The Sheffield Housing Conversations

Year | 2017

Location | Sheffield, UK

Clients | South Yorkshire Housing Association

Sheffield Housing Conversations Collective was set up in response to the 2015 general election, which saw housing issues raise to the top of the political agenda. Our client, South Yorkshire Housing Association, is one of the key stakeholders within the group. We were asked to take over and expand upon collective’s social media platforms and test out a variety ways of engaging with different communities in Sheffield, asking them what they feel the key housing issues in Sheffield are. We were also tasked with proposing a direction moving forward for the collective.

Initially we focused on expanding the stakeholder network, organising a variety of public participation events. From there the brief developed into a four tiered strategic framework, each tier with a specific outcome:

1 – Broadening the conversation; we worked to make connections with other key housing stakeholders in Sheffield.  By introducing more diverse voices to the conversation, the collective could begin to reach a larger proportion of Sheffield’s population. These efforts concluded with the organisation of a re-launch event where we presented the our findings and invited all the stakeholders we have engaged with to join in the conversation.

2 –  An explicit research direction and aim; we analysed the findings from all our participation activities, producing constituency specific data, which enabled us to focus on lobby local MP’s and councillors around issues specific to their local area. A booklet for each constituency was delivered to the corresponding MPs as well as our clients.

3 –  Creating an online community of voices and stories; We expanded upon and evaluated the social media presence of the collective and produced a proposal for the Sheffield Housing Conversations website to become the ‘one stop shop’ for housing in Sheffield.

4 –  A connected conversation; to ensure the longevity of the collective, we have set up two OnCampus placements with the University, which can continue the work we have started, widening the collective’s network and analysing feedback from different community groups on the key housing issues in Sheffield today. We have also produced a detailed evaluation of the live project’s engagement strategies and collection of new ideas for the future.

These outcomes along with the participation props made during the live project will be handed over to the client. All of which has been an attempt by the Live Project group to provide tools for the collective to continue more inclusive conversation.

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Music Credits-

BACK IN SUMMER by Nicolai Heidlas Music https://soundcloud.com/nicolai-heidlas

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Sthlm Sunset by Ehrling: https://soundcloud.com/ehrling

Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/5ptXIfhUrTA