Create and develop healthy and sustainable places and communities - Print version

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This priority focuses on

  1. Creating and developing healthy sustainable places and communities.
  2. Expanding the community prototype approach in communities.
  3. Being part of a connected, safe, and sustainable community.
  4. Improve the quality of housing.
  5. Improving access to stimulating quality environments and open space.
  6. Mitigating against the exposure of communities to pollutants.
  7. Improving access to healthy diets fresh food - food growing opportunities and cookery skills.

Background

Healthy places

Living in healthy places is protective of good health. Where we live, and how we travel in our communities, impacts our physical health, wellbeing and connectedness. We need to mitigate against the sources of pollution and promote the quality of the urban environment by enhancing liveable spaces. Housing is fundamental to the well-being of people, their families, and their communities. Safe, secure, and suitable housing provides a stable base on which people can build their lives and build successful communities. Poor or unsuitable housing, high housing, and energy costs, however, can have negative impacts on many other areas of personal and community life as well as physical and mental health and well-being. In Greater Manchester, the tragic death of 2-year-old Awaab Ishak in 2020 due to black mould in his property and the failure of the landlord to take remedial action underscores the importance of good quality housing to protect the health of children. It is also important that people of all ages have access to quality open spaces and green environments which offer mental stimulation as well as places in which to relax.

Healthy communities

Community assets are important to health directly and indirectly: directly through the services and opportunities they offer that support physical and mental health, and indirectly through a sense of control and empowerment, levels of community cohesion and social interaction, all of which support good health. We will support evidence-based community regeneration programmes that remove barriers to community participation and reduce social isolation.

In Coventry we respond to the needs of our communities through our integrated services community prototypes and other placed-based partnerships, rooted in and driven by place, we are working creatively with shared resources to make positive change. Our focus is on demonstrably improving outcomes and tackling inequalities in our communities. Drawing upon the city’s dynamic and collaborative response to the pandemic and wider research, the approach is also enabling a practical response to the Cost-of-Living crisis to address the environmental and social determinants of health in each locality and to minimise the risks of exposure to pollutants which are harmful to health and wellbeing.

The One Coventry approach to community involvement highlights the work taking place in communities along with new approaches to engagement and collaboration.

What we know

There are a number of programmes of work and interventions that support the creating and developing healthy places and communities recommendation . These include:

  1. Using insight and data to identify specific challenges, community assets and strengths.
  2. Empower and enable community solutions.
  3. Providing practical support to strengthen the community sector.
  4. Providing access to a safe, sustainable, equitable and resilient transport system across the social gradient and increasing opportunities for active travel.
  5. Create good quality biodiverse green spaces that are accessible locally.
  6. Maximise opportunities to improve the safety, security, and quality of housing across the social gradient.

Legislation, Government guidance that support the create and develop healthy and sustainable places and communities recommendation

Links to service developments and strategies to support this recommendation

Areas for future consideration

  • Coventry Adaptation and Resilience Plan
  • Local Nature Recovery Strategy
  • Biodiversity Action Plan
  • Selective Licensing of private rented accommodation

Indicators

The indicators below will tell us how we are progressing:

  • Quality of housing and access to housing
  • Households/persons/ children in temporary accommodation, and those experiencing homelessness
  • Number of people travelling by active modes, such as cycling and walking
  • Encourage community engagement
  • Place-based community approaches

Services and activities

Delivery partners

  • Coventry City Council Children's Commissioning Team
  • Coventry City Council Community Resilience Team 
  • Coventry City Council Ecology Team
  • Coventry City Council Homeless and Housing Team
  • Coventry City Council Migration Team 
  • Coventry Citizens Advice
  • Central England Law Centre
  • Coventry Migration and Refugee Centre
  • Domestic Abuse Safe Accommodation Service
  • Drug and Alcohol Accommodation Services
  • FWT - a centre for women
  • Housing providers and associations
  • Mental Health Services

How we will measure progress

  • Number of Community Messengers
  • Community case studies
  • Community prototypes and place-based working real-life case studies
  • Numbers of Coventry residents who agree that their local area is a place where people get on well together
  • Numbers of Coventry residents who participate in volunteering opportunities in their local communities
  • Total households on the housing waiting
  • Number of households in temporary accommodation
  • Number of children living in temporary accommodation
  • Snapshot number of people sleeping rough in the city
  • West Midlands Fire Service information

Case Study 1 - Chat Central, a Voluntary Action Coventry Project

Voluntary Action Coventry is a Marmot Partner and have embedded Marmot Principles in their programmes of work. Chat Central, a Voluntary Action Coventry project, targets work to strengthen communities by supporting social connections, increasing activity, and volunteering.

Voluntary Action Coventry has been making people a little stronger since 1957, supporting hundreds of people into community roles each year. They engage adults of all ages and physical abilities from all areas of Coventry.

Whether new to the city, a student from overseas, a migrant, bereaved, retired, a new parent, just out of the hospital, dealing with an illness or condition that limits their ability to get out, or just out of practice with socialising and getting more active and ‘out there.’

People may feel isolated, or a little bit stuck about taking the next step. The Lottery- funded Chat Central project encourages people to explore their interests and occupations and start doing the things they want to do. This might be:

  • meeting new friends
  • rediscovering interests or finding new ones
  • building confidence through trying new things in groups and having fun
  • increasing connections through social networks, advice seeking, and improving people’s feelings of isolation
  • getting around Coventry
  • group volunteering or community activity
  • getting into healthy routines and light exercise
  • working with what people can do, not what they can’t do

List of over 500 professional contacts (Social Prescribers, GPs, Mental Health service providers, other VCSE organisations) whom they email monthly to update on the project and invite them to refer clients.

They also have taken to using WhatsApp callout function this year which has been a real-time effective way to remind everyone they engage with (who use WhatsApp) about what’s coming up and maintain a presence with them.

They regularly distribute flyers around the city and take them along to networking/ outreach events. They now have a participant- turned-volunteer who helps with this distribution each month.

Successes

Of their target 130 per year, 106 people were regularly engaged, and 30 people were offered signposting/light touch support, helping them to feel connected in their community, decrease loneliness, and increase confidence.

  • 58 people were referred/ signposted or joined community group
  • two entered employment
  • 26 are progressing to volunteering at Chat Central or other VCSE organisation
  • six accessed employment support or training
  • 33 mission possible volunteering (one-off task-based volunteering such as litter pick with Chat Central)

111 survey responses were collected from participants, and these surveys continue to provide evidence that at least 80% of participants report an increase in confidence or feeling less lonely after having engaged with Chat Central.

Service user’s feedback

Stand-out quotes from the last focus group session:

"Chat Central made me feel less lonely through sharing time with strangers who by the end of the session did not feel like strangers"

"Great meeting people who also share the same struggle to get out of the house"

"I realised I am not 'the only one' who feels isolated"

Visit the Chat Central webpage  [https://www.vacoventry.org.uk/chat-central/]for more information.

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