“Our Member Pioneers have used the CWI to identify and prioritise the issues that require the biggest focus across their communities”

Tom Anderson, Member Pioneer Co-ordinator.

Background

Here at the Co-op, community is at the heart of everything that we do. We work closely with people across the UK to drive positive change, focusing on the issues that matter most to communities.

In 2019, we launched a network of Member Pioneers who bring together Co-op members, colleagues and local causes to make communities a better place to work, play, live and learn. We have 1,000 Member Pioneer roles across the UK based locally making a real difference.

Our Member Pioneers regularly use the Community Wellbeing Index (CWI) to inform their work, highlighting the areas of greatest need within their communities. Combined with the Member Pioneer’s own knowledge of an area, the CWI helps to easily identify which of our three core community missions - fairer access to food, fairer access to mental wellbeing support and fairer access to opportunities for young people - represent the greatest challenge for local people and should be prioritised.

Insight from the Index also helps Member Pioneers to understand which causes would benefit the most from our Local Community Fund (LCF), which in turn is used to encourage those causes to apply for funding. Since the launch of the LCF back in 2016, we’ve paid out over £97m to local causes across the UK, supporting more than 34,000 community projects.

You can read all about what has been happening with Member Pioneers in two particular areas of London and the South East below.

Using the CWI to identify areas of need in Caversham and Hailsham

Caversham

Our Member Pioneer’s in Caversham have used the CWI to identify and prioritise the issues that require the biggest focus across their communities.

Analysis of the Index showed particularly low scores across Housing, Space & Environment and a significant disparity in Economy, Work & Employment scores across the area, highlighting high levels of inequality across a very tight band of postcodes.

This insight proved very beneficial when encouraging causes within the Caversham area to apply for funding through the LCF. It was also useful in supporting discussions around suitable locations for the set-up of a community fridge, providing local residents with free, accessible food. The fridge has now been set up at the Weller Centre and is widely used by people across the community.

Hailsham

In Hailsham, the CWI indicated that Education & Learning, Economy, Work & Employment and Health were all issues that required further focus across the local area, particularly physical and mental wellbeing.

As a result, our Member Pioneer worked very closely with Hailsham Boxing Club to organise activities that would bring people together socially and help them to develop new connections, whilst tackling mental health issues. The club offered boxing training for people of all ages and set up fundraising events that provided physical challenges for participants, at the same time as raising money to support mental health awareness.

Insight from the Index also helped with the successful application for the setup of a community fridge at Hailsham Community Centre. Since the fridge was installed, the community centre has been able to support between 50 to 100 people every day. Demand has been so high that an application has recently been placed for the setup of a second fridge at the same location.

Future Plans

The CWI has proven to be a useful tool in helping to identify opportunities to boost the wellbeing of communities across London and the South East. It will continue to be used by our Member Pioneers across this area to help prioritise their activity, understanding where further support may be required within communities and where the greatest difference can be made.

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