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Engaging the Community- Management of their Green Space
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St Albans District Council brought together a team of officers to work with GHP and community artist/ filmmaker Sanchita Islam to reach the whole community of users and non-users of Clarence Park more effectively than is usually possible through traditional methods.
Sanchita worked as artist in residence in the park over the summer, interviewing, filming, recording and photographing local people. She captured in a 20 minute DVD both user and non-user perceptions of Clarence Park, which are being used to inform officers' decisions about future changes to be incorporated into the management plan.
It is hoped that this piece of work may encourage more people to become more involved in the park, through its Park Forum or other consultative mechanisms which may be more appropriate.
 Alongside the DVD, GHP have also produced a report of the process, which will be used within the Community Engagement section of the updated Management Plan for Clarence Park, to be submitted to Green Flag judges. The report highlights key findings and issues emerging from the DVD which can lead to a number of immediate action points, building internal and external relationships, as well as some future projects in the park. SADC have reported that the GHP team they established is continuing to work together to implement some of these action points.
Sanchita Islam, Artist, said:
“I have really enjoyed the process so far, I have been given lots of direction and had plenty of input which has helped me to direct the development of the project. Hopefully this will assist me in creating a film that meets the brief and something that is informative and functional rather than solely aesthetic.”
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