This paper highlights the assets-based community development perspective we brought to working with the Bangor PLUS team following up on the Welsh Government’s Children First needs assessment on the Trem y Mynydd housing estate, to use its pseudonym (see Thirsk, 2023; Silvester and Joslin, 2023). We are adamant this means working with and supporting local resident families and children as a matter of principle (a better way of working) as well as a way to ameliorate some of the child poverty effects by improving health and well-being in the local community (through an empowering and sustainable way of working). We also share the view that as the cost of living crisis bites harder, notably over this last winter, those in poverty are disproportionately carrying the greater burden and suffering the most. This paper expounds an argument for community development workers being part of the Bangor PLUS team, which connects with a more ethnographic approach to co-producing local knowledge (see Banks et al, 2019) about this school-community.
The aim is to hammer home the point that the local community be given mentoring and support on their terms to, firstly, define and critically understand their needs, assets and strengths, then the challenges facing them, and finally to co-develop local solutions to the challenges. These processes, especially ownership of the local solutions, is where school staff and academic partners prove useful, linking to external expertise, resources and support. Here the focus is on our working with them to help identify children’s learning needs, the circumstances that impact on children’s futures, and what is required to ensure the goals for their health and well-being but also their prosperity (see Welsh Government, 2015, 2019). This means connecting with the local community, including those who can help deliver our identified local solutions to child poverty, as they too can positively impact upon children’s experience of schooling and education and ultimately employment and training. For example, the Hive community garden and café, growing food and serving it up (via volunteers) to families, has seen children embracing new ideas about food production and supply. This way of working would of course also potentially strengthen the school’s relationship with resident families, their elected representatives, multi-agency workers, and beyond into government as this in itself can bring several benefits to supporting the school’s aims. We conclude with what it really takes to forge a city-based team for a multi-cities ethnography.
