Thriving Places
Having explored the landscape and history of your place, it’s time to start finding out about how your community functions within its environment- your community’s well-being. This is the state of being comfortable, happy and healthy and depends in part on how needs are being met within the community: education, housing, health, employment, leisure and social needs. Providing for these needs and creating positive outcomes is often called ‘placemaking’.
Read this page in Welsh
Placemaking is a way of ensuring that any new development or change contributes positively to enhancing the environments in which we live, work and play. It places people at the heart of the process and results in places that are vibrant, have a clear identity and where people can develop a sense of belonging.
Vibrant and thriving communities have a mix of places to live, work, shop, eat and play, often jostling next to each other.
This section will help you to understand the assets available for local people, housing provision, and areas in need of change. But this place-based approach can also support a sense of community:
“Places have a range of purposes which provide opportunities for community development, local business growth an access jobs, services and facilities via walking, cycling or public transport. Development density and a mix of uses and tenures helps to support a diverse community and vibrant public realm.” Placemaking Wales Charter: http://dcfw.org/placemaking/placemaking-charter/
There is a wealth of data on over 300 places in Wales available on Understanding Welsh Places, a website that is designed to be the first point of call for statistical information about towns and communities in Wales. It will also allow you to compare your place to others nationally. You could combine this information with a community audit - what is in 15 minute walking radius of your place? How much of what you need for everyday life is here? What is missing, and where do people go for these?
