Can services be re-designed to improve wellbeing and resilience in a local community?

Wiltshire Council has commissioned the Young Foundation to work on a new project in Bemerton Heath, a housing estate to the west of Salisbury. During the next few months, the Young Foundation, alongside other service providers, will capture information on the needs of the local community. The project will also focus on how services can be better designed to meet the needs of the community, particularly the most vulnerable members of the community.

The Young Foundation will be working with the residents of Bemerton Heath on the project, exploring how they feel about their area, how services can support this community to build capacity and boost individual and community wellbeing. We will also be carrying out specific research with families in Bemerton Heath exploring what it is like to live a day in their life.

The work will include:

• Community engagement: Residents can contribute by completing an online or paper based survey, participating in interviews or focus groups and taking part in Autumn's community event

• Local Taskforce of community members: We will invite local residents, people working in local community and voluntary sector organizations and service providers to join a Bemerton Heath Taskforce - a temporary group meeting 3 times in 3 months to develop innovative ways to respond to the local issues that emerge from this project

• Service redesign: work with service providers to develop new approaches to service provision and generate learning on opportunities for change.

There are a number of ways in which you can contribute to this discussion. We have recently launched our community website and welcome any comments and contributions you have to make. We will keep you fully updated with what’s going on with the project here.

Also we have an online survey which we welcome all residents of Bemerton Heath to complete.

If you would like more information on this project, contact Sarah Thomas at Wiltshire Council (Sarah.Thomas@wiltshire.gov.uk) or Nina Mguni at the Young Foundation (nina.mguni@youngfoundation.org).