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Priesthill & Househillwood
The Priesthill and Househillwood Thriving Place is on the south western edge of Glasgow, bordering Renfrewshire to the west, East Renfrewshire to the south,and Pollok Country Park to the northeast. It also includes much of Nitshill.
Locality Plan
Thriving Places was introduced in Priesthill and Househillwood to help improve the quality of life of people who live and work here. The communities of Priesthill and Househillwood are already successfully working with partners through the Neighbourhood Forum and theme groups and this is something Locality Planning will continue to build on. There are many other local organisations which are part of Priesthill and Househillwood Thriving Place, including Priesthill and Househillwood Neighbourhood Forum, Greater Pollok Maintenance Scheme, 3 Hills Community Garden, Priesthill URC and Peat Road Hall, Sanctuary Housing, Rosehill Housing Association and Glasgow Housing Association, Jeely Piece Club, Homestart Glasgow South, SWAMP, Aberlour and Village Storytelling Centre, South West Community Cycles, and Cleeves Parent Council.
The Priesthill Househillwood Thriving Place engage local residents in various ways that includes; Community Breakfasts, Community Meals, Gala Days as well as a range of Weekly Activities that cater for all within the Community.
The Thriving Place Forum meets on a quarterly basis whilst established themed groups namely Activities for Children & Young People Group, Environmental & Community Safety Group, Food Support Group, Social Inclusion Group, Barrett Action Group and Friends of Househillwood Park Group meet on a monthly basis.
2020/21 Update
Community involvement is at the heart of locality planning, but this has been challenging due to the pandemic, particularly over 2020/2021. Personal engagement has been very difficult to carry out due to the restrictions on face-to-face contact, ordinarily a key part of community development, but the Community Connector worked to ensure excellent relationships were maintained with the community, with deep conversations about the ever-changing situation on the ground. This has seen a shift towards more remote engagement either online or via telephone.
The work of thematic groups continued, but this was reshaped into a response to Covid-19, with a greater focus on social isolation, mental health (for both adults and children) and community food provision. For example, the Peat Road Hall become a resource for food provision whereas previously it had been a focal point for other Thriving Places activities.
A keenly felt impact of the lockdown and restrictions was that the large community social activities have been paused for the majority of the year. These have been a great miss and smaller, legal and safe community engagement have been the response to try and maintain connections across the neighbourhood. That said, more people became involved in community activity and more was delivered for and by the community themselves. This included gardening groups, money advice, emergency food provision and health and well-being activities.
Information is regularly shared with community members about local activities and opportunities for community involvement in the local area. The Community Connector has worked to ensure accessibility for the greatest number of participants, taking into consideration the evolving Covid-19 restrictions. Local people have provided excellent feedback from the support from Thriving Places during a very difficult year, that the consistent approach taken has provided some much-needed calm in among the constantly fluctuating picture for people in the community.
For example, based on the ongoing community involvement throughout the year, an extra £15,000 of funding from Sanctuary Group has resourced Community-based Trauma Workshops for 2021/2022. This will be a key part of the Covid-19 recovery work to tackle the impact of trauma on local people from bereavement, illness or social isolation during the pandemic. These workshops are a response to that, to deliver learning activities for the community to explore, question and understand the impact that trauma has had on them, their families and friends and the wider community. This is an important step beyond "informing" and goes deeper to support learning and growth together.
Partnership working was even more vital than ever this year. Thriving Places included the work of a range of partners at all levels of delivery, including Peat Road Hall, Village Storytelling Centre, G53 Together, 3 Hills, Greater Pollok Services, GHA, Shelter, CPP, GCHSCP Health Improvement Team, local businesses, Baptist Church and many more. This was essential in helping to respond to the crisis.
Thriving Places helped bring additional external funding into the local area. For example, a project with Streetcones, local schools and GCHSCP has led to £45,000 over 3 years being received to deliver workshops and school lessons on the impact of antisocial behaviour and ways to address it. Also, the Thriving Places team expanded in Priesthill and Househillwood as Sanctuary Scotland (the community anchor organisation) recruited for a new post to support some of the most marginalised people in the community.
Locality planning is very much about enabling local people to be at the heart of decision making at a neighbourhood level and this has been a continued focus of Thriving Places. The Community Connector worked to ensure that the voices of local communities were listened to during the design and delivery of local services during the pandemic.
2019/20 Update
Around 40 local people went to all four meetings of the Priesthill and Househillwood Neighbourhood Forum in 2019/20. The forum is informed by the work of sub-groups on children and young people, social isolation and mental health, community space and community food provision.
The community breakfast continued to be an excellent space for people to connect with their neighbours and find out more about the things happening locally. This took place in the Peat Road Hall, with around 30 to 60 coming along every week.
Over the year, more local people became involved in community activity. This meant that local projects were increasingly delivered for and by the community themselves including cookery groups, money advice and health and wellbeing activities. For example, the cookery group came out of people meeting at the community breakfast, becoming friends and taking part in a cookery programme supported by Urban Roots Since then the cookery group has received a food and hygiene certificate and they have cooked for local events and meets weekly.
Nothing was done without proper community input and direction. For example, sessions were run in partnership with Listen, Think, Draw and the Village Storytelling Centre to allow children and young people in the local area to create a neighbourhood map. This allowed y children and young people to identify things in the local area that mattered to them. This work led to a visual map of Priesthill and Househillwood being produced with children and young people.
Thriving Places in Priesthill and Househillwood helped join up local projects and activities run by a number of organisations. This has included GP surgeries, Community Links Practitioners, Urban Roots, the Jeely Piece, Greater Pollok Services, Househillwood Tenants and Residents Association and Levern Community Council.
Local people were involved in all stages of decision making, and people of all backgrounds and abilities. For example, Thriving Places supported Glasgow Disability Alliance (GDA) to carry out a consultation to identify sites and specialist play equipment for local people with disabilities. The outbreak of Covid-19 and the lockdown meant that the play equipment has not been installed yet, but the work had also led to members of the GDA attending the community breakfast, community meals, cookery groups and local meetings.
2018/19 Update
During 2018/19, progress has been made in Priesthill and Househillwood in connecting the community together and engaging with people who were previously isolated or not part of any community group. A focus has been placed on the beneficial impact of social events, supporting individuals and groups to develop and deliver 4 community meals on a different theme, and a range of fun events for people of all ages. These were well attended with over 400 people attending both the Halloween and Summer days events.
The community breakfast runs weekly and offers a simple, welcoming environment to anyone looking to meet new people or even just find out a bit more about what is happening in the local area. The breakfasts are run by volunteers from the community with minimal support from paid staff in the area. 40-60 people regularly attend the breakfasts.
A local person was supported to achieve his lifetime ambition of having a play that he had written performed locally. With support, he has successfully put on 2 plays in the area, once of which was used to heighten awareness of Adverse Childhood Experiences and to begin local conversations about this topic.
A range of smaller projects have also been supported from cookery groups to a darts tournament.
In Autumn/Winter 2018, locality planning partners launched a new Action Plan. This follow the publication of the Locality Plan in August 2017, and states the progress that has already been made with regard to these commitments as well as what will be addressed in 2019.
This Action Plan can be viewed here: 
Action Plan [131kb]
The Priesthill/Househillwood Forum Minutes
This locality operates with a Forum structure, rather than the Steering Group structure adopted by many other localities. This is a resident led group which promotes positive partnership working between Statutory and Third Sector Agencies, Local Housing Associations, Elected Members and Residents.
2019
The Priesthill/Househillwood Forum (a resident led forum with representation from across the area) was already operating and meeting monthly. Following on from the above consultations and subsequent discussions at the Priesthill Househillwood Forum, three thematic groups were established to take forward the priorities and promote positive partnership working between Statutory and Third Sector Agencies, Local Housing Associations, Elected Members and Residents.
November 2019 Environmental & Community Safety Group [141kb]
Communications
Further Information
The locality plan for Priesthill & Househillwood can be found here: Priesthill Househillwood Locality Plan [1Mb]
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/neighbourhoodinfopage/
Information on this webpage is provided by Priesthill and Househillwood Thriving Places steering group, and may not necessarily reflect the views of Glasgow Community Planning Partnership.