A new approach: The Chestnut Centre

From carnivals to community centres, the range of benefits that have sprung from the community dividend and DBI’s work in attracting investment are impressive.

If anything could be said to embody those benefits, it is probably the Chestnut Centre. Built with capital grants from the European Union and the Government, it opened in 2005 on the site of the former Christchurch Woodhouse school and is home to a range of facilities whose benefits ripple out into the surrounding community.

The Chestnut Centre houses a library and information centre, a neighbourhood housing office, an IT centre, a credit union, a children’s centre, a nursery and a café. There are health clinics and training courses, meeting rooms to hire and secure, affordable units for new businesses to rent. Staff from different organisations work together under the same roof, so local people are no longer pushed from pillar to post to sort out problems.

These tangible features are vital, but perhaps even more important is the sense of ownership and trust that has built up around the centre. DBI chief officer Andi Briggs describes this as ‘the bedrock of the DBI achievements’.

Prior to the initiative, there was a strong sense of hostility and resentment towards public services in the area. Housing officers, for example, dealt with the public behind reinforced screens, making it obvious that local people were regarded with fear and suspicion.

Much of that has changed now. Darren Thomas, the Chestnut Centre’s senior customer information officer, says: ‘This building is seven years old and it still looks brand new. I’ve told the children in the library, if you’re smashing up the library you’re smashing up your library... They understand that and they look after the books and the library.’

Andi Briggs says the need to bring in services that were accessible and appropriate was identified very early on. The key factor was to make sure local people were engaged and involved at every level of provision.

For this reason, the building is managed not by the council but by the social enterprise Fresh Horizons, which makes a point of employing local people wherever possible. ‘This sent a very clear message,’ says Andi. ‘It said, we’re investing in local people. It wasn’t a shiny new council building where we bussed everyone in from the leafy suburbs to run it.’