St Mary Redcliffe Community Facilties Review

1.Background
In summer 2017 Vivid Regeneration were commissioned by St Mary Redcliffe
Church to undertake a piece of community development work to inform and support
the Church’s planned development project. This major development project aims to
bring the Church back into optimum condition and provide the best possible visitor
experience, with enhanced access to its great artefacts and the stories they have to
tell.
Importantly, the Church also wants to use this project to better connect with the local
community on its doorstep and enable people to benefit through participation in
shaping the development, learning, volunteering, work experience, family and
community activities. It includes plans for a Visitor Centre which is welcoming,
accessible and meaningful for all visitors, whether local or from far afield.
The initial scoping exercise by Vivid identified the need to strengthen the ability of
local community organisations to work together for the benefit of Redcliffe and to
further build residents’ capacity, skills, confidence and involvement. This is with the
aim of both enabling good quality and sustainable engagement with the development
project and more broadly to build resilience for all the challenges and opportunities
the community will face over the next few years. These outcomes have been the
focus of our work since September 2017 and this community facilities review forms
part of that work.
2.Purpose of the Report
Community facilities and spaces which enable people to gather for group activities,
social support, meetings, learning, sharing information, being creative, being
physically active, are a vital tool in building a strong community. They can be
instrumental in reducing social isolation, providing support for families, improving
health and wellbeing, developing skills, improving community cohesion and
promoting understanding and connection between different sections of the
community.
This review of community facilities aims to fulfil a number of purposes:
• To provide a general overview of all the indoor community facilities for
residents to access for meetings, learning, events, activities. This includes
current availability, access, level of usage, and costs where available.
• To set out details of each facility to ensure that residents and local workers
have easy access to sufficient information to make the best use of the space
available. This is particularly important at a time when local public sector
support is being reduced or withdrawn all together due to cuts, and the need
for residents to have the tools and information to organise themselves is
stronger than ever.
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