Project Updates | Shops
By Annette Holman
Over the past 18 months Neighbourly Lab have been busy testing concepts around our National Lottery Funded Programme of Unlocking Social Opportunity in Shops.
We set out to test ways to create community spaces in stores, to help reach and signpost customers to support and foster more social connection by:
- Working with supermarkets with a variety of underutilised spaces
- To create a community space with a formatted timetable of activities
- By making this easy and attractive to utilise the space with and for the community.
- To support the health and wellbeing of community members
We have recently finished trials at an Asda store in Small Heath, Birmingham where we were able to transform a redundant optician space into a community space for activities and social connection. Have a read here of our colleague Rickie’s experience of the trials.
This was built upon learnings we took from our trials with Asda and Tesco in Maryhill, Glasgow in last year. Where we held pop up information events on digital safety, health checks, money management along with “Brew, Biscuit, and Blether“, mornings where people could relax, have a cuppa, and engage in a meaningful way.
What next?
We are in the final 6 months of the programme and capturing our learning from the trails and wider research to create some guidance for supermarkets on what it takes to open up their spaces including different types of space, people and activities as well as sharing the learning of the use of private space more widely as part of our work around social Infrastructure.