5 years into their funding, East Coseley Big Local invited us to unearth what the local community does best and what they want Coseley to look like and feel like after 2025.

Big local is funded by the National Lottery Community Fund and managed by Local Trust. There are 150 Big Local areas in England which were allocated £1m each through Big Local. East Coseley was selected as a Big Local area in 2011 by the National Lottery Community Fund. It is an opportunity for residents to make a lasting positive change in the place they live. Through Big Local, the local talent, ambitions, skills and energy of people who care about Coseley are brought together with a shared vision:

The legacy of East Coseley will be a better connected community in which local people work together and with local organisations to create and maintain vibrant and welcoming activities, events, green spaces and community places, and take responsibility for their economic and environmental future.

APEC Architects worked in collaboration with Dudley CVS to plan and deliver community engagement activities to support the development of the Big Local 2025 Strategic Plan. We got to know members of the community through conversations while making PomPoms 4 Loneliness, helping out with the community cinema, playing skittles in the local league, and going on a photo walk across Coseley. We also held structured workshops with the Big Local core group and project leaders to draw out what Coseley does best, and where they want to focus their energy for the future.

We also carried out an appraisal of the many welcoming spaces and places in Coseley. We created a set of resources containing reflections on local community buildings which East Coseley Big Local can use to aid decision making.

To find out more about the wonderful things the Coseley community are doing, visit their website.