Learning to make a difference: the University of Brighton and its local communities
University of Brighton Community University Partnership Programme 02 Learning to make a difference Contents
Foreword Professor Julian Crampton
Community perspectives
The mutual benefits of partnership: Sussex Pathways Adrian Martin Benefits and challenges of a university partnership: 3VA – voluntary action in Eastbourne, Lewes and Wealden District Council Adam Chugg
Staff as volunteers
Cultivating sustainability: Falmer vegetable garden and the University of Brighton food co-op Lucy Dance Behind-the-scenes support: Amaze Lisa Mitchell
Students in the community
From banking to football: the community engagement module Martin Clayton Inclusive arts: an action-based research project Natalia Agote Urquia The peerless pier: Hastings Pier and White Rock Trust Kate Cheyne A grassroots opportunity for growth: Grassroots Suicide Prevention Kerry Dowding
Academics in community partnerships
Traveller policy under the spotlight: Brighton & Hove Traveller Scrutiny Panel Aiden McGarry The Tuesday Group: ethics in performance Bobbie Farsides and Sue Eckstein Health and community learning: The Bridge Community Education Centre Helen Stanley A community partnership with no community? Afghan migrants in Brighton Nichola Khan Tools to build better neighbourhoods: Community 21 Nick Gant
Cover picture: Bird image by Sarah Gladden (Inclusive Arts Practice MA student) and Peter Cutts (Rocket artist). www.brighton.ac.uk/cupp 03 Foreword
This collection of case studies represents These thirteen case studies demonstrate this engagement a snapshot of the University of Brighton’s from the perspectives of the different partners involved: social engagement activities, work community, voluntary and public organisations, staff that links the university to our local volunteers, students, graduates and researchers. communities. The diversity of activities they cover is impressive, ranging from theatre and the arts, to community planning, from Every year, university staff and students undertake a wide chairing a local authority scrutiny panel, to mentoring ex- range of projects in partnership with local communities. offenders, to supporting vegetable growing and working Many of these are supported by the university’s with a local voluntary organisation on its management Community University Partnership Programme (Cupp). policies. The case studies also highlight some of the challenges involved in this work and the importance of In its ten years of operation Cupp has directly supported individual enthusiasm and commitment to its success. over 150 partnership projects and each year over 300 students undertake community activities as part of their In acknowledgement of this the university has recently studies. On top of this, many more community-university established an Excellence in Community Engagement partnership projects have been established without award, which recognises outstanding professional and direct input from the Cupp team. For some projects the personal commitment to community engagement by a university provides funding and for others we offer staff staff member. or student assistance to manage, develop and deliver projects. I hope that students, staff, alumni and community partners will be inspired by these stories to develop new Social and community engagement is at the heart of what partnerships committed to co-working for the benefit we do as a university as our recently agreed Strategic of local communities, and teaching and research at the Plan 2012–15 attests. We will continue to work with University of Brighton. communities in producing and applying new knowledge. Building on our already substantial base, our teaching and learning will provide opportunities for all undergraduate Professor Julian Crampton, Vice-Chancellor students to have the opportunity to contribute to activities outside the university.
Our partnerships with local and regional bodies will continue to help develop sustainable learning communities that sustain policy development. Our aim is to promote positive change in the lives of communities of which we are part, underpinned by the principles of mutual benefit that helps ensure that useful activity can continue in the long run. 04 www.brighton.ac.uk/cupp 05
Community perspectives 06 Community perspectives
The mutual benefits of partnership Sussex Pathways
Adrian Martin, Director of Sussex Pathways, explains how a single student volunteer can make a very significant contribution to an organisation’s achievements. At the same time, the organisation can give its volunteers invaluable real-life experience and opportunities to expand their skills.
Sussex Pathways is a charitable The power of one Through her persistent, professional organisation providing a social and caring approach, she was mentoring scheme to empower One student remained committed to able to encourage the individual to offenders to make positive life Sussex Pathways after completing change his perspective and build a choices. It employs 3.5 paid our four-day core training course level of trust that has enabled him staff members and supports in 2010 and has volunteered with to access residential detoxification approximately 50 volunteer mentors Sussex Pathways ever since. Not and rehabilitative services. Without and a further 10 other volunteers. only has she successfully managed her tenacity and with the service a number of mentoring partnerships, providers involved, this outcome Role of our mentors she has also volunteered in other would not have been achieved. areas of our work. Volunteers mentor people for six Translating potential into weeks before, and up to six months She supported our training impact after, their release from prison, programme by sharing her supporting their resettlement into the experiences with new trainees, The student’s work has empowered community. They also mentor those provided administrative support to ex-offenders to make positive life sentenced to a community order for our office in HMP Lewes, and most choices and refrain from committing six months in the community. recently has been involved in a pilot crime. She has motivated and project supporting and supervising a inspired new recruits, and by By training and supporting volunteers group of volunteer mentors. participating in our pilot programme from the community to support to support a small group of offenders to settle back into their Giving opportunity to community volunteers, she has neighbourhoods and make positive potential helped to reach a broader range of life choices, Sussex Pathways people who want to engage with the contributes towards social and Sussex Pathways recognised her charity’s service. financial inclusion, reducing re- qualities and potential and was able offending and promoting safer to offer her opportunities to broaden Sussex Pathways has been communities. her experience and skill base. successful in supporting offenders to resettle into their communities and Partnering with the university The student worked tirelessly with the volunteers who work with us are some of the charity’s most high- the lifeblood of our organisation. We The partnership between the need and complex cases and has have recently established a service university and Sussex Pathways has achieved significant results, including user group and are about to launch grown significantly over the past supporting an entrenched alcohol- short interventions, giving people few years. Students volunteer as dependent ex-offender who was improved access to mentoring part of the university’s Community street-homeless and unwilling to services in the community. Engagement module, and this has engage with any support services. been of enormous benefit to our Without student volunteers and our organisation. partnership with the university, none of this would be possible. www.sussexpathways.org.uk/ www.brighton.ac.uk/cupp 07
Benefits and challenges of a university partnership 3VA: Voluntary Action in Eastbourne, Lewes and Wealden
Adam Chugg, Chief Executive of 3VA, reflects on his experience of working with the Community University Partnership Programme (Cupp) and how it allowed his organisation to identify relevant expertise within the university.
I started working at what was then consultation and helping produce the between local community groups, the Eastbourne Association of final report. the Local Strategic Partnership and Voluntary Services (EAVS) in 2008. the university. As a council for voluntary service Working with the university helped it works with local groups through ensure that the results of the work Students have also been involved, support, advice and training, were taken seriously by local working with Speak Up to help run and helps the sector to network organisations, the local authority its annual conference for voluntary and have a voice locally. EAVS and other funders. Nationally, sector organisations in East Sussex. was very involved in partnership NACVS adopted the approach as a working and through membership model of good practice. Challenges of partnership of the Eastbourne Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) I was first 3VA was formed in 2009 when There are challenges in working introduced to the University of Eastbourne Association of Voluntary successfully with the university. A Brighton Community University Services joined forces with South major one is geographic: our nearest Partnership Programme (Cupp), Downs Council for Voluntary Service campus in Eastbourne is isolated which was an invaluable way into the to create the Council for Voluntary from the parts of the town where labyrinth of the university. Services for Eastbourne, Lewes most voluntary and community District and Wealden. The close groups are working. Many of the A local resilience action plan relationship developed between the degree courses at Eastbourne are university and EAVS has continued focused on health and social care Our first piece of joint work with with 3VA. professions which is not always Cupp was on the Local Resilience the best fit with community needs, Action Plan for East Sussex. This The potential of although there has been some tried to measure activity in the neighbourhood management innovative work with older people voluntary and community sector. The who can also be a great resource National Association of Councils for 3VA has been involved with the for the university. Finally, the Voluntary Service (NACVS) funded university’s On Our Doorsteps development of an organisation like the project and Cupp found a programme in Eastbourne and is 3VA is very organic which does not researcher who provided academic working on a project looking at easily match with the university’s input. The project developed into the potential of neighbourhood academic and research needs. an assessment of the impact of the management. Eastbourne introduced early recession on the local voluntary a neighbourhood management Nevertheless, the relationship is sector. initiative to three areas of the genuinely positive: students bring town in 2010 to enable the local a sense of energy to Eastbourne; The co-production approach community to have a greater say university staff have been fantastic worked well with Speak Up, an East in what happens. The project people to work with and have a real Sussex forum for voluntary and will strengthen this initiative by commitment to the community. We community sector representatives, highlighting recognised models of hope to continue working closely with bringing voluntary and community good practice in neighbourhood the university at every opportunity. organisations together as part of the management and strengthening links www.3va.org.uk 08 www.brighton.ac.uk/cupp 09
Staff as volunteers 10 Staff as volunteers
Cultivating sustainability
Falmer vegetable garden and the University of Brighton Food Co-op
Lucy Dance was a programme assistant at the university’s School of Education. Through the staff volunteering scheme, the university supported her volunteering in establishing a vegetable garden on Falmer campus and promoting the University of Brighton Food Co-op. It’s all part of the Sustainability Action Network, which aims to make the university a better place to work and study for staff and students. Besides introducing people to the benefits of local, seasonal produce, the projects have had the unplanned benefit of increasing interaction between different departments.
Falmer vegetable garden and Preparing the ground With the support and financial the University of Brighton backing of the university’s Estate and Food Co-op I visited several projects including Facilities Management department Fork and Dig It at Falmer, London we approached Brighton and Hove I was delighted when the staff Road Community Garden, Wood Recycling Project who built volunteering scheme was launched and Brighton and Hove Food us four beautiful raised beds. We as I’ve been a keen volunteer with Partnership’s garden in Preston Park. sourced very high quality organic several local charities and community My colleague and I secured funding soil from less than a mile away at groups for many years. I initially from the Health Promoting University Brighton Community Compost applied to the scheme to visit project (which awarded small Centre and got staff and students vegetable projects across Brighton grants to the Environmental Action involved in donating vegetables. We to find out how to start the vegetable Networks), Springboard and Active bought two compost bins from Mid garden on the Falmer campus. Sussex. Sussex Wood Recycling Project for our plant waste and hope to expand this into a composting scheme for kitchens on campus. www.brighton.ac.uk/cupp 11
Gardening action
We have a weekly session at the vegetable garden where volunteers water, plant, dig, share ideas and get outside for an hour away from their computers. We have all learnt a lot about growing vegetables and running a community gardening project. The unpredictable weather has meant that some vegetables have grown more successfully than others. We had delicious beans, peas, fennel, courgettes, chard, lettuce and many varieties of herbs. Our sweetcorn and leeks were less successful and we have green tomatoes ripening on our office window sills.
One volunteer is studying at Plumpton College and advises us on growing techniques. She suggested The University of Brighton Involving staff and students and designed a system to get water Food Co-op to the roots of our tomato plants All members of the food co-op are using plastic bottles which brought I also used some of my staff required to help for one hour a month them back to life. The vegetable volunteering hours to extend the as this is what makes the food so garden is on the side of a hill so the University of Brighton Food Co-op cheap. Most people are very happy plants have no protection against to Falmer campus. The food co-op to get involved and some even say the wind. We had been considering promotes healthy, local, seasonal it’s the highlight of their week! We planting a hedge or constructing foods through providing fruit and have looked at reasons why people a bamboo fence to offer some vegetable boxes each week on don’t volunteer, which include lack protection, but after advice from campus and selling health foods. I of time and not being available to Brighton and Hove Food Partnership started by holding an open meeting help on the stall. We now encourage we have decided to monitor the on campus to gauge interest in the people to help with ordering, writing site over a whole year of seasons. scheme. From this meeting I worked recipes or helping with finance, which A downside to a barrier against the with two volunteers to set up the can be done at times to suit them. wind is that the garden would be less scheme and advertise it across the visible and possibly less accessible. campus. We carried out a survey Our future plans include involving and found out that the majority of more students on the management Now the garden has been people were interested in local cheap committee, signing up new members established we will focus more produce so we sourced a supplier and holding events to increase time on marketing and developing and ordered some vegetables! awareness of the effect our food has an online presence via Twitter and on the environment. a blog. We hope to attract more We supply up to 60 vegetable boxes students who live on campus to of local, good quality produce to I am now moving to a new post get involved and then register as a students and staff every Thursday with Sustrans, the pioneer of safe student society. We also have plans for £3. Volunteers run the stall, doing cycling routes in the UK. Setting to install a water butt and some an hour each to help with dividing up a vegetable garden and food signs. the vegetables into boxes, handing co-op was really important in my out boxes, signing up new members career development. It gave me and taking orders. Each week there skills in managing projects as well is a real buzz around campus about as experience in behaviour change vegetables and the scheme has got initiatives, both essential for my new Staff at the Falmer campus getting involved in the vegetable garden: people talking between departments job. (left) preparing bean canes; and schools. www.brighton.ac.uk/sustainability/ (above) planting herbs. campus/food/ 12 Staff as volunteers
Behind-the-scenes support Amaze staff volunteering scheme
Lisa Mitchell has put her HR experience to work for Amaze, a local charity that supports parents of children with special needs. An administrator in the university’s Economic and Social Engagement department, Lisa has benefited from the charity herself and welcomed the opportunity to share her skills, while at the same time applying them in a new sector.
I have worked in human resources, Gains for Amaze It broadened my understanding training and managerial positions for of the challenges facing voluntary many years. The staff volunteering Amaze had already been affected organisations in the current scheme really appealed to me as I by government cutbacks and was economic climate, and it gave me was keen to use my skills outside of struggling to continue to provide a an opportunity to demonstrate the university and experience working desperately needed service with less my knowledge, enthusiasm and with specialist staff in the charity resource and fewer working hours. motivation. sector. I responded to a request for Any small organisation has to deal HR help in Amaze’s newsletter and with finance and personnel matters, My voice was heard and respected, saw it as a great opportunity to give and when it does so much good and that gave me additional something back. for so many people it is essential confidence in my abilities. I plan to that resources are directed to the continue to volunteer for Amaze and, Amaze in our community right places. Its employees can’t be as I understand them better, I can forgotten either, and it is important provide a broader level of support. Amaze is a one-stop shop spanning that policies are compliant and all issues concerned with children’s refreshed from time to time. Amaze was delighted that it could educational, social and emotional make much quicker progress development. It offers information, By getting involved I was able to in developing its policies than advice and support to parents and help relieve the burden and give it otherwise would, and it also carers of children and young people a fresh perspective on issues. I enabled the organisation to gain an with special needs in Brighton had many interesting debates and external perspective in relation to its & Hove. It is the main umbrella conversations with the assistant procedures. organisation in the city representing director, and our endeavors the interests of children with special culminated in us updating a range I would urge anyone to get involved needs from a parent’s perspective. of Amaze’s policies, including the in volunteering. We can all tend to Amaze is supported by a core team volunteer’s agreement. be rather self-effacing, but you will of staff and a large pool of parents be surprised how useful your skills and carer volunteers. My personal gains can be to others. And if this type of volunteering feels too much like a As a parent who had received I found the volunteer experience busman’s holiday, there are plenty of support from Amaze, I was extremely rewarding. It enabled me to volunteer opportunities out there. impressed by their professionalism step out of my comfort zone and get and dedication. Any parent of a involved in activity that was restricted Happy volunteering! child with special needs will tell you at work by grade and authority. www.amazebrighton.org.uk that there are periods of isolation. You have to deal with situations for which you have had no previous experience or training, and it can be very challenging. www.brighton.ac.uk/cupp 13
Students in the community 14 Students in the community
From banking to football
The community engagement module
Martin Clayton was a business student at the university and vice president of the Students’ Union. It was his experience of working within the Students’ Union and the university’s community engagement module that combined to give him the skills to move into a community-focused career that he loves.
Having left a management position I was an average student in the Engaging with my own in the Royal Bank of Scotland, I first year of my studies. I had to community joined the University of Brighton in resit a couple of exams over the 2008 at the age of 19 to study for a first summer due to overexertion I got involved in the Students’ Union business management degree. I’d on the social side of university newspaper as an editor. Then, for like to say I made this choice based and my second year followed suit the fun of it, I ran in the elections on determination and ambition to academically. It was in my second to become a vice president of succeed in the cut-and-thrust world year, having become at ease with the Students’ Union, to represent of business, but in reality, I was just my surroundings, academic routines 22,000 students at the highest bored at the bank. I saw three years’ and friends, that I began to expand level within the institution as well studying and clubbing as better than my horizons and capacity for as amongst political leaders both sitting in front of a desk worrying experiences away from books. locally and nationally. After a fortnight about account numbers every day. of sleepless nights and constant repetition of my campaign principles, I won. www.brighton.ac.uk/cupp 15
I was Vice President of Campus and Students on the module I now work for Lewes Community Communications, responsible for undertake practical projects with Football Club, a cooperative football students on every campus and within local community and voluntary club run and entirely owned by the each of their local communities. organisations. It gave me an local community. I am responsible understanding of the theories and for ensuring the local community I quite liked that. principles that, unbeknown to me, is at the heart of the club and the were influencing my SU work all the club is at the heart of the local In fact, what I had not anticipated time. I was able to critique social community. This includes offering was that I loved it. For every small and community theories and analyse and maintaining initiatives for kids, debate that related to a student organisational models. This allowed teenagers, community groups, fans, on campus or within the local me to approach each partner local businesses and, with any luck, community I had a role to ensure that organisation appropriately in order hundreds of new owners becoming students were represented fairly and to represent students effectively. the lifeblood and long-term future of their issues dealt with. As an SU officer, fighting to achieve the club. change for students, it was vital to As the vice president role is a full- understand these concepts in order As good as it feels to be working time position within the Students’ to achieve my goals. in an organisation that works Union, I changed my study pattern specifically for the local community, to part time in order to juggle both. In 2012 I was also involved in it is essential that we are financially My business grades began to organising a national student-led able to survive and grow, so the develop. Being a trustee of the SU, a conference in Brighton, supported business degree is certainly coming £2.3m operation, I was able to apply by Cupp, for students interested in handy. principles learnt in the classroom in making a difference in their local directly to a business. communities. Unlike the bank, I now work in an industry that I am incredibly Theory into practice Taking my skills into a new passionate about, doing things that community I didn’t know even existed until I got Splitting my final year into two part- involved in Cupp and the community time years, I took advantage of a I left the University of Brighton, engagement module. module outside of the Business graduating with a Business www.lewesfc.com School. I took the community Management BA and leaving behind engagement module, run by the two successful years working with, in university’s Community University my eyes, one of the most innovative Martin Clayton (right) with Malky Mackay, Cardiff City manager, on a training session Partnership Programme (Cupp) environments I have ever had the at Lewes before their match with Brighton within the School of Applied Social pleasure of being involved in. & Hove Albion. Above: Lewes Community Sciences. Football Club teams 16 Students in the community
Inclusive art
An action-based research project
Natalia Agote Urquia, postgraduate student on the Inclusive Arts Practice MA, shares how her research project gave her the opportunity to explore and develop her research together with her participants. It strengthened her research skills while facilitating a process that was truly inclusive.
I am a student in the second year of Alongside my own creative practice I A joint exploration the masters in inclusive arts at the have been working with marginalised University of Brighton. According to community groups in India and the My vision was to organise an senior lecturer Alice Fox, inclusive UK for the last 10 years, including inclusive project for women with arts can be defined as ‘supporting older people, children in care, learning disabilities that would creative opportunities between refugees, street children and adults promote expression, equality and marginalised and non-marginalised with learning disabilities. In the knowledge exchange between the people through artistic facilitation second year of the course we are participants and myself. I wanted to and collaboration as a means of required to organise and facilitate an facilitate an environment in which challenging existing barriers and action-based research project. This they would play a key and active promoting social change.’ is intended to be a vehicle for self- role in influencing the creative reflective investigation, refining our processes and direction – informing practice, while undertaking mutually and contributing to the research as beneficial work with marginalised active participants instead of passive community groups or individuals. subjects. www.brighton.ac.uk/cupp 17
The university ethics committee Initially we all drew on our respective responded positively to my proposal sides of the table where we were and the research was further sitting, but as the weeks have gone supported by the university’s on we have moved around it and Community University Partnership the lines have organically blurred Programme (Cupp) which identified between where one person’s artwork funding for the work through the ends and another’s begins. It’s Springboard grants programme. a continually accumulating, truly collaborative piece for which we can The project started at the beginning all claim equal creative ownership. of September 2012. We met once a week at the Phoenix Studios in Growing as a researcher Brighton to make art together. We have been using ourselves and our One of my challenges as a researcher experiences as the starting point has been to negotiate the fine for much of the artwork, exploring line between directive and non- together how the creative process directive facilitation, balancing the can be a non-verbal vehicle for need to hold the framework of the dialogue and expression. investigation and align it with our chosen themes, while at the same A space to experiment time giving participants the space and creative freedom to express Our latest work has been a series themselves. of paintings on Perspex based on important people in our lives. Works The participants and myself have such as the important people pieces adopted a creative language that is are concept-based; we centre on a primarily non-verbal with which we theme collectively and then portray collect data, evaluate and represent it in our own individual ways. This our opinions, and this serves to put method of working allows us to us on an equal platform. Because of collaboratively explore different the participatory methodology of the aspects of ourselves and our project our aims and focuses are in identities both as individuals and as constant flux, shaped and re-shaped a group. by the group during the journey of investigation. Within the sessions we also give ourselves the space to experiment The group’s active role in influencing with a more process-based our creative developments gives approach, relieving us of the the participants a greater claim of necessity of having to constantly ownership over the research and its convey a message and work within outcomes, helping to balance out the a theme. We have a fabric tablecloth power dynamic between participant that we work on top of and re-use and researcher. each week. It collects the drips of our paint and the rings from our coffee The project finished in December cups. 2012 with an exhibition of the exciting work that we produced. Not only is We don’t protect it from getting it important that wider inclusion and smudged, stained or dirty. As well access to the arts is provided to as being a medium that passively excluded minorities, but it is also key records our processes by collecting that the work created is supported the marks of our art-making, the to filter into the mainstream visual tablecloth has become the canvas for culture as the arts have the power to a collaborative process-based piece increase the visibility of marginalised (Top two) Creative representations of important people in our lives. on which we simply draw when we groups in wider society, serving to (Bottom two) Artful ways of knowing: feel inspired to. challenge preconceptions and trigger We draw on the tablecloth during the social change. sessions. 18 Students in the community
The peerless pier
Hastings Pier and White Rock Trust
By doing project work on the redevelopment of Hastings Pier, architecture students benefited from engaging in a live project, while the community gained fresh insights through the students’ creative approach. Kate Cheyne, a senior lecturer at the School of Art, Design and Media describes the project.
The architecture course is always Providing students with the Setting the scene looking to advance collaborative opportunity to reflect on a brief to ways of working and engaging with provoke ideas is one thing but we Last year also saw Hastings Pier and industry, communities and other wish to offer more than this to our White Rock Trust (HPWRT) being agencies on live projects. This students and to see how their work formed by local residents to look for enables our students to develop could have a benefit to or influence solutions to regenerate Hastings Pier. the skills that will equip them for on the local community. The university began discussions the modern professional practice, with HPWRT as they were engaging developing in response to the needs Last year we set an overall brief architects and consulting with the of the changing landscape of clients, to students around the dynamic Hastings and St Leonards residents communities, developers and policy- coastline and its future. They and businesses. makers. explored the south coast landscape and its relationship to the townscape, We asked our students to reflect on analysing and mapping the use of the renovation and on the redesign these spaces, and examining how brief that the trust had provided this has changed over time. to their commissioned architects, dRMM. www.brighton.ac.uk/cupp 19
Generating history
As the relationship developed it was agreed that the consultation data, the quality and variety of ideas, models and drawings the students developed would make a thought- provoking exhibition in Hastings and also become part of a visual archive for HPWRT and the Hastings community.
HPWRT funded the exhibition and used the students’ work to exhibit and communicate the actual dRMM proposed plan before submission to the Heritage Lottery.
The HPWRT and the university jointly promoted the event which was held at Trinity Studios in Hastings town centre. The exhibition resulted in an increased awareness of proposed plans for the pier and gave the students the opportunity to showcase their work outside of the degree show. It was picked up We set up a talk for the students These included an open university, a by BBC News and featured on their where the project architect and mortuary, a bird sanctuary, a fishing website as a visual story. This gave project engineer presented their own community, a retirement home, a the students a wider audience for understanding of the needs of the seaweed farm, a shipbuilder’s yard, their work and makes them believe pier and the community along with a council debating chamber, a refuge in the relevance of their ideas to live their ideas. for the homeless and, a favourite, a projects. re-enactment centre for the Battle of This gave the students the Hastings. Simon Opie, CEO of Hastings Pier confidence to be brave with their own and White Rock Pier Trust, said “We proposals. The controversial balance These are just a few examples are really pleased to be able to bring between use, purpose, visual showing the originality of ideas this exhibition of the University of presence, meaning, commercial that can be drawn from students Brighton students’ work to Hastings. viability and built structure provided unconstrained by the immediate It shows clearly how the pier can be a rich variety of responses that practicalities of industry. Running an inspiration for creative thinking provoked much thought and debate. design projects that are engaged and a great learning opportunity at Analysing Hastings’ relationship with with an existing brief or question, the same time. It is vitally important the coast fed into the final proposals benefits both the students and that the pier engages directly with along with understanding its urban the live project. It adds a better young people and can attract as development on the seafront. understanding of the project for both many of them as possible to be avid by coming from two different angles supporters. We hope that the local Inspiration from live projects – raw creativity versus the reasoned community will come and share and the informed. these amazing dreams of what a The students made a series of twenty-first century pier can be and encounters along the promenade, find out the actual plans.” setting up events that created a lively engagement with the public to better Postscript: Hastings Pier has since understand their rapport with the been awarded £11.4 million by pier and the promenade. These initial Ideas for Hastings Pier by Jess Lyons the Heritage Lottery Fund and the conversations led to a diverse and (left) and Holly Crosbie (above), third year university continues to be involved in challenging set of uses for the pier. architecture students. the regeneration work. 20 Students in the community
A grassroots opportunity for growth Grassroots Suicide Prevention
Kerry Dowding made the transition from student to a professional career in the third sector through her experience-based postgraduate certificate in Community Enterprise. Equipping her with invaluable skills and experience it also gave her the chance to share her expertise with Brighton-based charity, Grassroots Suicide Prevention.
In spring last year I took part in an I considered the project a safe space A career investment experienced-based postgraduate for myself as a recent graduate to certificate course arranged by the practise and grow my professional In terms of career pay off, the Community University Partnership skills. The organisation was very benefits of taking the course have Programme (Cupp). I spent time good at finding the balance between outweighed the costs. Thanks at a Brighton-based not-for-profit nurturing me as new talent and to my experience and first-class organisation called Grassroots acknowledging my existing abilities, qualification, I gained a full-time job in Suicide Prevention which provides resulting in the most productive the third sector as soon as I left my suicide intervention and mental outcomes for both of us. As placement. health awareness training to the local someone who doesn’t like to be community. Whilst on my placement micro managed, I thrived within the My relationship with Grassroots has I was supported through action supportive but autonomous space I also continued to develop, as I play learning sets at the university to was given, especially with the peer a role in the organisation through achieve a postgraduate certificate in support and learning through the fundraising, helping out where I Community Enterprise. university. can and most recently becoming the youngest trustee of their newly Working on value-adding As with many people in my situation formed charity. The benefits have projects at the time, the question of whether been huge for both of us. I would be able to financially support During my time with Grassroots I myself during the course was a For someone like me, who wanted worked on three main projects: the primary concern. However, the to follow a not-for-profit route for redesign of course evaluation forms; course fees were paid and I was able their career, this course was the reaching a higher quality standard to work two days a week at another perfect option. Having a safe space of monitoring and evaluation; and organisation, which over the three to develop skills is vital wherever qualitative research into how a months was practicable for me. you want to be, and between mental health awareness course This meant that I could gain further Grassroots and the university I felt de-stigmatised mental health issues. experience in the voluntary sector. able to make the transition from a I also helped with a number of other student to a professional person. I relevant projects such as creating a would recommend these placements social media strategy for the release to anyone who can take them. As of a new suicide-awareness film. young professionals we get taught all the theory of making it in the workplace, but these placements give you what you need in practice, and for that I’m very grateful. Kerry Dowding raised money for www.prevent-suicide.org.uk Grassroots by having her dreadlocks cut off. www.brighton.ac.uk/cupp 21 22 Academics in community partnerships www.brighton.ac.uk/cupp 23
Traveller policy under the spotlight The Brighton & Hove traveller scrutiny panel
By chairing the Brighton and Hove traveller scrutiny panel, Aidan McGarry, a politics lecturer in the School of Applied Social Science contributed to the development of local council policy, drawing on his years of research on traveller communities. The process resolved a highly contentious issue, making gains for local travellers and winning an award.
My research has focused on The most significant and controversial The scrutiny team told me this had the political participation and finding was that Brighton & Hove been one of the most successful representation of Roma communities should create a permanent site for scrutiny processes, given the across Europe, and I was travellers, which we believed was contentious nature of the topic, and approached, via the Community necessary to address marginalisation, when I presented our findings to the University Partnership Programme break down prejudices, and facilitate council and answered questions I did (Cupp), to act as an independent integration. so knowing that the process was fair, chair of a scrutiny panel that would well-informed and balanced. inform the creation of the city’s new We spoke to residents at the transit traveller strategy. It was felt that the site in Horsdean. One mother Our findings were approved by the current approach was not working highlighted the positive impact that council when it voted in plenary. for either locals or travellers, including having a permanent site can have as Finally, the panel was awarded with those who reside in the city year her son can attend school and make a national prize for innovation by the round. The new strategy needed friends. Centre for Public Scrutiny. to be created through an informed and rational debate, addressing One of the main challenges we faced A refreshing experience contentious issues head-on including was ensuring that the panel could the decision to create a permanent listen to evidence in a safe, neutral I found the experience to be site in Brighton. environment. We decided to hold incredibly rewarding, allowing me to closed evidence gathering sessions apply my expertise as a researcher to Hearing from all sides which were recorded. We also had to a real-world issue. It was refreshing hear from all sides. Our responsibility to put my knowledge to good use Three local councillors made up was to remain calm and considered and I have been encouraged by the the scrutiny panel and we were throughout, which I found difficult on outcome. The work was challenging supported by the council’s scrutiny several occasions. but I was supported throughout by team. We heard evidence from over the university and by the scrutiny 30 people, including travellers, local A successful outcome team. residents, MPs, the editor of The Argus, policy advisors, advocates One of the key successes was I have been able to draw on this for travellers, council officers and drawing attention to how the issue experience to inform my research support workers. is reported in The Argus, asking the as well as my teaching and would editor to clarify how they report on encourage anyone to get engaged in Our main findings were that travellers travellers. This led, indirectly, to a such activities; after all the university are one of the most marginalised change of practice with The Argus is a vital part of our city and we have groups in the city and experience presenting positive stories about and a duty to share our knowledge to acute discrimination when attempting from travellers. improve the lives of all its residents. to access services such as health, housing, education and employment. 24 Academics in community partnerships
Health and community learning
The Bridge Community Education Centre
Galvanised by the possibility of funding through the university’s On Our Doorsteps programme, Helen Stanley, Assistant Head of the School of Nursing and Midwifery saw a joint opportunity for her nursing students and for the learners at The Bridge Community Education Centre. Developing and presenting health information in a community setting both challenged her students and gave participants at The Bridge the chance to learn about relevant health topics.
I was introduced to the University Trusteeship Cupp’s On Our Doorsteps initiative. of Brighton’s Community University The Bridge is on the Moulsecoomb Partnership Programme (Cupp) after I attended a workshop where various estate, less than a mile from the a general staff meeting in the School charities pitched to potential new Falmer campus. It is an area of of Nursing and Midwifery. I was trustees and I met up with Jayne high deprivation and met the looking for a new direction, but was Ross, CEO of The Bridge Community criteria of being on the doorstep not sure what and the idea of giving Education Centre in Moulsecoomb of the university. I decided to write something back and working outside who I felt shared my philosophy a bid with Sofie Franzen, student my university ivory tower comfort- on education of releasing potential volunteer at The Bridge, and we were zone appealed. whatever a student’s background. successful. Beginner’s luck perhaps, but we were commended. I joined The Bridge as a trustee and, shortly afterwards, there was an opportunity for funding through www.brighton.ac.uk/cupp 25
Designing a community Twenty participants took part in The students later presented their course the workshop, shopped for healthy experiences, which they described as foods, were given information on having the wow factor, at the Centre The project aims were for students understanding food labelling and for Learning and Teaching Annual taking the postgraduate certificate took part in an alcohol awareness Conference in July 2012. They have in Health and Social Care Education quiz. There were also some gentle also been asked to present their (PGCHSCE) to gain an in-depth exercise activities using the Wii. reflections to students in the School knowledge of a community learning of Applied Social Sciences. context through observation and Developing student skills participation in course design. Sofie Franzen from The Bridge said: The students found the experience “The partnership with the nursing For the community learners, it was inspiring and stimulating and they students has been a rewarding about gaining access to relevant developed mutually beneficial experience, both for participants and up-to-date health topics, with relationships which built on their at The Bridge, who enjoyed a very the longer-term impact of making capacity for education, teaching informative morning, and for the staff some contribution to improving the and research. Two participants were team who saw the nurse practitioners health and wellbeing of the families identified as having hypertension develop an in-depth understanding of service users and the resultant and referred to their GP, one signed of community work. The nursing reduction in generational cycles of up for further personalised support students effectively communicated poverty and poor health. for health issues, and two signed up key health messages to a diverse for the exercise class for over 50s audience with a wide range of The students received an offered in the next term. learning and health needs. The introductory workshop on community sessions were fun and interactive and engagement delivered by Sofie and Overall, this contributed to the gave everyone involved a valuable myself as part of a course design and mission of the university, developed learning experience”. planning module. The nurses were the students’ capacity for, and from diverse backgrounds (mental disposition towards, social For myself, I have had further health, neonatal, prison service and responsibility and added value ongoing support from the Cupp staff care home) and they devised a health to their campus-centered study. volunteer programme, developing and wellbeing workshop for The Students developed personal and links with the University of Sussex. Bridge. community learning in a real-life I have also made links with the new situation. This was reported in The stadium football charity, Albion in the Bridge and university newsletters, Community, and was able to attract The Argus, and the Graduate the first team coach, Charlie Oatway, Programme in Health and Social to become a patron of the Bridge, Health checks and healthy eating, all part Science web pages. as he has written his autobiography of the workshops presented by nursing about his struggles with literacy. students at The Bridge. www.thebridgebrighton.com 26 Academics in community partnerships
The Tuesday Group Ethics in performance
Ethics in performance is a programme of collaborative events run by the ethics team at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School. In 2012 they presented The Tuesday Group, a play that drew its dialogue from ten years’ of notes taken at support meetings held for dying patients. Performed by medical students, the play is part of a programme to support a holistic approach to medicine and to share and explore relevant issues more widely in the city. Bobbie Farsides, Professor of Clinical and Biomedical Ethics and Sue Eckstein, lecturer in clinical and biomedical ethics brought The Tuesday Group into being.
For three nights during the 2012 Inevitably the groups’ membership When the play was originally Brighton Festival a small theatre shifted over time, with people written, the characters reflected the above a typically quirky North Laine becoming too ill to attend and demographic of the hospice that shop became the venue for a play eventually dying. Even within the five had generously shared their notes entitled The Tuesday Group. Written weeks covered by the play we see with the project. The shift to Brighton by Sue Eckstein, the play was the way in which people can come meant a slight adjustment was directed and performed by Brighton together and form meaningful bonds, needed and the resulting characters and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) only to then face the reality of loss. clearly resonated with audiences students. With minimal staging and both during the festival and at earlier simple costumes these young people Transforming notes into performances at the medical school. managed to transform themselves drama The authenticity of the play proved into a group of people of varying particularly striking for those with first ages brought together because they An experienced playwright and hand experience of caring for the were each facing the end of their life. novelist, Sue nonetheless found this dying and the final performance of project particularly challenging, and the year came at the end of Brighton The real people behind the says that she initially underestimated and Sussex University Hospital story how long it would take to transform Trust’s annual End of Life Care the notes into a credible drama. conference in June. The Tuesday Group was originally Because of the need to stay true to written as part of a European what people had actually spoken Inspiring better health care Commission-funded project headed about and how they had behaved up by Bobbie Farsides, BSMS’s and interacted – as revealed by the The Tuesday Group was only one Professor of Clinical and Biomedical social worker whose job it was to of the events in the BSMS Ethics Ethics. She commissioned Sue to record the meeting – Sue wasn’t team’s new series entitled Ethics write a play based upon the notes able to easily use standard dramatic in Performance. Brighton is an that had been taken during patient devices. exceptional city in terms of its artistic support group meetings at a well- life and BSMS has always sought to known London hospice. She also needed to quash some tap into this, particularly given the of the expectations her audience commitment to educate well-rounded The notes covered a period of might have had that were not borne doctors with an holistic approach to ten years, during which time a out in the notes – for example, very medicine and health care. By inviting succession of patients came together sick people spend very little time poets, graphic artists, playwrights, once a week to share a cup of discussing their symptoms and actors, filmmakers and historians into tea and a safe place to voice their medication, possibly that is more a the medical school, students have thoughts and share their experiences trait of the worried well. Perhaps the been challenged and their education of living with a terminal diagnosis. biggest surprise for audiences has has been enriched. been the amount of humour found in these encounters. www.brighton.ac.uk/cupp 27
Medical students perform The Tuesday Club, a play based on notes taken at patient support group meetings at a hospice. Picture: Malcolm Tan.
More importantly, by making these As the Ethics in Performance mailing Detailed information on all past and open events and ensuring that they list grows, our community gains an forthcoming Ethics in Performance take place outside normal working insight into the broadening scope of events can be found at www.bsms. hours, new audiences have become modern medical education whilst at ac.uk/research/our-research/ aware of BSMS’s contribution to the the same time being entertained and medical-ethics/ethics-in- culture of the city. enriched by high quality performance performance. and art. 28 Academics in community partnerships
A community partnership with no community?
Afghan migrants in Brighton
Nichola Khan, senior lecturer at the School of Applied Social Science has been exploring how the university and Afghan migrants in Brighton could work in partnership, an endeavour complicated by the lack of any formalised Afghan community.
In 2011 the University of Brighton These carry assumptions about Instead, I queried: what interactions, awarded me a social engagement migrants or asylum seekers which accommodations and resistances to sabbatical to explore mutually may marginalise, disempower, infer being engaged are at stake? What beneficial forms of partnership individuals are more determined outcomes do Afghans desire from between the university, local by culture than they are, or that this engagement, and what potential government and Brighton Afghans. researchers know best. Therefore does a community-university I avoided asking what can the partnership offer to achieve these My background in anthropology university or local government do outcomes? How can my research and critical psychology, long-term to help Afghans, or how can local contribute to local policy-making friendships and fieldwork amongst government best engage this on migrants? Given there are no local Afghans cautioned me against marginalised community. links between Brighton Council and relying on categories such as culture, any formalised Afghan community trauma security or asylum. (hence the title) the project was developmental, just a beginning. www.brighton.ac.uk/cupp 29
Afghans living in Brighton Building trust Second, in a series of interviews I explored some limits to psychological Recent decades of war in I spend considerable hours filling studies that over-exaggerate the Afghanistan have marked major forms, writing letters, CVs and trauma of war and displacement, migrations of Afghans into Europe. applications, and gathering advice whilst neglecting ways in which Over 56,000 Afghans reside in the for individual Afghans, activities mental health is influenced by UK. Afghans themselves estimate which build trust. Additionally, I globalisation, labour migrations, there are around 300 Afghans in am conducting fieldwork on my cultural transformation and the ways Brighton not captured in official research interests which consider migrants manage their economic- census data. Many claimed asylum what everyday movements such as cultural-familial obligations in a very during the Taliban regime (1994– taxi driving, road-trips, picnics and modern world. 2001). Afghans work in kitchens, family visits might reveal about larger shops, take-aways, carwashes, movements of Afghan migration, Those interviewed located suffering and hotels, as barbers, security settlement and exile. as much in the unfulfilled promises guards and labourers. Many became of progress and liberty, as in the entrepreneurs, exemplifying capitalist These activities have revealed some traumas of the lost homeland. The success rather than instability. potential for community-university findings may interest clinicians Approximately 80 Afghans are partnership work in two areas. developing understandings of mental registered taxi drivers in the city. First, sport is one medium local health amongst Afghans outside government seeks to support for Afghanistan, as psychiatric criteria Although Brighton Council provides vulnerable migrants and address of global health policy also migrate many services for migrants, Afghans diverse mental health, societal and globally. They have produced plans have strong support networks – so cultural problems. to collaborate with local policy- why bother? They reject the category makers, and researchers and NGOs refugees, and the host country which Yet Afghans reject council-run working with Afghan refugees in is pursuing simultaneous military and football teams for refugees and Pakistan. Here, Brighton Afghans’ humanitarian agendas in the context asylum seekers. Instead, around 30 insights will themselves migrate as of the fourth Anglo-Afghan war in taxi drivers play regularly in a local they feed back on developments. Afghanistan. park (pictured left). To them, football means (in their own words): love for In summary, peace, progress and Additionally, attempts to form sport, freedom through the body, integration go beyond the notion Afghan community organisations confidence, happiness, a chance of Afghans as deserving objects have reproduced longstanding to calm the mind, work harder, feel of assistance by local government social-political conflicts found in united, manly. All Afghanis are friends programmes. Whilst the university Afghanistan. By contrast, informal here. It’s peace! can contribute valuable research and networks cut across antagonisms intellectual insights, in Brighton these and formal politics, emphasising the Via these small encounters they enterprises should be subordinate strategic ways Brighton’s Afghans are manage integration, progress and to – and should consult with – more building community cohesion. peace on their terms. As their autonomous ways in which Afghans sessions – and interactions with pursue community, identity and post- Suspicion has troubled the the council and myself – became migration settlement. partnership. Nonetheless, we more established, some small shifts introduced Afghans to council-run occurred. Planning an all-Afghan meetings for agencies working local football tournament, several with migrants, and compiled and friends approached the council to distributed (via taxi-drivers) over help them secure a venue. Plans 100 leaflets highlighting changes were additionally floated for a football to housing benefit policy and match with the University of Brighton. immigration law.
Around 30 Afghan taxi drivers play football regularly in a local park. In their own words: it represents love for sport, freedom through the body, confidence, happiness, a chance to calm the mind, work harder, feel united, manly, all Afghanis are friends here. It's peace! 30 Academics in community partnerships
Tools to build better neighbourhoods
Community 21
Nick Gant, principal lecturer at the university’s School of Art, Design and Media, describes his involvement in Community 21, an online platform that makes sustainable neighbourhood and community-led planning easier and more effective. Its development drew on expertise in a number of different academic departments.
In spring 2012 the Localism Bill As the newly appointed architects A tool for planning and came into effect. Intended to enable and planners of their own participation communities to take the lead in communities, under localism citizens defining their own future, it is a of all types are seemingly offered Community 21 is a major funded serious change in public policy. The equal participation in how their partnership initiative between the National Planning Policy Framework community will look in the future. But University of Brighton and The Rural also engages new legislation geared how will communities act on this new Community Council Network, led towards local empowerment and power and opportunity, and what by Action in Rural Sussex. It was bottom-up planning of community tools and skills will they need to do founded by myself and Teresa Gittins, development through the process of it? Deputy Chief Executive of Action in statutory planning exercises known Rural Sussex. as neighbourhood plans. www.brighton.ac.uk/cupp 31
Community 21 is an online tool designed to enable communities to undertake community-led neighbourhood plans efficiently and effectively, and help ensure inclusive participation under the localism agenda.
It enables the mapping of community assets and also functions as a community-to-community social network that facilitates learning between communities about a whole range of issues. For example, the university’s Community University Partnership Programme (Cupp) Envisioning the future To date, Action in Rural Sussex has is developing a project using undertaken at least one community- Community 21 to publish case There have been a number of led planning exercise with 70 per studies of social engagement online. collaborative exercises funded by the cent of all communities across East likes of DEFRA, the Department of and West Sussex and will use it as Sharing sustainable Energy and Climate Change and The the tool of choice for community expertise Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, plans. which have used the system to Once considered the triple bottom engage young and old in envisioning The National Network of Community line of sustainability, society, the how their communities might evolve Councils has endorsed the project, economy and the environment are sustainably using technology, and to which will enable it to be rolled out also pressures driving communities form community energy and water across other counties across England to seek resilient solutions. Rural plans. following phase two of development. communities are especially vulnerable to the historical trends of centralised By tackling needs that have meaning Local authorities are pursuing the services and, as landlocked islands, and value locally, sustainability is possibility of using the system as an issues of transport, fuel, water, food being championed and delivered, interactive management tool to save and energy provision are all concerns often inadvertently, by communities money in consulting their customers. of the sustainable twenty-first century themselves supported by the tools Urban wards and regional authorities community. and collaboration opportunities that have also shown interest in using Community 21 provides. the system, and a range of partner By applying a whole host of expertise organisations and projects have in these areas of sustainable The project was piloted in May 2011 used it to map their work promoting development the university has with eight volunteer communities sustainability and local activism. supported communities alongside across three counties and was Action in Rural Sussex. independently evaluated. The Corporate businesses have also evaluation emphasised the value acknowledged the potential to Undergraduate and postgraduate and need for such a system to promote their social responsibility students and staff from a range of increase efficiency and effectiveness work which, often hidden on subjects − including architecture and of planning by helping communities individual websites, can now be design, spatial planning, water, food to undertake participatory planning promoted within the beneficiary and energy, environmental and social and execute self-determined actions community’s own web-space, science and geography − have been whilst sharing knowledge with maximizing impact and awareness. able to engage with real communities neighboring communities, local in a mutually beneficial exchange authorities and service providers. Community 21 provides a platform of expertise and local knowledge, from which the university can grow its facilitated by the Community 21 Expanding beyond Sussex partnerships through mutual values system and network. and understanding whilst tackling Community21.org is about to go some of the most pressing issues into its next phase of development, that face society. enabling it to be used throughout www.community21.org East and West Sussex. This publication is available in alternative formats on request.
This brochure was printed in June 2013.
Community University Partnership Programme University of Brighton Room 108 Mayfield House Falmer, Brighton BN1 9PH email [email protected] telephone (01273) 64 3004 international code (+441273)
MC/RVSJ/0613/V1/200 www.brighton.ac.uk/cupp