Community Core: putting your community at the heart of the organisation

“I was curious to be involved in this project – you’re not often asked for your involvement beforehand. As regular visitors, it feels nice to be involved in these decisions” - Adult Participant, Get2Gether

Who did you work with?

Edinburgh Young Carers (EYC) Project – EYC are a charity who provide respite and support to young people between the ages of 5 and 25 who care for somebody at home. We have a long history of partnering with them on projects and they use Dynamic Earth’s spaces for a range of different things, so brought a lot of insight into the project.

Euan’s Guide - award-winning disabled access charity, best known for EuansGuide.com, the disabled access review website. Euan’s Guide have reviewed Dynamic Earth in the past and bring a lot of valuable perspectives regarding accessibility to the design of our project space.

Care For Carers – Charity who provide services for carers, from one-to-one support and assistance to short breaks and events within Edinburgh and further afield for them and the people they care for. Care for Carers mainly work with adults, a lot of whom are very familiar with our building. They offered brilliant ideas about making the space comfortable and accessible to older audiences.

Get2Gether – Charity who supports and arranges social activities or events for adults with learning disabilities across Edinburgh and beyond, who we built an initial connection with as part of Destination Space Phase 3 through a branch of the group known as the ‘Space Gang’. Get2Gether brought a unique perspective that combined accessibility suggestions with creativity and decorating ideas.

Multicultural Family Base (MCFB) – Charity who work with children and families from a range of backgrounds and experiencing a range of difficulties. MCFB support people individually and together in groups, and work with BME communities and migrants in particular. The young people who joined the consultation from MCFB contributed to making sure designs for the space were welcoming and representative of different cultural identities.

Tinderbox – Charity who deliver arts, music and creative opportunities for at risk children and young people throughout Edinburgh. Tinderbox have very specific requirements for the space at Dynamic Earth, based around acoustics and sound proofing. Whilst specific we found that their suggestions were useful across the board and would benefit all users of the space.

Turner and Townsend – Turner and Townsend are a consultancy and project management service, who specialize in programme cost management, sustainable solutions and client management, having previously managed capital redevelopment projects at Dynamic Earth.

Billy Shek at N8 Design – Billy Skek is a designer for N8 Design. Billy specializes in creating bespoke design solutions for a range of clients. Billy has designed a range of spaces at Dynamic Earth in the past, including our Learning & Engagement Discovery Bases, our Bar, our Corporate Function Space and Reception Entrance Areas.

Had you worked together before?

Yes, Dynamic Earth has long established relationships with all of these community partners.

Over the past 5-7 years, we have worked with all our community partners on a variety of projects. As a few examples, Edinburgh Young Carers were involved with the Explore Your Universe (EYU) project pre-pandemic and this relationship has helped us to evolve our co-creation practice. Since EYU, we have run book clubs, a planetarium art project and a young carers sleepover, amongst other holiday activities and one-off visits with EYC.

Our relationship with MCFB is getting ever stronger, thanks to a collaborative summer club project with charity Science Ceilidh; this is now in its third year and we are building trusting relationships with the young people, who return each year.

MCFB are also part of our upcoming ‘Growing Roots’ project, funded by NERC. This will help us to connect the young participants with Black Earth and Environmental scientists, with the aim of co-creating an exhibition as part of Black History Month.

Our relationship with Get2Gether began when they applied for a Discovery Pass, providing one year’s free access to Dynamic Earth. Their ‘Space Gang’ group went on to become regular visitors to the centre and now lead mindfulness sessions for their members in our planetarium.

We are thrilled to have such strong partnerships with these incredible groups and it felt very right that their voices and experiences be represented in the design of our Community Core space.

We have worked with N8 Design on a number of high-profile projects at our centre in the past. We have worked with Turner and Townsend on large capital redevelopment projects at Dynamic Earth, most recently the £1.1m Discover the Deep gallery development. We have an excellent working relationship with the team and they know Dynamic Earth very well and so were able to quickly and easily support this project.

What priorities did you identify with your partner and how did this project meet the longer-term priorities of everyone involved?

We identified that physical accessibility considerations would be a key dimension to this process, especially given the unique and often challenging layout of our science centre and limitations on the changes we can make to our footprint.

With the project managers, we identified practical considerations that needed to be considered such as airflow, water supplies and electrical supplies. A Key consideration for the Project Managers was considering how we would re-think the footprint of our building to accommodate a new changing places facility without displacing other essential facilities in our building, including a first aid room and disabled toilet. This required multiple investigations into the location and suitability of our existing facilities and assessments of what improvements would need to be made.

We also identified that there would be a wide range of needs, wants and considerations from different community audiences within the limitations of the single space we have available to (re)design – so a key tension would be balancing the needs of different audiences and mediating power dynamics for what would be achievable within the scope of the programme.

As Dynamic Earth has no community programming space, this project helped us meet the long-term priorities of everyone involved as we’re committed to creating a welcoming and inclusive space for our communities and growing our community programme capacity, whilst delivering financial sustainability as an organisation by no longer offsetting commercial income through using corporate spaces to deliver community programmes.

“It was a privilege to be asked to take part in the consultation. To be an advocate for accessibility is so important and Dynamic Earth take our considerations seriously and are open to hearing suggestions…To consult with a venue that is actively interested in accessibility is brilliant and this kind of forward planning ensures that everyone can benefit from changes” “I wanted to be part of this" - Euan’s Guide Ambassador

Can you summarise the aims of your project delivery in 2(ish) sentences?

The aims of our Bold Future’s Programme were i) to empower a diverse range of our community partners with the planning, design and scoping phase for a new programme of works which would see the creation of a new dedicated community space and Changing Places toilet in Dynamic Earth and ii) To deliver a feasibility study and cost breakdown of the works in partnership with project managers and design consultants which embedded community voice and co-decision making at all points in the process.

How co-produced was your programme?

• Information (offer is decided and people join to hear information)
• Consultation (set list of options are discussed, involves listening & feedback to which is most appropriate)
• Deciding together (encourages new and additional options, and joint decision making)

What steps did you take with your community partner in order to reach this level of co-production?

• Initial contact with all partners was very transparent about the project aims and the extent to which partners could participate. Participation was opt-in and community partners coordinated individuals signing up to the project.
• After the initial contact, Get2Gether suggested we join one of their regular community meetings, to introduce the project and answer questions any potential participants may have. This proved to be very fruitful and lots of ideas started to form in this initial Q&A itself!
• All participants were made to feel valued and welcomed with free refreshments and sweet treats during their consultation sessions and all were offered the option of free visits to the Dynamic Earth tour & planetarium by way of a thank you.
• All community partners were made aware that they could claim expenses for transport to make sure there were no financial barriers to access. Online consultation sessions were also offered as an alternative to in-person sessions, although no one chose this option.
• As part of the consultation all the participants were asked what would make them feel valued and that their voices had been heard. Most people said that seeing their ideas reflected in the ultimate design would make them feel valued. Additionally, each group wanted to physically help to decorate/create the space once it had reached build stage, to feel ownership over the space.
• After the initial consultation sessions, we sent 2 iterations of designs out to community partners for feedback. All feedback was shared with the design team to make sure edits were made when necessary.
• Building from the last point, all participants were made aware of the stages of this project and that currently our funding was for the scoping project only, with the hope of future funding to make their designs a reality.
• Finally, we committed to keeping in touch with all partners to update them on outcomes and future progress.

Can you note down some of the benefits and challenges to working this way?

• Relaxed semi-structured format of community sessions ensured partners felt at ease and able to contribute ideas openly and freely with the DE team.
• Showing community partners ‘behind the scenes areas’ helped them feel a greater sense of ownership to the programme and what we were trying to achieve. We shared practical and logistical info & limitations openly and this is an element of the Dynamic Earth experience – normally – audiences wouldn’t see.
• Staggering meetings with the project management company and design consultant in tandem with community sessions ensured voice was embedded in a timely and pro-active way and meant fresh designs and items for review and discussion were actioned swiftly.
• We would have liked the design consultant and project manager to have attended all the community partner sessions in person to build up an additional level of co-creation; cost/time and scheduling were the limiting factor here.
• We would have liked to have had even more community partners evolve these plans with us and had the opportunity for more collaborative/real time edits of design plans and layouts in partnership – budgets/schedules limited this.

“I wanted to be part of this project because if you get the opinions of different people you will get a better idea of what everyone wants. The younger generation have lots of ideas. I have great ideas”

- Young Participant, MCFB

What was the STEM link?

This programme was developed in tandem with the launch of Dynamic Earth’s new strategic plan – From Beginning to Mend which repositions our organisation and interpretation in the years ahead to focus front and centre on the planetary crisis.

As part of our community dialogue sessions, we explored how community partners would want the theme of the planetary emergency represented in the community space with links to different Earth and environmental science topics. This included how we would explore issues such as climate justice (e.g. through changing LED screens with young climate activists profiled on them), rainforests (e.g. through immersive set work or spaces designed with specific themes in mind) and the ocean (e.g. walls painted to represent depth zones).

Overall, the connections to STEM in the sessions were high level overviews of what we mean by the planetary emergency with connections to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

What happened?

This was an overwhelmingly positive project, with loads of enthusiasm and idea generation. All 6 partners brought curiosity, creativity and strong opinions to their consultancy sessions, which incredibly, mostly aligned across the different groups.

Each community partner group attended a consultation session that was planned at a time best suiting their needs and schedules. Each group was invited to visit the space to be redesigned in order to get a feel for the area, the size and location within the building. After this, groups were taken to the Boardroom for refreshments and an ideas generation session. Each group was offered a variety of ways to engage and record their ideas. Some people created mood-boards, some used ideas written on post-it notes, sometimes the group were keener for a relaxed chat and in this instance Dynamic Earth staff recorded all the ideas by taking minutes.

A strong theme of wanting to feel a sense of calm, belonging and inspiration from the community space came across from all groups. 5 of the 6 groups wanted a sensory den to be built into the space, all groups wanted a flexible space with moveable furniture to suit different needs, thoughts were gathered on the best flooring for power chairs and where to source adjustable height tables to increase accessibility.

Most groups independently suggested a disco ball for when parties and celebration events were held, which often led to great conversations about what each community group would be celebrating and tales were told of great parties of the past! This felt like such a great opportunity for individuals from the partner groups to have their say, be heard within their group and also by Dynamic Earth, through discussions in ways we have not had before.

Monthly project management meetings were held between Turner and Townsend, N8 and Dynamic Earth. A clear programme of works and expectations was mapped out from the outset, with project management paperwork and Gantt timelines, with checkpoints that were overseen by the team at T&T. Phased stages of work/work packets were agreed across all parties, which included photographic surveys, feasibility plans, mood boards and design direction reports and a suite of concept plans for both the changing places facility and the Community Core.

Billy Shek, the designer from N8 really understood the brief and went to extra lengths to consult with specialist equipment suppliers, sensory classroom designers and PAMIS, a charity advising on Changing Places facilities. His resulting design is beautiful and incorporates as many of the community’s ideas as was physically possible.

“I wanted to be involved because its nice to help communities find a peaceful space they can access and find relaxation and get rid of stress in their lives” - Young Participant, MCFB

What challenges might lie in wait for someone wanting to replicate this project

One of the biggest challenges we faced as part of this project was delivering a programme of work that required the input of multiple teams across our organisation and to ensure a suitably inter-departmental approach could be achieved. At times, Learning and Engagement activity can operate in quite a self-contained way and have limited interaction with Estates and Operational teams – but this programme forced us (in a good way!) to work in a truly collaborative way across our organisation and now our Learning & Engagement and Corporate Services divisions have a much better understanding of the work, priorities and challenges of each other’s teams.

Our organisation is currently going through a significant period of positive strategic change; three new senior colleagues have joined the charity during the lifetime of the Bold Futures programme and an ongoing challenge has been getting all members of the Leadership team on-board and understanding of the programme and the priorities of our community programmes more broadly at a time of wider organisational change and how we would like the work from Bold Futures to translate into further actions in the future.

Another – fairly classic – challenge was around availability of everyone involved and getting people in the right places, at the right times, to do the right things.

Finally, asking for buy-in from partners to a project that is in its scoping stages was a challenge. We were asking for people’s time, experience and ideas with no guarantee that once the planning stage was wrapped up, the design would become a reality. We had to be open and honest about this with all our partners and, as shown by the quotes, everyone felt it was valuable to be involved at this stage.

Were there any surprises?

Both Fran and myself were surprised (again, in a positive way!) with how much we were empowered and trusted to deliver on all dimensions of the programme; including procurement, contracting and project management dimensions as well as community partnerships and programming.

Another, (pleasant!) surprise was how well the different community partners’ ideas gelled together to create a holistic design for what the community core space could be. Overall there was a feeling of wanting a space that makes partners feel welcome, heard and represented and these themes united all the groups ideas.

How did you capture/measure the impact for this project?

We used simple evaluation questions to assess the experience of our partners during this project. As outlined in our proposal, we collated moodboards and ideas sheets by way of demonstrating engagement.

We also relied on feedback on the community core designs to demonstrate how involved participants felt in the project and whether they felt their ideas had been heard.

Where is the long-lasting change?

A significant change for Dynamic Earth as part of this project period was the level of empowerment that was delegated from our Senior Leadership Team to fellow colleagues in the Learning and Engagement team to project manage and lead this programme of work – including procurement, contracting, project management and overall co-ordination and ownership of it holistically. This meant that we were able to implement real change in approach at ground level and ensure this translated into higher level outputs. Additionally, it meant that colleagues across Learning and Engagement got to influence and explore other aspects of the organisation and how they work, for example, an understanding of how the BMS functions – which evolved our understanding of how our organisation works more generally. The degree of trust was high.

This programme of work was the first time that we have involved community partners in the planning process of how we’ll realise our new strategy, and the first time we have involved community voice in a capital redevelopment project which will evolve how we deliver programme at the centre. At a time of wider change in our organisation – where there are high level discussions about further programming and capital priorities – we have carried out a significant body of work to make a case for prioritizing the development of a dedicated community space in our centre.

Did this project impact the future sustainability of your organisation?

Yes. A significant driver for this programme of work is ensuring longer term financial sustainability of our organisation by ensuring our work as an educational charity does not adversely impact/displace income generating activity across our organisation. At the moment, community events and experiences displace events we would otherwise accrue venue hire income from external clients as we don’t have any community programme space. Bold Futures has allowed us to fully scope out what would be required to transform underutilized space in our centre into a vibrant and mission critical hub for communities.