Dear All
Will you vote for our new One Norbiton Community Project to increase conviviality in Norbiton? To get funding from Aviva we need as many votes as possible by 12 noon on 21 November
Please give us all ten of your votes and ask your friends to help as well. See the bid below. To vote you will need to register
Dr. Mike D’Souza (Chair One Norbiton)
Real Communities need to meet and talk. How can this be helped?
This project aims to improve conviviality both within our local estates and between the estates and their surrounding areas. We will recruit local volunteers to organise regular, perhaps quarterly, tea-parties in neighbourhoods sharing the same post-codes.
We will train our recruits and support them in planning and advertising their events and finding suitable local venues. Wherever possible we will recruit volunteers with chronic disabilities to be the primary organisers in their own neighbourhoods. We have already successfully piloted such post code parties; e.g. getting attendances from 30% of the residences in a single tower block.
Developing neighbourhood identity out of the sharing of the same Post Code has similarities to the successful Street Parties already taking place elsewhere in our borough on special occasions. However, we are exploring whether using this model can foster community spirit and get additional activities such as Neighbourhood Watch and WhatsApp groups as well as support for young mothers and the isolated elderly in areas of most need.
Our long term objective is to evolve an urban village atmosphere across the Royal Borough of Kingston with “active and supportive” neighbourhoods that can help reduce social stress and the current need for and reliance on expensive and overstretched public services.
We have found that when problems are known and talked about, natural human concern begins to operate spontaneously. Then the main task is to prevent this from becoming intrusive and a nuisance.
In our model the arrival of New babies and of Newcomers to the neighbourhood will provide an opportunity for introductions. Supporting families with preschool children bereavements etc. would be a priority and Newcomers with limited English will be assisted and introduced to local charities such as LEAH (Learn English at Home) to help them integrate.
Cascaded Training.
By the second or third Postcode party a potential neighbourhood organising team might be identified who might regularly contact their immediate neighbours. These could be trained in ground rules to avoid intrusion etc. This process could be cascaded on to others.
Wholesale Regeneration is being currently planned for our largest Estate. We hope that by developing supportive neighbourhoods it will help real co-design and co-production to be supported by our organisers at very little extra cost, aided and abetted by Digital Champions who may assist the disabled in their own homes.
Measuring outcomes
We will test our success using our Faces QoL tool used in our CareCreds App. i-bet-me.com.This will be available on tablets recording attendances and suggestions.
