Housing: Willow Park Radio Project
 Since Willow Park Housing Trust took
over a failing East Wythenshawe
estate of 6,600 houses from
Manchester City Council in 1998, they've
not only embarked on a massive
refurbishment scheme but have
sought to boost the social,
educational and employment
opportunities of their tenants in
some unusual ways.
As a non-profit community
housing company, the Trust has seen
its role as not simply that of a landlord
but as ensuring the "quality of life of local
residents is developed and nurtured". In
addition to organising gardening classes,
apprenticeships, computer training and
credit unions, it launched a community
broadcasting project in conjunction with WFM and Radio Regen.
"Because all of our housing stock is in
a tight geographical area, it's important
to us that things are going on - that
there's an interaction in the community
and that there's community pride building
up," says Irene Southern, Willow Park's
Community Development Manager.
The radio project was funded by a Housing Corporation "Community Training
& Enabling" (CTE) grant. Tenants and staff
were trained in broadcasting so that
they could produce and present their
own programmes. Side projects included
contributing to the Remix The Streets youth scheme and radio soap opera
developed with Artransmit.
 Currently Willow Park has a
slot on WFM every Thursday at
which retains the brief of getting
more involved in their community
keeping them well-informed about
neighbourhood happenings. They
the opportunity to report on activities
such as fun-days, while neighbourhood
wardens can alert listeners to issues
such as bogus callers or Anti Social
Behaviour Orders.
"WFM has proved very powerful community radio in general is an tool for consultation, disseminating information, or for just generally giving people ownership of a place, says Irene. It has been such as success that other housing associations
across the UK have been interested
recreating the scheme. "We've
presentations about CTEs everywhere
from York to Cornwall using the
of the Radio Regen project as a model."
Links: Willow Park Website
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