OurPlace©
OurPlace© is about building pride in place, it's about creating places that people feel good about, where they want to spend their time and where they want to live, work, visit and play.
What's the problem?
In many places and communities change has taken its toll, and this is visible to and felt by the people who live, work and visit.
Recognised decline and the lack of visible and positive change can have a profound effect on peoples’ aspiration, wellbeing and happiness.
OurPlace© provides the antidote, providing a new approach to restoring pride in place and building a feeling of positivity across communities.
OurPlace© creates the conditions where people feel empowered and confident to lead and contribute towards the delivery of projects that deliver positive change, make people happier and improve quality of life.
Using our 5Rmethod, OurPlace© embeds a Can Do, Will Do and Have Done culture across places and their communities.
5R Method
We combine the best of placemaking, design thinking, innovation sprint and change management methodologies to empower communities to deliver real and measurable change.
Our modern and tailored approach provides a framework for Local Government to work with stakeholders and communities to restore pride in place.
1: Reimagine | Vision for place
The Reimagine phase is designed to lay the foundations needed to deliver transformative change and to restore pride in place. Central to this process is the Place Facilitator and the Place Board.
Through a high energy, thought provoking and practical OurPlace© Board Bootcamp the Place Facilitator works the Place Board to:
- Create a compelling outline vision that people feel excited and passionate about.
- Identify the problems and challenges that may prevent the achievement of the vision.
- Create a set of stretching goals that need to be achieved in order to realise the vision and act as a catalyst for innovation.
- Establish benchmarks to measure and track the achievement of goals.
2. Reinvigorate | passion for place
The Reinvigorate phase awakens a passion for place through growing the vision and creating innovative and exciting projects and solutions.
Through a series of inspirational and immersive Placeathon © events we work with communities, users of place and wider stakeholders to generate project ideas that will make the vision for place a reality.
In addition Placeathon © events help to build buy-in to the vision by helping people to understand how its achievement (and the implementation of projects and solutions) will benefit them now and in the future.
Passionate and committed
Place Ambassadors are recruited during the reinvigoration phase and continue to work with the
Place Board to lead and champion key projects and solutions.
3. Regenerate
| place through action
The Regenerate phase is focused on selecting and moving forward the projects and solutions that will drive real and measurable change.
Trained in the OurPlace© Toolkit, Place Ambassadors bring together users and stakeholders who can inform, add value to and grow the project ideas that were developed through the Placeathon ©.
Using proven design and innovation sprint techniques the regenerate phase consists of the following phases:
- Phase 1 Discover more about the problem and the challenges that need to be addressed.
- Phase 2 Define the solution that will solve the problem
- Phase 3 Develop a prototype and test the solution
- Phase 4 Deliver: present the solution to the Place Board for their consideration and if selected move forward to build and implement the final solution.
4. Reinforce | progress and momentum
The Reinforce phase is about spreading the bug, generating a buzz, celebrating success and building the aspiration in people to make positive progress in their lives.
It’s about generating momentum and reinforcing the benefits that people are realising. The Reinforce phase includes:
- A series of activities and campaigns to communicate and celebrate progress.
- The communication of quick wins to reinforce that progress is being made and that people are feeling the benefits.
- The Place Board continue to work with the Place Ambassadors to develop and sustain momentum.
- An annual OurPlace© Celebration Events focused on celebrating success. .
- Developing channels and networks to connect with all stakeholders and users of place.
5. Restore | pride in place
A key role of the Place Board is tracking the progress of projects and measuring how they are contributing towards desired outcomes and ultimately restoring and enhancing a pride in place. Through a structured review process and reporting framework they will use this understanding to:
- Review and adapt their plan.
- Capture, build and report on what’s working.
- Measure and report progress against goals.
- Inform policy, strategy and funding decisions.
- Identify and feed success stories into the campaign.
- And ultimately ensure that a deep pride in place has been restored!