ORCID

Abstract

Place matters to communities in terms of identity and culture and when people feel connected to a place and place is also important in terms of the social infrastructure that supports social capital and community buildingBut for many deprived or excluded communities the places they live in can seem very remote from universities. Universities are also place based but they often do not enable access for communities and many communities report that researchers come to the communities and then leave without creating legacy benefits. Practically universities are often located close to some of the most excluded communities but communities often report that universities can appear to be extractive as to how they work with them, particularly around research. In this practice encounter we will discuss some ways in which we can create ‘places’ that allow equitable engagement with deprived or marginalised place based communities. We will outline three approaches: 1) pop up place based hubs in the community to act as a site for engagement 2) Online community hub to enable access to university capacity and resources and 3) toolkits for co-design of place based research with communities. We will discuss the outcomes from over 5 years of work within the Stonehouse community in central Plymouth, one of the most deprived communities in UK, but also located just 5 minutes from the University campus. We will talk through the processes for how we developed a place based approach, the different models of communityn hubs and what worked and what doesn’t. We will also show some tangible examples of the outcomes from two projects: The NCCPE place Based Partnership- Pop up Digital Health Hub https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/research/arts-humanities-business/the-greenhouse, the NCIA Civic Impact Accelerator – Community Hub https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/research/public-engagement-at-plymouth/community-hub. These projects took a place based approach and were informed by community need, and supported communities to access university resources. We will think about what sorts of places work for different activities and how partnerships with grassroots organisations can be equitable. We will draw on our collaboration with key third sector organisations, Plymouth Octopus Project (POP), Nudge Community Builders (Nudge) and Plymouth Social Enterprise Network (PSEN), who together represent over 500 community groups and social enterprises across the city. https://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/whats-happening/blog/developing-resources-support-place-based-workinghttps://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/resources/report/enhancing-place-based-partnerships-final-report

Publication Date

2014-10-31

Event

Civicon 2025: Empowering Civic Engagement Enriching Communities

Deposit Date

2026-03-07

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