Vollenhove in the Picture

The L-Flat in Vollenhove, Zeist belongs to the biggest gallery flats in western Europe. About 2000 people from over 60 different nationalities inhabit the flat. The L-Flat was built in the sixties as a response to the enormous housing shortage after World War II and in 1968, the first people took their residence in the flat. Since it’s opening, problems have been signalled concerning vandalism, criminality and contamination of the environment by garbage. Due to the fast in- and outflow of inhabitants and its multi-culturality, social cohesion among inhabitants remains low. Especially the contamination of the environment due to garbage and underlying causes has triggered the municipality of Zeist to start an action research to tackle this issue together with inhabitants and other stakeholders. In order to give respondents space to express their main issues and identify underlying issues, the subject has been broadened from ‘garbage’ to ‘improving living quality’.

Project details

The Participatory Action Research project is an intensive 13-week cooperation between 7Senses and the municipality of Zeist, in which two 7Senses – action researchers participate and 6 municipality employees are ‘trained on the job’ in action research by 7Senses. In a multi-disciplinary team they performed Participatory Action Research in the L-Flat to boost community empowerment of residents and local organisations while at the same time work on their own personal and professional development.

Project name	Vollenhove in the Picture
Start date	January 2018
Duration	Three months
Status	Finished
Country	The Netherlands
Coordinators	Madelon Eelderink, Mariëlle Sluiter, Jorieke Vermeulen
Number of action researchers	Eight

Each Participatory Action Research starts from a community issue, addressed by its problem owners at location. As such, we make sure the action research is based on local demand rather than donor demand. Together with these local stakeholders, we design the action research in a way that fits the local context, from the problem framing up to methodology and concept definitions.

Problem Definition

Objective

Main Research Question

Sub Questions

Methods

Concepts

Each action research delivers direct outcomes for the local community on the addressed issue: we can share how many people have been reached, what their perspective is on the current and desired situation and what final Community Action Plan (CAP) they have co-created and implemented. In a later stage, local stakeholders will evaluate the impact of the CAP.

Current situation (baseline) according to local stakeholders

Desired situation according to local stakeholders

Co-created solution

This action research delivered results on six main themes: Social cohesion, Feelings of] Safety, Image [of the L-Flat], Facilities, Garbage and Multi-stakeholder cooperation. Using results of our analysis, a simplified model of the interrelatedness of the elements of living quality was developed (see figure under tab ‘desired situation’, which was shared with the respondents along with more detailed models, including proposed solutions, per identified theme (for the sake of brevity not presented here).

During stage 3, Insights Sharing & Solution Identification, the most suitable solution(s) were prioritized and -using Appreciative Inquiry- participants further elaborated upon the strengths of the community, and connected those with the prioritized solution(s). Participants then drew their ideal situation on a large piece of paper. Solutions included to ‘pimp the park’, to furnish empty container spaces as meeting spaces, a girls house and moped storage, to arrange a youth centre for boys, to establish a bee garden and to make pictograms indicating not to litter. During Action Plan Co-creation and Formalization & Transferal, these solutions were further concretized for stakeholders to work on during the Monitoring stage. The following table summarizes all current and desired situations from the perspective of involved stakeholders, along with corresponding proposed solutions.

Theme	Current situation	Desired situation	Assets	Solutions prioritized by stakeholders	Status	Also contributes to theme (s):
Social Cohesion	Little contact between stakeholders	More contact between stakeholders	Empty container spaces	Use empty container spaces as meeting spaces, girls house and moped storage	Realized	Feeling safe (people get to know each other)
Feelings of Safety	Residents feel unsafe due to delinquencies, vandalism and theft.	Feeling safe	Camera’s are placed recently, reduced delinquencies, vandalism and theft.	Improve social cohesion, more camera’s, more lampposts	Sleeping	Social cohesion (people dare to speak to each other)
Image	L-Flat has a bad image	Good image, people proud to live in the L-Flat	Many residents experience living in the L-Flat as positive	Improve the image of the L-Flat in the media	Running	Pride leads to better maintainance, more social cohesion and less likelihood to litter
Facilities inside	Bad isolation and maintainance, bad access for disabled, garbage, suicide jumps	L-Flat better isolated and maintained better access for disabled, less garbage	Since recently renovated, key-locked entrances	‘Dating’ with housing corporation, plans for better isolation	Sleeping	Improved living quality as a whole, pride.
	High energy bill, unsustainable energy use	L-Flat to be the first flat in the Netherlands to be fully energized by solar panels, lower to no energybill	Lots of space for solar panels nearby	Place solar panels at the top of a nearby building with a large rooftop	Sleeping	Image
Facilities outside	youth hanging at entrances, causing nuisance	Place for youngsters outside L-Flat	Beautiful view, lots of nature, a lot of facilities nearby	Youth centre for teenage boys	Realized	Feeling safe
	Play facilities outdated	New play facilities	Nice park opposite the flat	‘Pimp the park’	Realized	Social cohesion
	Lack of green	More nature	Space for green in and around the park	Bee garden	Realized	Social cohesion
Cooperation with partners	There is a lack of unity, communication and cooperation between involved organisations, forwarding crisis situations to others & bureaucracy	Improved cooperation, easier findability and access to the right organizations	Recently a barrio service point has opened. Cooperation between police and housing corporation is good.	Improve contact between involved organisations, gain trust, elucidate interests	Running	All themes, and debt issues
Garbage – Litter	People throw litter off the balcony. Dangerous, stinks and gives vermin.	No litter thrown off balconies, clean environment	Biga cleans every week.	Pictograms ‘do not throw garbage off balcony’, camera’s	Running	Feeling safe (a cleaner environment)
Garbage – Containers	Many people put their trashbags next to containers because they dont have a waste pass.	Less trash next to containers.	Big containers. Boa investigates who put trasbags near containers, punishment. No trashbags on galery anymore.	Make waste pass easy accessible and cheap.	Running	Feeling safe

By the time of writing (sept 2019), some of these initiatives have been successfully realized, others are still running and some are currently inactive.