The first 100 days
As I write this, Fieldwork as a public facing group has just surpassed 100 days of existence.
This is what has happened in those 100 days.
Ben Porter
Media
14 episodes of the York Community Wealth Building Podcast were published, with 686 total downloads.
Clips from those episodes were shared on social media, generating over 50,000 views on Instagram, reaching over 20,000 people.
837 people engaged with the content on Instagram (either liked, commented or shared the content), with 658 people following us @fieldworkyork
On Facebook, we reached over 11,000 people, generating 79 reactions including 9 comments and 15 shares. 58 followers.
On LinkedIn, we reached over 10,000 people, generating 305 reactions including 32 comments and 13 reposts. 299 followers.
Research
We conducted an Asset Mapping Study of a section of York’s social enterprise sector.
We drafted a Community Wealth Building (CWB) Action Plan for York Social Enterprise Coalition.
Training
We trained 12 people from 8 voluntary / charity / social enterprise sector organisations in how to better tell their story online, in a way that resonates with their values.
Our podcast studio was made available for those organisations to use for free, to put into practice what they have learned.
Funding
We provided 6 months of trial funding for the York Community Wealth Building Hub located at SPARK, which housed the podcast studio and a drop in centre for growing social enterprises to access 1:1 support, provided by York Social Enterprise Coalition.
Reporting
We delivered the Asset Mapping Study and Community Wealth Building Action Plan to York Social Enterprise Coalition, who are in the process of ratifying the documents with their members.
The Community Wealth Building Hub, located at SPARK:YORK on Piccadilly
Who has this benefitted?
The 14 organisations that have appeared on the podcast have seen increased visibility and awareness of their organisation
The podcasts, Asset Mapping Study and CWB Action Plan have all contributed to strengthening the narrative around the social enterprise sector
The 12 people that have been trained provided extremely positive feedback on the training, stating it has unlocked new ways of thinking about using social media and creating content for online distribution
York Social Enterprise Coalition has had a physical location in the city that they have been able to use to provide 1:1 support to 15+ organisations and to facilitate fortnightly board meetings
York Social Enterprise Coalition’s members have used the space as a free workspace when needed
An indirect benefit is the contribution it is making towards the narrative around York as a place that is forward looking. Around 37% of our audience is located outside of the UK, suggesting that there is broader interest in Community Wealth Building principles. For York to be seen to be taking action around Community Wealth Building is a positive indicator.
Fieldwork as an organisation has benefitted from the increased visibility.
Fieldwork member Ben Porter was paid one day per week to conduct the activities above.
What has worked well?
Conducting the research for the Asset Mapping Study and CWB Action Plan in public, rather than private, has enabled the conversation around Community Wealth Building to reach a much larger audience.
Splitting the long form conversations up into smaller pieces of content for social media, which have been posted every weekday, has dramatically increased the reach. 70,000 views on social media compared to 686 podcast downloads, reaching over 100x more people.
The feedback from the organisations we have trained has been that the training is of high value and they would highly recommend it to others.
Having a public facing, accessible, city centre location has signified to the city that Community Wealth Building is on the agenda, with the logos of David Skaith Mayor of York & North Yorkshire, the combined authority, Fieldwork, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and York Social Enterprise Coalition, stamped on the side of the unit to show the organisations backing this work.
“The Community Wealth Building hub has been an invaluable asset for York Social Enterprise Coalition to utilise as a physical, well located space in the heart of the city.
It has given our social enterprise network a base to work out of, hold meetings and provided the opportunity to invite the wider public in to find out how a vibrant and thriving social economy is important for the York, and everyone that is visiting or calls it their home.
Having York Social Enterprise Coalition and Fieldwork co-existing within a single space has helped to foster a strong, cohesive and mutually beneficial relationship and has evidenced the need and opportunity for a permanent solution to become a reality.”
Laurie Smith, York Social Enterprise Coalition
The podcast studio
How could we have done better?
Occupancy - the hub was originally intended to be used every single day. We had two additional partners who were interested in taking space in the hub (a community radio station and a local grant-making organisation), but one pulled out due to health reasons and with the other we were unable to negotiate suitable terms due to the short term nature of the project. This led to the space only being used two to three days a week, leaving the hub empty half of the week.
Design - the hub was put together quickly at the start of the year, with around 40% of the space being allocated to York Social Enterprise Coalition for their meetings and support provision, with the other 60% for the podcast studio and editing station. In reality, the organisations coming in for training were less interested in the practicalities of creating and editing content, and more in understanding how content spreads online and how to come up with ideas that generate engagement. With this in mind, if we were to extend the hub for a further period, we would remove the editing station and reduce the podcast studio to around 40% of the space, allocating 60% for meeting and working. We would also work with a spatial designer to improve the design and interactivity of the entrance of the space.
Comfort - the unit does not currently have air conditioning. If the sun is shining and it’s over 20 degrees, the space quickly becomes unusable.
Training take up - our efforts to market the training mostly focused on outreach via local networks. This approach worked incredibly well for finding podcast guests - all of the podcast slots were allocated in just over a week of them being announced, however the uptake for the training was slower. It required multiple rounds of outreach to secure the 8 organisations that did take up the training. If we were to continue the training, we would ask each organisation who has received training to recommend two other organisations who they think would benefit from the training, and we would contact them directly based on those recommendations.
Content sharing - some organisations and individuals have shared the content of them being interviewed on their own channels, which has significantly increased the number of accounts being reached. Other organisations have not done this (some by choice, some just aren’t active on social media) and their content hasn’t spread as far. A sharing agreement with the participants that asks them to share a number of selected pieces of content would further improve the distribution of the content. Even if not all organisations agreed (they would be free to opt out), having the agreement presented to them would likely increase the chances of the total number of organisations sharing content.
Content accessibility - we initially relied on the subtitling features within the social media platforms themselves, but this caused a problem with users who had turned on automatic subtitling as it shows two layers of subtitling over each other, which was unreadable. From episode 12 we began subtitling in Adobe Premiere Pro instead, which has created better results.
Continuing the conversations we’ve started - some of the content has generated discussion around community wealth building practices, with members of the public engaging. Not everyone agrees with the points put forward by our podcast guests, in fact some outright disagree. A forum to enable those voices to enter the discussion would be an important next step.
Signage - We identified a missed opportunity for clearer signage and signposting from the ground floor entrance (higher footfall) up to the first floor where the hub was located.
Promotion - As the CWB hub was only funded temporarily we had to strike a balance between maximising the available usage while not creating expectation from potential user groups that it was going to be permanent.
