Community Building flourishes through Saltburn Community Response Initiative

―I‘m so pleased that Cat O‘Neill asked us both to join the Community Builders‘ training programme,‖ says Saltburn volunteer Mary Sproxton. ―We loved doing the online course, learning how to encourage local projects and increase community bonding.‖

The Directors of Saltburn Community Response were allocated £5000 last year by the former Tees Valley Clinical Commissioning Group. The funding was focused on projects aiming to encourage participation in community activities, to map and join up services that already exist and to support the creation of new community led local projects. Seventeen projects were submitted and a panel, which included Mary and her husband Ian, chose ten of these to finance.

The CCG funding enabled panel members to join Cormac Russell‘s international Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) course. ―We did eight to ten two hour sessions on Friday evenings and followed them up with a lot of homework, reflecting on what we were doing,‖ Mary remembers. ―There‘s a lot of community activity already going on in Saltburn and the training focused on how we can bring people together to support and extend this.‖

Mary says: ―We learnt that we should approach people in the community asking what they would like to do and enabling them to do it for themselves. We‘re not telling people what to do or rescuing them from something. It‘s a life -affirming way of treating people; it‘s very non-invasive and non-judgmental.‖

The funding available for projects was advertised by SCR and the panel spent an afternoon and evening voting on the seventeen applications. Sums asked for ranged from less than £100 to £1000. The success criteria used included the number of people the project would reach, how it would help the community to grow, environmental friendliness, how it would form links in the community and cost-effectiveness.

The successful bids included a Community Curry Night, Saltburn Befrienders of Asylum Seekers and Refugees‘ summer event and room hire to December 2022, the Saltburn Community Crafters‘ twelve knitting and twelve crochet lessons, the Saltburn Smugglers Sea Shanty group, the Library of Things (DIY equipment), two screenings of the Explore Saltburn film, five immersive art preparation workshops and Community Meal with Saltburn Supper Club, a Well Spring Walk and Tai Chi session in the Valley Gardens, twelve sessions for young people at TeesstrHive and Saltburn CEV accessibility group for people who are extremely clinically vulnerable.

Their progress is being monitored by the panel members. ―We have a checklist to measure the effectiveness of the projects and we can definitely say it‘s working. People are linking up and improving community bonding,‖ says Mary.

Two of the projects, the Community Meal and the TeesstrHive initiative to develop activities for young people, featured in last November‘s Talk of the Town. Another, the public screening of Ross Richards‘ Explore Saltburn film reached three hundred people over two days last August. Julia Jurgan, Ross‘s partner, explains how they are making it accessible to an ever bigger audience.

―Ross has been creating the audio-visual tour of historical Saltburn for the last eighteen months. He did research, talking to Cath and Tony Lynn and Saltburn 150+, among many others, and developed the one hour long film,‖ says Julia. At first, it could only be streamed through the Explore Saltburn website, but with the Community Builders funding, they were able to book the Community Theatre and print tickets and flyers. Friends and families could watch the film together and share memories. Guests were greeted by townspeople dressed in Victorian clothes and at the end, they could have their photos taken with them. Some of these have been added to the DVD, along with comments from the audience about what they‘d seen.

―Over the two days, we raised £752, which we divided between Saltburn in Bloom and Saltburn Christmas Lights,‖ Julia adds.

The audio-visual tour is being transferred to a DVD professionally and it can be bought for £8 through their website (www.exploresaltburn.com). Already, people all over the UK have ordered copies, some for themselves and some for their families. At the time of writing, Julia is negotiating sales through Saltburn shops and is speaking to the Council about the possibility of showing the film in schools and care homes. She says the DVD can act as an ambassador for Redcar and Cleveland, presenting Saltburn as a holiday destination and a great place to live and bring up families.

As some people missed seeing the film in the Community Theatre last August, Ross and Julia hope to show it there again next spring or summer. She says they yet need to work out which charities they will donate the profits to, but hope people will come along and have a wonderful evening, while contributing to worthwhile causes.

Asset-Based Community Development course leader Cormac Russell has been teaching people in thirty-five countries for twenty-five years ‗how to uncover the hidden talents, assets and abilities in your neighbourhood and bring them together to create a vibrant and joyful community‘. In 2022, he published his book titled ‗The Connected Community – Discovering the Health, Wealth and Power of Neighbourhoods‘. He would no doubt be delighted by the success of the Saltburn Community Builders‘ project, which keeps on growing, encouraging people to connect with each other and share their pride in their town.

Rosemary Nicholls

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