Over the Summer and Autumn, we’ve been undertaking further conversations about Harlow as part of our wider research project exploring cross-cutting initiatives for the town.
We’ve been asking questions about prosperity and what makes a town truly prosperous. We define a prosperous town as one which is thriving, characterised by its inhabitants’ high levels of well-being and access to fulfilling jobs and varied employment opportunity in a high quality environment with many, varied social / communal activities – shifting away from a definition focussed solely on financial success.
We’ve also been exploring what a resilient town might be. We think a resilient town is one able to respond to opportunity and is ready to withstand unknown challenges that may be around the corner, whether they be environmental, economic or social. It has the means to bounce back from such adversity, maintaining its sense of wellbeing by having strong relationships and interconnections.
We’ve been investigating strategies and approaches that might help make Harlow a more prosperous and resilient place.
References:
Mind (2013), ‘How to Improve and Maintain Your Mental Wellbeing’, Mind, London.
Hopkins, R. (2008), ‘Transition Handbook; From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience’ Green Books, Cambridge
Mind (2013), ‘Building Resilient Communities: Making Every Contact Count for Public Mental Health’ https://www.mind.org.uk/media/343925/Briefing_-_Building_resilient_communities.pdf – accessed 22.1.13
McInroy, N. and Longlands, S. (2010), ‘Productive Local Economies: Creating Resilient Places’, Centre for Local Economic Strategies, Manchester.