Uturn UK C.I.C. has foundational support from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, with occasional grant support from other grant-making trusts.
Working with local Councils
Uturn UK has been working, under contract, with Birmingham City Council through the Birmingham Better Care Fund, with Solihull Council and Walsall Council in partnership with Walsall Housing Group.
Additionally, East Cheshire Council is supporting a locally-based organization to promote Street Associations in close association with Uturn UK C.I.C., involving a partnership of local stakeholders including the churches, council, and health providers. In other areas, stakeholders are coming together to promote the initiative with our support and involvement. For example, in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, the town council, district council, churches, doctors, teachers, police and others have together adopted a vision for Street Associations progressively covering the town.
Cllr Paulette Hamilton, Cabinet Member Health and Social Care Birmingham City Council and also Chair of the Birmingham Health and Wellbeing Board, writes: “We are excited by the potential of Street Associations to transform a neighbourhood, with real signs of a shift from negativity, isolation and even antisocial behaviour to friendliness and helpfulness, bringing a renewed sense of belonging and community spirit. This is changing the atmosphere of streets that need it most.”
Connected Communities
Uturn UK is also working with the Centre for Citizenship and Community, which is a joint venture of the London School of Economics, the Royal Society of Arts and the University of Central Lancashire, together undertaking a ‘Connected Communities’ project, which for the first time has Street Associations at its heart. The project is taking place in Kingstanding, Birmingham, and is supported by the Birmingham Better Care Fund. The partnership follows the publication in October 2015 of ‘Community Capital: The Value of Connected Communities‘.
Neighbourhood Watch
Nationally, Uturn UK has created a partnership with Neighbourhood Watch in which Street Associations can combine with Neighbourhood Watch at the local level.
A Street Association can register as a Neighbourhood Watch group, without changing its name. This brings together the Street Association agenda of ‘friendship, fun, belonging, a helping hand’, with the Neighbourhood Watch agenda of crime prevention and community safety. Street Associations that are registered in this way also have the benefit of being covered by Neighbourhood Watch’s free public liability insurance cover.
Additionally, we have been supporting The Big Lunch and they have on many occasions promoted to their participants the idea of setting up a Street Association to keep community spirit alive in between Big Lunches.
