Our Approach
Drawing from over three decades of ‘on the ground’ practice-research
Streets of Growth have innovated the SOG System of Support
Model for supporting deeper-impacting transitional leadership
coaching for community development.
All too often neighbourhood communities experience organisational
community development as a fragmented inconsistently supported
service that functions within time frames and systems that
do not take into account the wider realities that neighbourhood
residents also have to navigate, coexist and engage in.
As a direct response to this, our approach is to function
as a person centred, transition-led organisation, which basically
means that our coaching team works from the starting point
of where the individual/community is at. This involves creating
processes that support development both within our organisational
settings as well as engages processes that challenge and
support wider social contexts of the surrounding East London
neighbourhoods.
Our SOG System of Support Model interweaves Street/Outreach,
Drop-in activities, project Participation, and deeper-engaged
community development Coordination into one holistic interdependent
system so that our staff and local residents whom we partner
and work with have a healthier coaching framework from which
to support the positive and negative mental and emotional
challenges that come with social change.
Organisational Partners
Although Streets of Growth are extremely well connected for
delivering deep-impacting multi-cultural neighbourhood advancement
practices, we are well aware that we are not a ‘one
size fits all answer to community regeneration. Therefore
we are very committed to developing a healthy community of ‘positively
engaged’ practitioner partnerships, which are crucial
if local and global communities are to function and thrive
in far deeper-impacting and creatively connected ways.
Partnering with community residents and other community development
organisations such as Schools, Universities, Businesses,
Police, Community Centres, Funders etc allows for Streets
of Growth to combine our strengths and better understand
where the gaps for are-that may need to be filled for all
to continue serving as communities that learn to best lead.
SOG Consultancy
Streets of Growth offers a wide range of bespoke leadership
courses, which are all geared towards supporting healthier
processes when engaging with neighbourhood community realities.
These include:
•
Engaging with residents [Breaking the ice, lowering defensive
barriers]
•
Building relationships [Creating trust, commitment and
safety]
•
Physical space design [Making spaces work for you]
•
Understanding the transition of change [Process outcomes]
•
Street Gang intervention [Working with group dynamics]
•
Working with short and longer-term change processes [Holding
tension]
•
Creating and supporting entrepreneurial projects [sustainability]
Our Community Street Connection
Relationships are our foundation for the development and
practice of Streets of Growth’s community leadership
legacy building mission. Experience has revealed that the
ways in which relationships are nurtured within our organisational
settings and at wider street neighbourhood level, influence
what levels of personal understanding, trust and safety
exist for deeper, efficient and more effective social development.
Drop-in
Is where an individual/group engages with SoG staff either
in the internal space at Streets of Growth or hanging out
in other settings such as street. This is where SoG community
leadership staff use their own leadership understanding
to build a shared awareness of perceptions, behaviours
and actions. This is achieved through the initiating of
new and/or building on existing relationships, setting
clear boundaries and guidelines for deeper participation.
Participating
Involves supporting and encouraging young people to participate
and stay focused on theirs and others social development.
Streets of Growth provides a variety o social leadership
development workshops, one to one coaching and mentoring
to explore and understand the themes of
• Visioning goal setting
• Values
• Perceptions and decisions-making
• Behaviours and actions
And how all of these affect the ways in which individuals
and groups socially act and interact.
Coordination
This is where young people, young adults and adults begin
to demonstrate generosity to themselves and others such
as working as volunteers, project leaders, etc to develop
community projects or supporting their peer groups to self
develop.
