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.

Starting with a community street party in June 2011 and culminating with a local research project led by Brighton University students, they aim 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  

What the project hopes to achieve

• 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 through a range of local events
• Develop good relationships between students and residents within the RHS area 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.
• 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

Who the project will work with

Initial involvement will be aimed at all members of the Round Hill community; Round Hill Society committee members and Brighton University through Jim McLoughlin (Brighton Business School) and Active Student.

At the next stage they will be looking to jointly bid with Neighbourhood Care Scheme (NCS) for funding to establish a volunteering scheme.

How the project links to the idea of neighbourliness

The whole project is based on fostering and growing a stronger sense of local community with all the residents of the Round Hill area, so that people will feel more confident to ask for and offer support between each other.

Project Partners

Annie Rimington, Roundhill Society

Jim McLoughlin, University of Brighton