It was great recently to be back in Ballinasloe celebrating the success of combining enterprise and community development in boosting the vitality and viability of the County Galway town. This was a visit made even more enjoyable because supporting the work of Ballinasloe Area Community Development (BACD) has been one of my favourite projects during a decade of activity with People & Places.
Broad scope & locally-led
Yes, the hospitality enjoyed from day one and the fact that my contacts there have become good friends, helps give Ballinasloe a special place in my personal ranking of projects. More than that though, I am a big fan of how BACD shows the benefits of combining enterprise & community development through its broad scope and locally-led approach. As the People & Places Partnership we were able to assist them using our revitalising town centres approach when their attention turned to this part of town.
Celebrating 25 years & a new opening
This year BACD is celebrating 25 years of work combining enterprise & community development through a long-term commitment. Last week this milestone was marked by Rural and Community Minister Heather Humphreys’ attendance at the grand opening of the latest project to create the Ballinasloe Enterprise Hub in the heart of the town centre.
The Enterprise Hub is a €1.6 million project that has had cross-department support from the Irish Government’s Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, and Department of Rural and Community Development. I was lucky enough to have a tour of the Enterprise Hub during the latter stages of construction, when I was “back in Ballinasloe” in January. Whilst there, I caught-up with BACD Chairman Seamus Duffy and Manager Lyn Donnelly.
Boosting enterprise & investing in projects
As you can see in my video of our chat when I was “back in Ballinasloe“, Seamus explained how the opening of the Enterprise Hub is part of BACD’s long-term strategy to develop assets that boost local enterprise creation and development, whilst also earning revenue that can be invested in other projects in Ballinasloe. He explained how the space for 45 workers in the town centre Hub, adds to the space already provided for 180 employees of 28 businesses in BACD’s fully-let Enterprise Centre on the edge of town.
Lyn explained how as well as providing state of the art office space for new start-ups, the Enterprise Hub will also nurture business development, with benefits that will spill-out to businesses in the surrounding streets. You can take a look inside yourself through this short video of the finished Ballinasloe Enterprise Hub. Wouldn’t you want to rent an office if you lived locally?
Town team backed by volunteers
On a walk-about in Ballinasloe town centre, Seamus elaborated on how the evolution of a “town team” and projects born-out of People & Places’ baseline survey work and action plan, operated in a cascading way through project sub-groups and 250-300 volunteers that could be called upon to help with delivery. He also gave the example of how, during a two-year project led by Galway County Council to physically regenerate the streetscape, BACD coordinated a liaison group with business representatives from the key streets.
Certainly, in our work supporting the town team in Ballinasloe, we found that an early success was a measurable increase in stakeholder confidence and belief across the town that had been made possible by engagement and networking led by BACD as a trusted, community-based organisation.
Communication key to stronger sense of place
I always say that good communication is key to making people feel involved and have a strengthened pride in place as part of revitalisation work to improve their town centre. In Ballinasloe this exemplified by the bi-monthly publication and distribution of the 64-page, colour Ballinasloe Life magazine. As you can hear from my videoed chat in the town square with the Ballinasloe Life’s Editor-in-Chief, Colm Croffy, the town’s very own “inflight magazine” serves as a barometer for people’s sense of place and individual affinity with the town.
Asset-based community development
The work of Ballinasloe Area Community Development is a great example of what can be described as asset-based community development. It is an approach to being part of revitalising our local economies and communities that I have an affinity with because I used to run a community development trust combining asset management and strategic influence. Also because, through my involvement at the time with what is now known as Locality, I saw many other great examples across the United Kingdom and Ireland.
As BACD’s twenty-fifth anniversary celebrations show, it is also an approach that puts down roots in a place, or as Seamus explains it, can “copper-fasten” the involvement in the community overall. To my mind such asset-based development should be programmed into town centre, capital-based investments in restoring often, iconic buildings from the start. It is an approach that is currently piloted by another of my favourite initiatives, Galeri Caernarfon, in the guise of a Heritage Development Trusts programme managed by the Architectural Heritage Fund.
Role in revitalisation
The approach taken by BACD shows the value in combining enterprise & community development through such ownership of assets, service delivery and wider engagement. It is an approach advocated as part of the recently published Locality Manifesto on Building Thriving Neighbourhoods as something that can be practical and achievable in different types of places including those in and around our town and city centres. Similarly, The Community Ownership Commission assessed how the benefits of community ownership might spread to more communities. Its report, Unleashing Community Ownership provides a blueprint for creating the environment for community ownership to thrive.
Walk the talk
These topical reports from amongst our “recommended reads” are a great place to extend your knowledge of the place of asset-based development in a wider revitalisation. If you’d like to begin by getting a greater sense of why I have such a soft spot for the work of BACD, I invite you to ‘walk the talk’ and watch my short video about being “back in Ballinasloe“.
Good practice guidance on town centre revitalisation
The Enterprise Centre is just one of a wide number of projects that came out of People & Places’ support for BACD using the approach developed by People & Places and adpted as good practice as the English Local Government Association’s revitalising town centres toolkit. This toolkit includes practical guidance on town centre recovery planning including a case study on People & Places’ support for reopening & revitalising Selby town centre and reopening East Suffolk’s towns.
