Module 2: Community-led placemaking
Community-led placemaking
This module explores how community-led placemaking can help strengthen health and activity initiatives. By building on local strengths and fostering social connections, placemaking creates vibrant, inclusive spaces that support well-being and bring lasting benefits to the community.
This module will explore:
- How community-led placemaking can improve health and well-being.
- The power of local strengths and social connections in creating inclusive spaces.
- The benefits of Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) in placemaking.
- Practical ways to integrate placemaking into community initiatives.
- Real-world examples and stories of community-led placemaking in action.
Learning outcome:
By the end of this module, you will understand how to apply placemaking principles to projects and be inspired by what is possible by using a placemaking lens.
What is placemaking?
Placemaking is an approach that helps us build stronger places and communities. Click below to hear Dr. Cristina Hernandez Santin, Placemaker at Village Well, explain further.
The greatest benchmark for placemaking success: local people can see their fingerprints all over it”
Village Well
The power of placemaking
Whether simple or complex, placemaking is a powerful tool for building healthier communities. Research shows it can create a ripple effect — helping people feel more emotionally connected to a place.
Placemaking has been shown to:
- Increase positive feelings toward a place by over 60%
- Spend 50% more time in a location
- Strengthen community connections by 53%
This makes a difference to health as we know that social connection and belonging are strongly linked to personal health. As Psychologist Raymond Cattell said:
Social connection and a sense of belonging to a community can improve the health and wellbeing of a person."
Cattell
Benefits of placemaking
Placemaking has many ecological, social, and economic benefits. Below, seven key health related benefits are shown. By applying a placemaking lens to your projects, you might discover ways to strengthen your outcomes and create greater social impact.
Let’s look at examples of these benefits in real life. Click on the videos below to hear stories on placemaking benefits through real projects!
Where do we start?
Placemaking can feel like a big and unfamiliar concept, especially if we ask you to apply the idea to your project. To help you take the first steps, we’ve put together a few key ideas where you can begin:
- Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) – Start by identifying and building on the strengths and assets already present in your community.
- Engage with your community – Meaningful engagement helps uncover local knowledge, values, and ideas.
- Support agency and empowerment – Create opportunities for community members to lead, shape, and take ownership of projects.
Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD)
We invite you to start from a place of gratitude and appreciation. Often, we focus on the negatives and ‘solving an issue,’ but we miss reflecting on what you and your community are good at and identifying the strengths and assets of the system you are working with.
This is called Asset-Based Community Development, or ABCD, and it is an approach for sustainable development that starts with your community.
Asset-Based Community Development is a community-driven approach that builds on existing strengths (people, skills, natural resources) to create sustainable change.
Strong communities grow from within. By identifying and using what already exists, we unlock greater potential for our places.
Discovering your assets
So, what are the hidden strengths of your place and community? Let’s explore four types of assets you can tap into and leverage in your work:
| 1. |
People
Are there champions, volunteer groups, or mentors you can draw upon?
|
| 2. |
Skills
What skills already exist that could help implement, share, or grow your program? These include crafts, storytelling, or project management. And don’t forget to consider the skills you bring to the table!
|
| 3. |
Organisations
What associations, businesses, or institutions could support you? What role might they play?
|
| 4. |
Physical elements
What are the assets of the place itself? People live here for a reason. Consider the character of buildings, local amenities, or natural features around you—and how these might support your project.
|
Use this worksheet to reflect on the strengths already present in your community that you can build on.
Click to download the Discovering Your Assets worksheet (PDF)
Engaging with your community
A core principle of placemaking is that a great place takes many hands, and the same applies to your project. Once you’ve identified key assets that could support your work, it’s time to strengthen your community networks by actively engaging with people. To help you in your engagement journey, remember these three things:
1. Reach out
- You might be surprised by how many people are open to a chat or willing to help. You may even discover others who share your goals and values.
2. Don’t be afraid to ask
- You never know what support you might receive unless you ask. What’s the worst that can happen?
3. Build empowerment from the start
- When people feel they can meaningfully contribute to your project or wider goal, they’re more likely to stay involved and add to your asset base.
Learn more about engaging with your community
Developing agency and empowerment
Ideally, your project will support the community to shape a better place together. Remember, small changes can lead to big impacts.
So, ask yourself: What role can your project play in strengthening your place and community?
To help think about where your project can create change, we use the Spheres of Influence framework. This is a positive planning tool by Regenesis asking you to reflect on your projects influence within and surrounding the project.
This model below is adapted from Stephen Covey’s Circle of Influence model, which teaches us that, to be proactive, we must focus our energy into the things that we can influence.
Learn more about Stephen Covey’s Circle of Influence framework.
At the inner level is the Sphere of Control. This includes things directly within your control, such as decisions, actions and elements within your project.
The second sphere is the Sphere of Influence. This includes ways your project may impact others, such as improving health and well-being. These are outcomes you can influence but not fully control.
The outer sphere is the Sphere of Concern, it holds the big-picture ideas and challenges you're concerned about. These are labelled concerns because they are the least within your control. However, this area can also spark opportunities to grow your project and inspire others.
When planning your project, remember to consider how your project is designed may be able to give more people agency (more sphere of control) or influence over your project, and therefore feel important in your project.
Now that we have explored ABCD, Community Engagement, and Agency and Empowerment, we hope that some of these ideas may help you shape the plans you have for your project. The tool below can help you think about how these concepts apply to your program.
Use this worksheet to reflect on which key factor you believe will have the biggest impact on your project, and why.
Download the What Will Make the Most Difference worksheet (PDF)
Case studies: Ideas in action
Connecting placemaking principles to physical activity programs or community needs can help create strong, meaningful and lasting projects. The two case studies below show two different programs, and how they use some of the things we will explore in this training.
The Big Issue Community Street Soccer Women’s Program
The Big Issue started their magazine program in Australia in 1996. In 2007, they started a Community Street Soccer program in North Melbourne to try to increase support for homeless and marginalised people in a non-conventional way. The soccer program now has 27 programs across Australia and has engaged more than 11,300 people.
Click on the video below to hear from Emma Hall, Director of Placemaking at Village Well and coach of one of The Big Issue’s Women’s Community Street Soccer Programs, as she shares some learnings from her involvement in the program.
The power of the program
Using Monitoring and Evaluation, The Big Issue have been able to show how their program has impacted their players through survey results:
- 98% said Street Soccer helped them improve their fitness
- 98% said Street Soccer makes them feel good about themselves
- 96% said Street Soccer has helped them have a more positive outlook
- 96% were motivated to maintain or improve their physical and mental health
- 93% said there is always someone who they can get advice and support from
You can find more information about their impact in their latest impact report.
The program also had an independent study in 2009 on the program’s economic impact, which helped the program gain ongoing funding. The study found that:
- Street Soccer led to individual behaviour change and a reduction in high-risk activities.
- Every $1 invested in Street Soccer generated an estimated saving of $4.30 to the Australian community.
- Based on the program’s operating costs, it estimated that Street Soccer saved society $7 million per year.
To be able to show the impact of the program has helped it be a strong presence in local communities, helping participants aged 16 years and above, who in many cases have given up on traditional support systems and services.
New Epping Social and Affordable Housing Community Building
Village Well worked with Haven Home Safe (a community housing provider) to produce a placemaking strategy for 151 homes being built in a place called New Epping. The aim of this project was to build community connections and support networks. The challenges were that it was the first building to be developed in a large field, and everyone was to move in at once.
Using placemaking principles, we leveraged existing community assets, built chances for connection, empowerment and agency, and ensured that the new residents were engaged with and supported in their transition.
Click on the video below to hear from Emma Hall, Director of Placemaking at Village Well and project lead for the New Epping project, as she shares some learnings from her involvement.
The power of placemaking
Through an aligned vision, strong plan, clear actions and leveraging partners, the community reported higher satisfaction across their annual resident satisfaction survey than their organisational average. Some key measures that came out of the survey were:
- 15% more people said their neighbourhood was important
- 8 in 10 said that their life improved
- 8 in 10 were satisfied with resident involvement
- 9 in 10 were satisfied we treat them fairly
- 9 in 10 know their rights and responsibilities
References and resources
- Cattell, V. (2001). Poor people, poor places, and poor health: The mediating role of social networks and social capital. Social Science & Medicine, 52(10), 1501–1516. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-9536(00)00259-8
- Covey, S. R. (n.d.). Circle of influence framework [PDF]. The Development Partnership. https://dplearningzone.the-dp.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/06/Covey.pdf
- Haven; Haven Home Safe. (n.d.). Stage 1 residences – New Epping precinct. https://havenhomesafe.org.au/news-media/completed-developments/stage-1-residences-new-epping-precinct
- Nurture Development. (n.d.). Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD). https://www.nurturedevelopment.org/asset-based-community-development/
- The Big Issue. (2024). The Big Issue launches 2024 Social Impact Report. https://thebigissue.org.au/news/the-big-issue-launches-2024-social-impact-report/
- Trudeau, D. (2006). Politics of belonging in the construction of landscapes: Place-making, boundary-drawing and exclusion. Cultural Geographies, 13(3), 421–443. https://doi.org/10.1191/1474474006eu366oa