TIDAL

So what is co-production? Co–Production describes the relationship between service providers, in this case the Council and service user. The community, which draws on the knowledge, ability and resources of both to develop solutions.

 

Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council, through the work of the Joint Working Arrangements Steering Group have been working on Co–Production for just over two years. 

 

The first stage involved carrying out a lot of research on the theories behind co-production and building an understanding on what co-production is and how it differs from similar terms such as co-design. During this stage we formed a partnership with Community Development and Health Network, or CDHN for short. Jenny Hanna from CDHN became our facilitator.

CDHN’s role was to assist in the development of an approach that we could pilot across the Borough. During stage 1 we carried out some staff training on Holistic health and Well Being and the social determinants of health and on engagement techniques.

 

The second stage was engaging with a community, and Toome was chosen to pilot the scheme and TIDAL was approached as the Umbrella community group.

 

In the last 9months we have worked intensively with the community in Toome, carrying out weekly training and attending community meetings and assisting in some of their projects and from this work we have identified positive indicators that the approach is improving both personal and community Well Being.

 

From this process we have identified a number of building blocks which we feel are required for this co-production process to work.

 

The Building blocks are, reframing how we work, developing a common agenda, recognising the assets, making connections to allow us to mobilise these assets and allowing time.

Some of the key moments, was the creation of the Duneane community champion identity, the creation of their vision statement and the decision to become a collective a logo was designed and created by one of the champions, who had never been involved in community work before supported by a local artist and helped by a young man suffering from autism. This part of the project alone had a life changing effect for both the community participants.  

The Duneane champions wanted to ensure they were as inclusive as possible and therefore there are no set geographical boundaries for them to adhere to. The group decided that Duneane represented them the best.

The inspiration behind the mosaic was that broken things can become beautiful things – and it was a recognition that all people(and communities) are carrying hardships in some way or another – everyone could be considered broken in some way but together a beautiful thing/s can be created.

The vision statement reads – Duneane Community Champions are a proactive, enthusiastic collective committed to promoting health and well-being and creating a strong and connected community.

The group developed the vision statement and were keen that it reflected what they wanted to do, that they would be proactive, and committed to promoting health and wellbeing and creating a strong connected community.

 

The other key moment was the decision to become a collective rather than following the traditional approach of the group. Being a collective really sets them apart and is what is special about them.

This horizontal structure is a dynamic and vital way to constantly increase member-empowerment.

 

The approach was very much appreciated in nature and it focused on relationship building and on communication. We were all together, building a strong foundation for going forward. The conversations taking place were around how we can build upon what was already there, we spent very little time looking for issues that needed “fixed”

This process changes the narrative towards things that local people value and it helps to un-tap the potential within individuals, communities and organisations to work a little bit differently.

The council supported this approach and allowed us, to work with less bureaucracy and to trust in the process and let it go in whatever direction it wanted to go without the feeling of having constraints. This was a difficult adjustment.