Enhancing cultural resilience

Recognition of shared interest and a shared belief amongst system players in their ability to act collectively for change also contributes to system resilience. These capacities are closely associated with enhanced social connectivity. The NRP helped foster them by supporting the co-creation of stories that captured the history and current experience of the neighbourhoods. They included Stories about the strengths of the local community, challenges to finding employment, experiences of loneliness and exclusion, and issues with local services. The stories took different forms – videos, graphic ‘novels’, verbal testaments COREN and the NRP: experiences and outputs

These stories were themselves interventions. They served to resist deficit narratives about the neighbourhood, projected a positive identity, promoted greater knowledge about the neighbourhood and shaped agencies agendas. Diverse activities allowed the stories to be heard in ways that enabled new directions for action. These included public exhibitions, festivals, mediated conversations with local politicians and local businesses, representations to a regional Air Quality Steering Group and the Management Board of a housing association.