...Broken Hope (Pt. 2)
Despite initially appearing rather negative, this is actually an extremely empowering concept for every day people because it means that big differences can be made to the experience of living in a place through relatively minor activities.
We don’t have to feel powerless, or that our living circumstances are entirely in the hands of our Council’s Waste Management or Housing departments. If each of us can do our little bit (fix that one window when it gets broken, pick up that bit of litter even when we didn’t drop it, call the council and get that dumped sofa removed, or indeed paint a colourful, creative image on a shabby, tagged wall) this little bit can lead to a big change in our community and our experience of living there. A few people making an effort to keep a place tidy can create a snowball effect. If we start to feel like we can influence the circumstances of our lives, we feel less powerless and our self-esteem increases. Our neighbours start to notice and maybe they get involved too, and this changes our perception of them. Slowly our community starts to look cleaner and more looked after and we feel safer. Now it’s more difficult for the window breakers and litter droppers to operate because their actions stand out.
I know this works because I have friends in Ely who turned a campaign against a housing development into an effort to reclaim their local neighbourhood. A fairly small handful of them have managed to turn an area that was notorious for burned out cars, litter and drug dealing into a central point for positive community activity. If you ask people about the old Rec now they will tell you it’s where all the kids’ football teams practice and where the big community bonfire night event takes place. Local groups keep the nearby woodlands clean and the action of the residents has encouraged the Council to take more notice and to provide better services there. These days you’d be unlucky to see a crisp wrapper on that field and local people will talk openly about how things have improved over the last few years.
The Can Do project aims to use relatively small scale creative community action to generate an increased sense of empowerment and self-esteem (a feeling that communities and individuals can act to improve their circumstances) and an increased sense of equality and social-justice in the state of our physical environment. It is hoped that this vision will spread from a handful to the many and in the process will improve the wellbeing of the population of Cardiff.
> Read Broken Hope Pt. 1
> Watch the video of the talk