Economic development case history
Redhouse Estate Project
The Redhouse Estate project is a partnership project which aims to help young people from a deprived area of Walsall gain hands on training in new skills whilst benefiting their own community. The skills they learn will help them find employment and the work they do will improve the area for the local community.
A new partnership group has been set up to manage the project, made up of Redhouse Residents and Tenants Association, Walsall Council, Walsall Housing Group, Groundwork Black Country, Local Neighbourhood Partnerships, Black Country Community Arts and Redhouse School.
The key aspect of the project was to undertake extensive community consultation to determine what issues affect the neighbourhood and identify project activities which should improve the social and economic well being of residents. This will be achieved by delivering training and employment through an environmental theme, creating tangible benefits to the neighbourhood.
The schemes will tackle key environmental issues identified by residents whilst providing a valuable training resource to young unemployed people giving them construction, grounds maintenance, landscaping, horticulture and gardening skills. The key focus of the project is to develop the skills needed for people to live and work in, and improve, their area, building their capacity to continue their work beyond the life of the project.
Groundwork Black Country managed a training programme and to date 20 trainees have gain valuable skills and qualifications. The aim of the project is to recruit as many young people as possible from the estate to help tackle the issue of anti-social behaviour and encouraging young people to get involved in. and take responsibility for, improving their local environment.
Due to the success of the project, further funding has been secured to replicate the project across the borough and Black Country allowing more deprived communities to be regenerated.
In addition, the partnership is working to improve the youth provision on the estate and as a result the youth club has nearly 30 young people attending weekly. Further developments and consultation has been taking place to identify the needs for the wider community provision.
The project is part-funded through the European Programme ‘Equal’ which is matched to funding contributions from Walsall Council, Walsall Housing Group and Groundwork Black Country. The College of Continuing Education have also made funding available adult learning and are also promoting projects in the area offering family learning opportunities. The partnership is also working with the Greenspace Improvement Team to improve facilities on the Redhouse Park and it has been agreed that a ‘Friends of the Park’ group will be formed.