working South Bedfordshire District Council to deliver an action research arts and community led regeneration project. Since 2002, ‘Trailblazers: Arts Generate’ programme has actively involved residents in creative activities, building a common language, addressing local people’s priorities such as the need for environmental improvements, community safety, resolving traffic and transport issues.
The programmes Independent Evaluator reported: “The visual and environmental aspects of Trailblazers has had a strong impact on the community, in a number of ways which can be anecdotally illustrated... The amount of vandalism and anti-social behaviour on the estate has decreased markedly over the period of the project according to local police. Local shop keepers have said that they feel safer, and that their relationships with young people on the estate have improved.” Downside ‘Trailblazers’ Evaluation Report, Catherine Rose, 2005.
We need to take advantage of the role that public art can play in creating safer communities. Artistic expertise can be used to find creative ways of involving people in decision making, if we are to create places with local distinctiveness that people actually want to live in. The ‘Safer Spaces’ approach shows what can be achieved when residents are involved early on in the development process and the community is really taken account into the final designs. Together we can build the neighbourhoods of the future and meaningfully involve the people who live in them to make community safety a reality.
For more information about Free Form’s Safer Spaces programme, please contact Hazel Goldman, Associate Director, Free Form Arts Trust (t) 020 7249 3394 (e) hazel@freeform.org.uk or visit www.freeform.org.uk
Free Form Arts Trust has an established track record of working with residents to make environmental improvements to their estates. Its pioneering participatory techniques enable community groups, usually excluded from the agenda to contribute to shaping their neighbourhoods.
Back to the Safer Spaces home page.
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