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Young Foundation: Housing as a Tool for Future Communities
1. The Young
Foundation:
Our work on
sustainable
communities
Slide 1 The Young Foundation 2011
2. About the Young Foundation
• Named after Lord Michael Young, “the world‟s
most successful entrepreneur of social
enterprises” and co-author of the UK Labour
party‟s 1945 election manifesto
• Michael Young started over 60 successful
ventures and organisations including the Open
University, NHS Direct and Which? Magazine.
• He also researched the lives of families and
communities in London‟s East End, putting
ethnography at the heart: observing what
people do as much as listening to what they say
• We have a 55-year track record in innovation in
areas including health, education, ageing,
communities, and support for families.
Slide 2 The Young Foundation 2011
3. 55 years of achievement
Michael Young, 'the world's most successful entrepreneur of social enterprises,’ for
of his role in creating over 60 new organisations worldwide, Professor Daniel Bell,
Harvard University
Founded by
THEN NOW
Michael Young
vehicle for social
research and action
and enterprise.
Through which he
created over 60
organisations and
1997
27 June 1977
published hundreds of
reports and books on Michael Young
1 Feb 1954
social justice, equality, creates the Mutual
and policy. Aid Centre to
assist citizens in
taking
control over their
lives
Sept 1969
April 2005
Michael Young’s
vision for the first
University in the air
opens with the aim
of widening access
to higher education
Named after Michael Young and formed
through the merger of his two organisations,
Family and
The Institute for Community Studies and
kinship in East
Mutual Aid Centre.
London. First
April 1990
published in 1957,
Michael Young left a remarkable legacy of
this vivid and
ideas and institutions which had an enormous
touching picture of
impact on the day-to-day lives of the millions of
family life in the Initially covering just four languages, Language people who use them and on how we think
East End of the Line was first set up to enable communication about our society.
1950s is one of the between patients and staff at the Royal London
great pioneering Hospital in East London. The local police on Over the next 50 years the Young Foundation,
works of modern the Isle of Dogs then requested 24 hours a day as a centre for social innovation and
sociology. coverage in 16 languages. entrepreneurship, hopes to have an equally
profound impact.
Language Line Services’ Telephone
Michael created Interpreting and Translation Services grew
the Consumers’ rapidly throughout the 1990s, and the company
Association, the
Oct 1957
is now part of the largest Interpreting company
precursor to worldwide providing 170 languages.
Which? To help
consumers tackle
the issues that
matter to them
4. The Young Foundation today
Our work falls into five areas:
• Research – emerging social needs
and how to innovate to meet them
• Practical innovation – testing
new ideas, often working with local
government or third sector
agencies
• Advising governments – on
supporting innovation and social
entrepreneurship
• Social ventures – supporting
and spinning out start-ups
• And a growing number of
international programmes
Slide 4 The Young Foundation 2011
5.
6. Future Cities,
Future
Communities
Slide 6 The Young Foundation 2011
7. •An international partnership between the Young Foundation, local
authorities, government agencies and housing providers
•Exploring practical ways that new cities, towns and communities can
succeed as communities where people want to live
•Build a practical understanding of what can be done to encourage the
factors that promote the idea of community, social networks,
engagement, belonging and long term stewardship
•Drawing on the best of what is known, and what is being explored, in
the UK and internationally
• Now developing into independent venture „Social Life‟
Slide 7 The Young Foundation 2011
8. What is a community?
The mainstream view
• Governance
• Social and Cultural
• Housing & the built
environment
• Economy
• Environmental
• Services
• Transport & Connectivity
Source: Egan Review: skills for sustainable communities, 2004
9. Our starting point: an alternative view
• Physical boundaries to promote
geographical identity
• Rules and laws specific to the area, e.g.
car free areas
• Local myths & stories
• Visible leadership
• Strong social relationships, networks &
bonds
• Rituals and rhythms
• Possibly shared belief system, e.g. garden
cities, new towns, eco-cities
10. “Social sustainability is largely neglected
in mainstream sustainability debates …”
Manzi et al, Social Sustainability in Urban Areas:
Communities, Connectivity and the Urban Fabric, 2010
Slide 10 The Young Foundation 2011
12. Our partners
• Homes and Communities Agency
• Local Government Improvement & Development
• Barking Riverside, Barking & Dagenham, East London
• Lozells & Handsworth, Birmingham
• Buckingham Park, Aylesbury Vale
• Peabody Trust (Whitecross Street & Lillie Road estates,
London)
• Malmö Stadt, Sweden
• Insititute of Sustainability
• A2Dominion housing association, Eco-Bicester
Slide 12 The Young Foundation 2011
13. Our completed
work
Slide 13 The Young Foundation 2011
14. Barking Riverside, East London – a large scale regeneration scheme that will
house 26,000 people over the next 10 years
Slide 14 The Young Foundation 2011
16. Testing new framework for designing in social sustainability
Slide 16 The Young Foundation 2011
Buckingham Park, Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire
17. Wired neighbourhoods: exploring local social media and building social capital,
Slide 17 The Young Foundation 2011
Whitecross Street estate, London. Peabody Trust
18. Birmingham CC: Viewing lessons learnt
from Community Land Trusts & seeing if it
will work as a model for Birmingham.
Lozells and Handsworth
Exploring role for community land trusts to create local housing and build social
capital The Young Foundation 2011
Slide 18
Lozells and Handsworth, Birmingham
20. Framing Malmö‟s innovation story
Data/studies on
social need Learn from success of
environmental
External inspiration, social design sustainability programmes
principles, co-design solutions
with participants Consensus about need for
new approach
1 Prompts
Disengaged communities,
poor education, high Malmo is
2 Proposals levels of disadvantage famous for
innovative
6 Systemic sustainable
design, but
3 Prototypes change also for urban
problems
4 Sustaining
5 Scaling
Slide 20 The Young Foundation 2011
21. A framework
for social
sustainability
Slide 21 The Young Foundation 2011
22. Published in November 2011, this
report sets out how to plan, design
and develop successful and
socially sustainable new
communities.
The ideas and case studies are drawn
from a large scale review of evidence
about what helps communities
flourish, with practical examples and
approaches from new settlements
around the world.
“The recommendations of this report
are bound to have a salience that its
authors can never have imagined.”
Sir Peter Hall
Slide 22 The Young Foundation 2011
23. Amenities and
Social Infrastructure
Amenities AND support services in place early
in life of new community – emphasis on schools,
social spaces, transport & community workers
Social and Cultural Life
Shared spaces, collective activities
and social architecture to foster local
networks, belonging and community
identity
Figure 1: Illustration of Design for Social Sustainability Framework, Young Foundation, 2011
24. 1. Social infrastructure
• Need for services and
support, not just buildings
• Early provision is crucial
• Lack of social
infrastructure affects
community wellbeing
• Identity and reputation
Slide 24 The Young Foundation 2011
25. 2. Social and cultural life
• Community identity &
belonging
• Tolerance, respect,
engagement
• Pro-social behaviour
• Good design supporting
social life
Slide 25 The Young Foundation 2011
26. 3. Voice & influence
• Influence in the planning stage
• Participatory decision making
• (e.g. neighbourhood planning)
• Community-driven stewardship
• Formal and informal governance
• structures
Slide 26 The Young Foundation 2011
27. 4. Space to grow
• New communities evolve slowly as
social networks develop &
populations age & shift
• Master-planning needs to be flexible
and adaptable
• Informal spaces & temporary uses
• Local engagement & governance
structures also need time to develop
Slide 27 The Young Foundation 2011
29. Collaboration with A2 Dominion:
Eco Bicester
Between January – March 2012 Social Life at the Young Foundation will deliver:
• 2 Action learning workshops for the stakeholders of Eco Bicester
• Asset mapping relevant neighbourhoods and networks in Bicester
This work forms the basis of what we hope is a wider collaboration in the
successful delivery of Eco Bicester in future phases.
The aim is to shape the thinking and planning in the early stages of the exemplar
phase, specifically, setting up the right structures to engage future residents,
understanding the future population, ensuring there is scope for influence on
local infrastructure, grounding the plans for the local management
organisation in information about future residents; and sharing best practice.
Slide 29 The Young Foundation 2011
30. Institute of Sustainability
• „Total Community Retrofit‟ in
Poplar
• Initial scoping of community
facilities, dynamics
• Plan to feed into more
comprehensive future map to
inform behaviour change and
technology/ infrastructure
planning
Slide 30 The Young Foundation 2011
31.
32. Wellbeing
in Poplar
Slide 32 The Young Foundation 2011
33. Resilience
in Poplar
Slide 33 The Young Foundation 2011
34. Social Life is the Young Foundations' newest
independent social enterprise supporting
innovation in place-making launching in 2012.
Social Life will work in the UK and
internationally to provide a new space for
rethinking the practice and politics of
creating new communities to meet the
pressing challenges of urbanisation including Social Life is partnering with A2
climate change and ageing societies. Dominion (on Eco Bicester),
Institute for Sustainability
Undertaking research and practical work with (neighbourhood demonstrator projects
professionals and agencies on the ground, the in East London), and with Cisco to
new organisation aims to enable social draw on its experience in technology,
innovation and urban development to
designers to cross boundaries between the create a sustainable cities programme.
different professions involved in creating new
places.
