Author: Jane Lewis
Consultant
All too often when working with communities, a group of professionals will decide what a community needs, without input from the members of the community themselves. This is done with good intentions, but removes thecommunities’ ability to decide for themselves, and limits the amount that residents can become engaged and take the initiative for themselves. Also, professionals do not always know what is best for communities, and residents often have a better idea of what needs to be done.
The Grub Hub emerged as a project following positive deviance training in 2014 to a cross section of Cambridgeshire family and community services staff, from the local authority, housing organisations, youth services, and local charities. Here they learned to recruit and facilitate community members through the four-stage process of:
Defining a problem by collecting stories and evidence
Discovering if there were positive exceptions who seemed to have avoided or overcome the problem
Determining HOW they did this
Sharing and spreading the successful practices.
Being aware of anti-social behaviour issues and family breakdown on the Oxmoor estate in Huntingdon, representatives of Cambridgeshire Youth Services and the community development team on the estate talked to individuals and groups to define the issues in their terms and find the positive exceptions. They met with parents living in the community to talk to them about what their priorities were, and if there were examples of families avoiding the problems.
In turn, the parents spoke to friends in the area to gain a range of ideas about what they felt was needed.
The community members discovered that families who spent time together, particularly eating together, seemed less likely to have problems.
The main feedback was that there was nothing on offer in Huntingdon for families to enjoy together. There were projects aimed at parents with toddlers, or after-school clubs for older children, but nothing which could be attended by families with children of varying ages.
The families they spoke to also mentioned that there was often an issue getting the family together for food. Some families had no dining room table, so eating as a family was a challenge. Also some of the fathers worked shifts, meaning that when the child got home from school they would either have to be quiet as the father was sleeping, or would be unable to get food as the father and his friends would be socialising in the kitchen.
From these ideas and discussions, the Grub Hub concept was born. It was named by the community (before the company of a similar name launched in the UK), and organised by them as something that they wanted and would value. The Grub Hub was a place where parents could go with their children after the school run, where they are all provided with a hot meal and can relax and socialise together.
There were activities and books out for the children, but they were not forced to use these; everything happened organically. Representatives from agencies such as Children’s Services were allowed to attend by invitation, but only to make informal contact or respond to specific requests, not to push out leaflets or “sell” their services.
How it evolved
The Grub Hub began in May 2015 as a seven- week pilot project, and re-started as a long-term project in October 2015. There were originally four families attending, which grew to seven, and kept growing until by the third month, 70 people attended consistently.
Demand started to exceed the ability of the Hub to cater for everyone. A number of spin-off groups and activities on different days emerged.
In terms of where to go, there was always a way to hear from the community about how they would like to proceed. The tablecloths at the Grub Hub were blank sheets of paper, and everyone was encouraged to write their ideas onto the tablecloths throughout the evening. Pictures of these were taken and ideas shared at regular meetings of the governing body, Huntingdon Community Action Partnership (HCAP), that was set up with a constitution embodying positive deviance principles. In addition, meetings are always open meetings so that members of the community can become more involved if they wish. Some of the parents who attend the Grub Hub started to come along and contribute to these meetings, then to the Hub itself.
The Grub Hub provided qualifications such as health and hygiene courses and extended the opportunities for volunteers. The volunteers are all local people who are often in need themselves, yet give up their time to help others, so supporting them and showing how much they are valued. The spin off activities, Snack Shack, Catch a Cuppa and Book Nook, are run by volunteers without the need for professionals.
Impact
Between 2015 and 2017, a review of impact for the Cambridgeshire Resilience Strategy showed that:
The group achieved its objectives of getting families to play and eat together
The cost of a weekly session of the Grub Hub for 80 people (£120) is the same as one individual visit by a social worker
Between June 2015 and February 2017, it had delivered 60 sessions to between 70 and 80 people per week
It reached 178 individuals in that period, but had an effect on many more Its existence was reported by the housing organisation to have attracted 10 families to the estate
Attendees with mental health issues had needed less professional support than normal, and professionals were allowed to observe a whole family in a relaxed and informal setting, getting a far better idea of any issues
The expanding activities and interests of the group allowed other Council services to achieve their targets and adapt their offerings, without the need for expensive campaigns.
The project was showcased in a County Council report highlighting good community development practices in 2016.
In September 2018, a report to Huntingdon Town Council Leisure and Community Services Committee noted “the projects that HCAP provide have had a huge positive impact on the community, especially Grub Hub. After attending a session, the member was impressed by the enthusiasm and dedication of the volunteers. It was noted that the support provided to local families was invaluable.”
In 2019, a strategic assessment of the area, informing partnership working on community safety across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Council areas, identified the Grub Hub as “a hyper-local, community-driven solution in line with our partnership objectives.”
What happened next
The Grub Hub and offshoots continued and flourished and moved into the brand new Coneygear Centre in February 2020. Sadly, in March 2020, COVID 19 stopped this kind of social activity. However, the governing body, Huntingdon Community Action Partnership, continues.
It is a great example of how the positive deviance principles of “ownership not buy-in” and “the group is the guru” make a sustainable, low-cost difference.
For more information on this project, please contact Jane Lewis.