Over 14 months, 1,100 people, representing one in twelve residents of the Leys, participated in over 40 community engagement events. Held three-to-four times per month, these one-to-two-hour sessions were scheduled at various times to maximise participation. Young people and children accounted for over 20 percent of attendees, reflecting strong community involvement and diverse engagement across age groups.

Who is on the project team? (designer, consultants, etc)

Community Engagement Consultants - Transition by Design Cooperative CIC

Architects (shell & core) - JTP

Architects (internals) - Jessop & Cook Architects

Landscape Architects - Ireland Albrecht

Describe the context of the community engagement. Why did the engagement take place?

Transition by Design (T/D) has been appointed by Oxford City Council (together with project partners, Peabody) to deliver community engagement and consultation for the development of the new Blackbird Leys Community Centre and surrounding Public Open Space.  The Leys is to have a new identifiable Community Centre to meet the current and future needs of the Blackbird Leys & Greater Leys community. The centre will have a new inclusive and multifunctional community centre and better accessible public space. This will complement the wider regeneration of the Leys, which includes new shops and new affordable homes, and is being led by Peabody and Oxford City Council. The engagement was necessary as the Blackbird Leys Community Centre has been a focal point of the Leys for over 60 years. Blackbird Leys is a Ward with a rich history in Oxford, dating back to originally being an area of expansion to support growing housing needs in the city of Oxford in the 1950s and 60s. It was necessary for the project to include a comprehensive community engagement strategy to ensure that residents could shape the design of the new community centre and the surrounding public open space. The Community Engagement strategy ensured that an inclusive approach was used to engaged with a diverse range of local residents to help co-design their future community centre.

Who did you engage with and how?

Over 1,100 people attended community engagement events during a 14-month period, representing 1 in 12 people in the Leys. With over 40 events—averaging 3-4 per month—to reach diverse community members and gather comprehensive input from across the Leys. Our communications reached over 10,000 people through newsletters, flyers, posters, invitations and online communications. We attended existing community events to meet people in their own spaces. All events were open to the public except for a few focus groups. We established a Leys Community Review Panel, to ensure the design reflects the values and aspirations of local residents. The panel serves as an independent, advisory capacity during the design process, addressing the brief and design of the project. The panel are demographically representative of the Leys and meet quarterly with the design team. Panel members receive an honorarium payment above the Oxford Living wage, with the option to donate it to the local Community Larder. Events typically lasted 1-2 hours and at various times in the week to maximise community participation. Young people and children made up over 20% of our engagement, participating through workshops for young women and girls, youth activities, and children’s engagement sessions. We also ran workshops with the FriendLeys Café (for senior citizens), participated in family events and collaborated with organisations like AFiUK (African Families in the UK).

Have you continued the conversation? Will the community stay involved? 

The community will continue to stay involved. It it is hoped that engagement will continue during the technical design stage and during construction. This could include, but not limited to, the following: Communications strategy on updates on the planning applications, communications and possibility of public meetings / workshops during the technical design and/or construction stage to keep people informed of developments, possibility of incorporating further workshops including arts and young people, workshops with Key Stakeholders, User Groups, Councillors and other interested parties, further Leys Community Review Panel meetings.Transition by Design is continuing to be involved in other projects that include community engagement within the local area, and will be involved with the future engagement for the community centre. By being an Oxford-based cooperative and Community Interest Company, they are keeping the conversation alive whilst being connected with several of the community groups that were previously engaged with for this project.