We arrived in Bemerton Heath on a sunny June day. The estate - a cluster of terraced, post-war houses - was surrounded by picturesque hills. Deprivation in Wiltshire looks very different from Tower Hamlets where we are based. But to what extent can you predict life satisfaction based on deprivation levels? It is precisely these questions that the Wellbeing and Resilience Measure (WARM) helps to answer.

Our task was to assess community wellbeing and resilience in this relatively deprived ward in Wiltshire. The work would inform the design of services for vulnerable families. The council hoped to find community-based solutions which would allow residents to turn to neighbours rather than service providers to help alleviate problems such as loneliness and anxiety.

The general research showed that Bemerton Heath fared badly in terms of many standard indicators. The number of workless households was high. The estate housed a high proportion of teenage mothers. Moreover, it was served by a secondary school that had, historically, achieved poor results. There was also a scarcity of local, large businesses, few job vacancies and long travel times to employment centres. In many ways it is more than the 20 minute bus journey which separated the estate from is more affluent neighbour, Salisbury. But when we looked at the area though the lens of wellbeing and resilience a more complex picture emerged.

First of all we found two very different experiences of social life in this small estate. The first was of a tight-knit community described by one resident as ‘one big cul de sac' (it was not uncommon to find three generations living just a few streets apart and we met local teachers who had taught several generations of the same family).

The second, by contrast, was the experience of a handful of families struggling to create and sustain networks within the community. The roots for this isolation were largely financial: unemployed parents found it hard to manage financially and were under stress as a result. Some of these families, many of them lone parent, struggled on a day to day basis and were described by service providers as vulnerable. These families often felt alienated in their communities.

Our analysis highlighted poor educational attainment as well as high levels of anxiety and depression.
The WARM analysis also highlighted how older residents of Bemerton Heath were faring much better than their younger counterparts. This group was relatively well off but they were also more likely to have strong social connections. Our WARM analysis also showed that older people were less likely to care for a household member. Overall, older residents were a community asset, with more time to give and experience to share.

Critically, when asked, residents said that they would like to be more involved in helping people in their community. Bemerton Heath, it emerged, had the desire to help itself. This is exactly the solution councils like Wiltshire want to encourage and what the ‘Big Society' could look like. Residents helping one another can improve the quality of life for many and build strong social networks. It also gives areas ‘bounceback ability' or resilience - a trait which could reduce reliance on local services provided by the council.

By the end of the project, things were starting to change. In our final community meeting, Sheila, a retired resident, announced she would rally her retired neighbours to start a jewellery-making project. Her aim was to provide an informal setting for young people and teenage mothers to meet and connect across the generations.

WARM proved to be useful tool to identify some of the underlying issues within a community. Sometimes community assets, like deprivation, come in forms that are not immediately recognizable.