Round Hill Community Project

The Round Hill Community project aims to foster and strengthen community spirit between all residents in the Round Hill area.

The Round Hill area is bounded by Upper Lewes Road, the railway track and Ditchling Road with an estimated 1000 households in the neighbourhood.  The project partners will use local community events and work with University of Brighton student volunteers to find ways of better understanding, sharing and acting upon each others’ needs, worries and concerns about living in the area. They believe this will enhance our community members’ enjoyment of living in the area, by taking account of each others’ needs and providing help and support to neighbours. They are particularly keen to gain the views of young people who live in the area.

The partnership intend to deepen community cohesion in the Round Hill area and increase understanding of different groups’ needs and issues through gathering information about their views and needs related to living in Round Hill and then sharing this information and resulting plans for action.  Starting with a community street party in June 2011 and culminating with a local research project led by Brighton University students, the project aims to establish:

•          How safe, happy and well the people in our area feel

•          The interest and preparedness of neighbours to volunteer their help to each other

•          What role and actions the RHS Committee need to take forward on behalf of the    community

Developing good relationships between students and residents within the RHS area is key to this project and will be achieved by engaging local students in a needs analysis project which aims to identify needs of our more vulnerable neighbours which can be met through developing a local volunteering programme.

It is hoped that increased engagement in community activities from different groups who live in the area, resulting in a stronger sense of local community and a better understanding of each others’ views of and priorities for Round Hill

The project partners aim to have gathered the community information they need to inform a future bid to establish a sustainable local volunteering scheme to reduce social isolation of vulnerable people within the neighbourhood and improve social cohesion through building a sense of common purpose.