Logos: Heart Foundation and Australian Active Innovation Challenge

Module 2

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:

  1. Increase positive feelings toward a place by over 60%
  2. Spend 50% more time in a location
  3. 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)

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 (ABCD) graphic

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.

Activity: Community Assets

Write a description of three key assets your community has.


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

2. Don’t be afraid to ask

3. Build empowerment from the start

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.

Spheres of Influence

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.

Reflect on which key factor you believe will have the biggest impact on your project, and why.

Click to download the What Will Make the Most Difference worksheet (PDF)

Case studies: Ideas in action

Connecting placemaking principles to physical activity programs can help create strong, meaningful and lasting projects.

Click on the videos below to hear from Emma Hall, Director of Placemaking at Village Well and coach of one of The Big Issue’s Street Soccer Programs, as she shares how these programs have benefited from this approach.

The Big Issue Community Street Soccer Women’s Program

https://thebigissue.org.au/news/the-big-issue-launches-2024-social-impact-report/

New Epping Social and Affordable Housing Community Building

https://havenhomesafe.org.au/news-media/completed-developments/stage-1-residences-new-epping-precinct

  • 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.
  • Trudeau, D. (2006). Politics of belonging in the construction of landscapes: place-making, boundary-drawing and exclusion. Cultural geographies, 13(3), 421-443