Following the successful completion of the recent Connecting Communities project, Sandwell Partnership commissioned an evaluation exercise in order to capture best practice and the key lessons learned.

Carried out between January and May this year the Partnership acquired £300,000 of government funding and recruited local partners Friar Park Millennium Centre, Murray Hall Community Trust, Centrepoint and Oakham Church to develop and manage local activities which met with the aims of the Connecting Communities project and which aligned with Sandwell’s own priorities.

Other partners included West Midlands Fire Service, Sandwell Council Communities Unit, TOPPS Training, The Salvation Army, West Midlands Police, The Albion Foundation and local housing associations, Accord and Black Country Housing.

The evaluation exercise took the form of interviews with a range of project participants including key decision makers, local lead agents, project support workers and last, but by no means least, the young people themselves.

Featured below are the videos capturing the key points made by the participants during the interviews. Please have a look at the videos and if you have something to say, leave your comments below.

Interviews with Young People Who Took Part

Interviews with Project Support Workers

Interviews with Project Leads

Interviews with Decision Makers

Quotes From the Interviews

“Most of them have got or are going into jobs now and that was our main objective”
Nikki Halliday, Support Worker, Centrepoint Church

“I see a difference in myself because I’m now not just doing nothing. I’m doing something with myself now whereas before I wasn’t and I’m mixing with people here at Centrepoint”.
Kylie Fisher, Participant, Centrepoint Church and Ocker Hill resident

“We engaged with 27 young people in total and had various consultations with them and found out what they wanted to do, for example skills to get into employment…whatever they needed to be where they wanted to be. They all did different things. We consulted with young people and individually took each [young person] their own way”.
Sheree Anslow, Youth Worker, Tibbington/Murray Hall (and a Tibbington resident)

“I’ve always wanted to be a sports coach or a sports leader and the programme has given me a much better idea of what other qualifications I need to get to better myself to be a sports coach…I’ve now got two qualifications and loads of experience for instance coaching young kids and young adults”.
Shaun Pace, Participant, Friar Park Millennium Centre

“I think it was because we’ve worked towards what the young people wanted; it wasn’t our programme it was their programme. If it was work they were looking for that’s how we engaged them and tried to look for work for them.”
Mohammad Javaid, Project Lead, Tibbington/Murray Hall

“I took part in Connecting Communities] probably because of the staff. The highlight has been Bard [the Youth Worker] because I can talk to him about my personal issues. The visit to the Lighthouse [Media Centre in Wolverhampton] and the garden improvement…When Connecting Communities finished I could still come up here and he’d listen to me, so, like, it makes you feel a bit special doesn’t it”.
Paul Evans, Participant (and near-Tibbington resident)

“We said to the community organisations, look this is the challenge. What can you do and what partnerships could you create to respond to that challenge and gave them a degree of flexibility on it…I think there’s loads of possibilities for this kind of approach”
Gary Bowman, Sandwell Partnership Director

“We all had our own contribution, it wasn’t really a set course, it was what the group wanted to do…it was just finding a way of approaching a different person and bringing that person’s unique qualities out”. [Since the start of the programme] I’ve changed in so many different ways; I’ve done so many different new things that twelve months ago I wouldn’t have event dreamt of let alone thought of”.
Clinton Wilkes, Participant, Tividale/Oakham Church

“We got to choose what we wanted to do and they tried their best to get us on to them. I wanted to do something to do with fitness so they took me down to the job centre and went through the jobs with one of the advisors and they got me a life guarding job and that’s what I’m doing now”.
Matthew Tildesley, Participant, Tibbington resident

“There was an awful lot of young people who came to us who didn’t have confidence…but it was a bit like when the light bulb goes on and they suddenly realise they can do things and they can do a lot more than they believed they could and that happened with a lot of the young people.”
John Rennie, Project Lead, Friar Park Millennium Centre

“I’ve got the work experience as well as my qualifications so my job prospects have improved now”.
Luke Aston, Participant, Friar Park Millennium Centre

“I think Sandwell for a long time has had an understanding that a lot of people in the Sandwell borough suffer from a lack of skills, a lack of confidence and a lack of training. They have low perceptions of their abilities they really don’t know where to turn for help, and I think Sandwell recognised that this perhaps was a golden opportunity to engage in a programme that might make a difference.”
Councillor Ann Shackleton, Sandwell MBC

“I think the highlight of the programme was the community fun day. To see it all come together with all the young people’s hard work and all that they’d achieved was just fantastic. It was a complete success with over a 1,000 people turning up. It was something they can be proud of and it will be something they will remember and they can take that on and build on it.”
David and Denise Marsh, Project Leads, Centrepoint Church

“I’ve gained more confidence; my face has been splashed over the magazine and on the Internet, which I’ve had to get used to. It’s been about getting to know people and getting the contacts. If ever I need it in the future I’ve got the contacts for these people that could help me”.
Kaye Harvey, Participant, Friar Park Millennium Centre

“Everyday, every single day I enjoyed coming to work and working with the characters that are on the estate; there was never a dull moment.”
Bhadar Chopra Youth Worker, Tibbington/Murray Hall

“There’s a real need around here; we’ve been neglected really in terms of funding streams and in terms of facilities and assistance for that age range. It was a chance for us to say to the wider world really, well here we are, we can actually do a real good job and we’re worth it so that was my main thought.”
Craig Williams, Project Lead, Oakham Church, Tividale

Images From the Project

Summary of Achievements

Participating Organisations

Tibbington Estate: Murray Hall Community Trust
Friar Park: Friar Park Millennium Centre
Tividale: Oakham Church, Tividale
Ocker Hill: Centrepoint Church

For more information about the Connecting Communities project in Sandwell please contact Katherine Hewitt, the Project Manager, on 0121 505 4230 or katherine_hewitt@sandwell.gov.uk