St Mary Redcliffe Community Facilties Review

7. Specific Recommendations for Project 450- the new St Mary
Redcliffe Developments
As well as providing and enhanced and enriching visitor experience for all,
Project 450 aims to work with others to improve quality of life and outcomes
for people who live in South Redcliffe. This report has highlighted issues
around social isolation, depression, income deprivation, child poverty, the
need to improve skills and employability, and the social, cultural and economic
barriers some people face in accessing activities, social networks and support.
Below are some recommendations around how the project might contribute
to this.
• The development needs to have ways of enhancing community
connectivity and resilience, crossing class and cultural divides and
increasing opportunities for building confidence, learning, employability.
• Pathways, both actual and virtual are important. How do people move
between spaces to build on connection, develop confidence, try new
activities? Eg how does the community facility/Faithspace connect with what’s
going on in the Church spaces? We need to develop activities in a way that,
for example, could enable someone with depression or someone who needs
support with English, or someone who feels lonely to move from a community
room meeting in their block to engaging with the exhibition/activities/
opportunities in the Church facility. Further work is needed on how changes
to the physical environment and the nature and presentation of what is on
offer make that more likely.
• There are many opportunities to explore this through activities in the project
development process, using the resources the Church has, for example the
issues of class and culture and social justice highlighted in Hogarth’s works
and modern day interpretations eg by Grayson Perry.
• There can be formal and informal ways to interact with the learning
interpretation – eg outside displays and installations which stand alone and
are fun, free and accessible, which children may want to return to again and
again, and or may lead people in to what is on offer inside if their interest is
sparked and there is encouragement and easy access.
• Recent discussions around this review have highlighted the need for more
spontaneous encounter spaces in the Redcliffe Community.Tower blocks
don’t easily facilitate this so ideas such as outdoor communal areas, possibly
covered, or a market space with a variety of mixed food outlets, could be
both an opportunity for small enterprises and/or informal meeting spaces.
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