Community Power Podcast Series 1 Episode 10: Rebuilding community spirit in Liverpool

Episode 10: Rebuilding community spirit in Liverpool 

Chris Allen

Hello and welcome to another Community Power Podcast, a weekly series brought to you by the community wealth fund campaign in partnership with Local Trust. My name’s Chris Allen, and in this series, we’re showcasing some incredible projects, focusing in particular on what happens when you give local people the money, the power and the assets to make a difference to their neighbourhoods. With me is series producer, Beth Lazenby. Beth, where are we off to this week? 

Beth Lazenby

So this week, Chris, we are going up to Netherton, near Liverpool, and we’re going to be chatting to Debbie and Suey, who are both really passionate about asset based community development, and they’re going to be talking about how that kind of approach has been making a huge difference for their community so far. 

Chris Allen

Thanks, Beth. Indeed. We’ll be hearing from Debbie Stephens, Chief Executive of Fund For Kids and the L30 Community Centre. But first, we’re going to hear from Suey Lee, mental health and wellbeing connector, and someone who had grown up in the area. I asked her, what’s best about Netherton? 

Suey Lee

Obviously, me, personally, it’s the people, the people. Because with growing up in the street because I live actually in the street where the L30 Community Centre is based, at the bottom of our street. So growing up, it was a really busy street full of children just running around, playing, doors open. Everyone was your auntie and uncle, and you went in and out of you know, your mum had nipped to the shop because the next door neighbour would be minding you. And everyone’s house was always full, and we always knew each other. There’s that niceness of people respecting each other as well. You know, the age gap, because it’s, you know, people still call my mum Mrs. L.Never call her by a name. Or me Dad. Mr L. 

Chris Allen

And that’s why everybody’s an auntie and an uncle. 

Suey Lee

Auntie, uncle. Yeah. 

Chris Allen

You remind me of the old African proverb, ​“it takes a village to raise a child”. It sounds like where you’re talking about that. It’s the whole community is raising all the children there together. 

Suey Lee

I think it’s always been there. But then it, I think, with the the youth service with us losing the youth service, that had a big impact. And then everything was financial then, isn’t it? You know, if you want your child to go to anything, you’ve got to be in a position to be able to either drive there, have the time to get on the bus and then fund it. And if you’ve got one, two, three children, you know, we’re talking a lot. 

Chris Allen

So as a Big Local came along, Debbie, perhaps you can come in on this one, what were the kind of issues that were coming out of the community? Obviously, Suey would have an input into that, but others too, what kind of issues were emerging the L30 area? 

Debbie Stephens

Okay, so we’ve just heard Suey sort of talk about community spirit. So the issues that we were looking at is that had been lost in the area. And the area where it was no longer the strong area that it was, but there was still a lot of good about it. So rather than focus on the issues, we decided to take an asset based community development approach, which focuses on what’s strong, not what’s wrong. And that’s where we started to hear those stories like Suey just told, and start to think and focus on, how can we rekindle these communities again? Because we’re only around for so many years, and like so many other programmes, if we come into an area, try to bring in services to change things. Once the money goes, the services goes, and the communities back to where it was. Whereas we can invest and we can invest in people, local assets and the local environment. We can make sure that that legacy is there, because people will be doing it for themselves. So rather than issues, we looked at what was strong. 

Chris Allen

And what were the kind of things that were coming through. You mentioned assets there. What other things came through saying, ​“Hey, these are good. We’re going to build on these”. 

Debbie Stephens

So first and foremost, as Suey already said, it was the people. Okay, so the people are what make Netherton. And that was the strongest part, strongest thing in the area. So we’ve got some investment there. The other thing is, in in Netherton, we’re really, really lucky to have a lot of green space. We’ve got a couple of parks. There’s lots of areas in between the estates, in between houses, lots of green space, so there was that as well, which you could make good use of. And then yeah the local assets. So whether that be the community centre, the healthy living centre, the boxing club, the scouts, the Morris dancers, all those different physical assets and associations, there’s lots going on in the area. So how do we make sure that we build on them to make sure that they’re still here as well. 

Chris Allen

And you’re doing some filming of it all? 

Debbie Stephens

We were, we were, so… 

Chris Allen

You’ll become YouTube or Facebook stars, you know. 

Debbie Stephens

I think one of our posts had over 24,000 views. 

Chris Allen

Wow.

Debbie Stephens

And so what it was about, the way to mobilise and motivate the community is one of the first ways is to make them feel proud. And we wanted to share what was already going on in the area to make them feel proud and want want to get involved. So all of the things that were going on the community, they’d be then a short film made that would then be shared with the wider community online. And yet, this is really taken off. So now we’ve been able to capture these stories of the Easter Bunnies out there giving out 1000s of eggs. Suey teaching them all the dance. You know, you’ve got grown men there who would never be seen dancing in a club, but they’re dancing on a field and dancing as bunnies. And I think that takes us back a bit to about L30’s million investing in local people. Suey is a local girl. She’s grown up here. She knows so many people. She’s got that power of persuasion, she’s got those connections, she’s got those ways of getting people involved. Would it have been the same if we’d paid for somebody from outside to come in and said, ​“right, turn up on the field at four o’clock on Saturday to practice a dance?” I don’t think we would have perhaps got the response that Suey we did. 

Chris Allen

And so obviously you’ve been a big part of it through being a resident, being persuasive, being enthusiastic. Other residents, have they got alongside you? Have you find it easy to recruit you, your fellow residents? Or has it been a hard job? 

Suey Lee

It’s like anything once they come through the door and they start helping you, get that lovely feeling of when you’re helping somebody else, it makes you feel better yourself anyway. So you go home happier. You’ve got more to talk about. You’ve got something else to talk about. And again, it’s usually including people that you already know. 

Debbie Stephens

I mean, I think one of the big things that really took off, and it started in the pandemic, was the street exercise. And we were also from listening to people, hearing how people, people’s health and wellbeing and feeling isolated was being impacted. So Suey’s the fitness instructor in the centre, and she looked at how then she could take what she did safely onto the streets. And so street exercise was born. And once a week, Suey went to s different street, and it was 16 streets, and about 400 people a week, wasn’t it Suey? 

Suey Lee

Yeah, well, we had 15 or 16 streets for 15 weeks. And one of the ladies who works in the centre and another volunteer, they would get dressed up as a character. So we’d have Winnie the Pooh. We’d have Donald Duck. We’d have Peppa Pigs. So they would come along with me. Say a Monday would be your street, one o’clock, then the next street just after half one. Do four streets, three, four streets a day. I’d literally turn up with me, car, open my boot, get me speaker out, and I’d play this one song. So it was like, you know, when you hear the ice cream van? Well, I’m a little bit louder than the ice cream, but the whole street would just be out on the doorsteps by the front gates and the windows. 

There was, there’s one street that’s particularly long because I would have to run from one end of the street to the other, and up and down and up and down. And it was just fabulous. My street – I call it my street – my street where the community centre is. It’s predominantly older people, because they’ve been here, the streets been here, well, this estate for 50 years. And people have been here since that estate’s opened. And we had, I think, 50 at the maximum, and we’re talking grandparents with their children, with their grandchildren. Neighbours that haven’t seen each other for years or just coming out chatting to each other. But by doing that one exercise once a week, they would then be doing a little bit more at home, put the music on at home, keeping themselves active. 

Chris Allen

And keeping their spirits up as well. And you know, you’ve said already, you’re focused on what was right in the community and how you’re going to build on it, rather than what was wrong. But during the pandemic, it did shine some lights into some areas of difficulty for people, perhaps that have been there all along, but we began to discover more. What was the kind of things that were coming out in L30 with regard to sort of almost, the hidden poverty, the hidden need, the hidden isolation? 

Debbie Stephens

From the connections that we’ve been able to make through the street exercise and more people want to get involved, that’s where then the community then connected to develop a community pantry. So they are now supporting each other to run a weekly community pantry where people can come and get so many items for a certain price. It’s supports with donations from businesses as well. And that’s a way of local people supporting their neighbours, their friends and their families. That’s one of the things that we’ve seen. 

Also, as well people’s general mental health and wellbeing. And so Suey while she’s finished her exercise on the streets L30’s million invest in her becoming a health and wellbeing coordinator. And so Suey is now in different venues each day throughout the area. People can go along. They can take part in exercise. They can just have a chat. And Suey also stays in touch with people via social media. And it’s having that somebody there that they can come to and then you’ve also paired people up as well, haven’t you? So sort of buddy people up so there’s that peer support. So again, we’re looking at growing from within, but also listening to the community, so that we’re responding to what’s going on. 

Chris Allen

It sounds to me like not only you delivering, I’ll call it a service, although you won’t look at it that way. You’re delivering a service there, but you’re doing it in such a way that it’s not patronising people. 

Suey Lee

I think, I think us being allowed to to listen to people, to actually hear what what it is that they’re feeling and what they would like, we can then develop organically. Rather than having to take tick – obviously, we’ve got our health and safeties and all of these things – but we’re not in a box. So part of the pantry we obviously, we have to queue up outside, but now we’re inside the main hall, and then from that, we’ve developed, and we’ve got another room because we got that busy. And there was 50–60 people sometimes queuing up outside. And I was the entertainment on the door. So now we’ve moved into another room. We offer a cup of tea, tea and coffee. Now some people spent two years, and the only place they came was the pantry. Because they were safe. They felt comfortable queuing up outside. It was local people who they knew. We only allowed two people in at a time, you know all of this. 

And now they’ve built their confidence up, waiting outside, walking through, going in, they’re now able to go to the shops. They’ve now made friends. They’ll come in where they can sit down and have a cup of tea. That’s part of my post. I’m actually then available for if they just want to have a chat about something. And it might be they’re just stressed with something, they just don’t know where to turn or they’re just fed up. Their confidence from their from that step of coming into there. We then stay behind. We talk about healthy eating. I’ve got girls who have who were on antidepressants. These are young mums, no longer on antidepressants. So a lot of the young mums now and the dads, because we have men coming to the classes, they’re taking control. So they’re learning how to cook, what tocook. Everybody’s swapping, you know, new recipes and things, small steps. And they’re actually realising it only takes one little step. Let that come into your life. Now let’s do another step. Let that come into your life, and that’s where the big changes happen. And confidence. They’re building confidence when they’re taking responsibility for themselves. So then they’ll step forward and want to be a volunteer. 

Chris Allen

I wouldn’t, and I wouldn’t say, you’ve, you’ve put the pride back in the community. Sounds like the pride was always there, and you managed to tease it out once again, it was always been there, historically in the area. How are you going to keep it going? Obviously, Big Local will come to an end. Funding will come to an end. How will you keep it going? How will you extend it? Because you’re one person. 

Debbie Stephens

I mean, we’ve got Suey on here today, but there’s, there’s lots and lots of Sueys in this community who have all come with their different skills and passions, and it’s about and that’s what we’re doing as a partnership is is shining the light on those skills and passions and connecting those people together so that then they can continue to do things. Just recently, the partnership funded some prizes for a Facebook page. It’s a community Facebook page that was just about about to reach 10,000 followers. And so much of it was about we love where we live. We’re so proud to live here. The community is getting back to what it used to be, and that’s what this is all about, rekindling that community spirit and getting back to to the way it was. And this isn’t going to happen over overnight, but by continuing to grow the circle of Sueys and everybody like her, then hopefully, you know, that will be the lasting legacy of the partnership, because the investment will have been there in the people. 

Suey Lee

We’re just putting together a health and wellbeing fair. Now, just with Debbie, everything that Debbie’s just said there, you know, we’ve got lots of people who have set up their own businesses or had the confidence during lockdown to invest in themselves and look at their own interests within the whole field of health and wellbeing. So we’re looking at bringing all of these people within our community together. 

Chris Allen

And so earlier, you answered a question I could never ask you, which you told me how old you are, but I believe you have a passion for young people as well, and that’s something you’d like to do some work with in the future. 

Suey Lee

I was blessed, and I went to a youth club five nights a week. You know, just giving them a space, somewhere for them to go, just to hang out. Youths will always hang round by a shop. You walk past a gang of youths now. People will be frightened. But that could just be a group of lovely young children, but they haven’t got anywhere else to go. Just giving them a room, somewhere to sit, and then letting them tell you, and that’s where all your opportunities would just grow. 

Chris Allen

And right at the beginning, you said, you know, you took this approach and strength based approach, whereby you weren’t going to say what’s wrong, how do we put it right? You’re going to say what’s right, how do we how do we build on it? And you’ve talked that way all the way through. And one of the other things that perhaps, you know, L30 might be labelled as a disadvantage area, but all you’ve talked about are the advantages and the possibilities. And I should imagine that’s the culture that is changing, what you’re doing and what’s changing in the community? 

Debbie Stephens

Definitely, definitely. For too long, communities like Netherton have had people label them, and that once you start labelling people, then they start to believe it, and then it’s even more difficult to change things. So by raising raising the profile of the area, shouting and singing what an amazing area it is, that’s when you start to see change. Not by telling people what’s wrong with where they live and what’s wrong with them. 

Chris Allen

That is Debbie Stephens, Chief Executive of Fun for Kids and the L30 Community Centre. Before that, we were hearing from Suey Lee, mental health and wellbeing connector. I was exhausted just listening to her energy. Where can we find out more, Beth? 

Beth Lazenby

So we’ll pop everythin in the show notes, including a link to some of those amazing videos that we were chatting about earlier. 

Chris Allen

Thanks, Beth. Indeed, and Beth and I look forward to you joining us next time on the Community Power Podcast, brought to you by the community wealth fund campaign and Local Trust, discovering what happens when you give local people the money, the power and the assets to make a difference to their neighbourhoods.