Interactive Preston map built by the community for the community thanks to UCLan, Brookfield Space and NewsSocial Cooperative

Available for the public to use and contribute to, the YourMap project collates key community assets into an interactive map of Preston, divided into 14 of the city’s wards. The only criteria is that each addition to the map needs to bring benefits to local residents, whether it be an activity, voluntary groups, a venue, local business, service, an individual or a place of interest.

The project, funded by Research England’s Enhancing Research Culture, began in February last year and has been led by UCLan’s Professor Philip Whyman and Julian Manley, alongside local charity Brookfield Spaceplace that runs social welfare activities for the people of Brookfield.

The Preston YourMap is aided by social platform NewsSocial and the team is calling for people to get in touch if they feel they have something community-focused to add to it.

UCLan Professor of Economics Philip Whyman said: “Citizen researchers were asked to map community resources within their local wards. This has obvious benefits for members of the local community, who wish to access a particular service or community asset but would not otherwise know where this might be found.

“It also has benefits for the local authority when considering where to invest in future community assets and services. It provides a benchmark against which to measure the development of community assets in Preston and hence, can help to both inform the development of the Preston Model and measure its successes over time.”

Chris Davis from Brookfield Spaceplace commented: “YourMap is a celebration of using ‘local’ initiative that presents an opportunity to find solutions locally. Developing an infrastructure that enables this local activity is what the City needs rather than external service providers.”

Identifying food growing and distribution opportunities among local assets is a key strategy for the project, and UCLan project assistant Alina Belousova is involved in YourMap in a personal capacity through her organic food scheme which delivers to all areas of Preston.

Alina said: “YourMap helps you to understand that can have not only a physical asset in the area, but a human one too. Apart from my work at UCLan I help in the community from time to time and run a local and organic veg box scheme called Back to Eden and, so we have put it on the map as well.

“It is our hope that with the help of YourMap people can find more local projects and people that bring value to the community and start using their services, instead of going elsewhere.”

Dr Julian Manley, Professor of Social Innovation in UCLan’s Centre for Citizenship and Community, added: “YourMap’s bigger objective is to get Preston working cooperatively. It can potentially be a useful tool for creating more cooperatives by identifying grassroots organisations that might want to turn into co-ops in the future, and in turn hire and source their materials from local people, thereby building more wealth in the community.

“The project really demonstrates how the University and community can work together to achieve a mutual goal and we hope it will deliver tangible benefits for all involved.”

Preston’s YourMap is live and available to view.

Anyone who wants to learn more or contribute to the project can contact Chris on [email protected] or Alina on [email protected]