Hastings Emerging Futures

Leisure & Learning (Hastings), alongside several partners, was funded by the Emerging Futures Fund to lead Hastings Emerging Futures, a process of enquiry and engagement  designed to feed directly into the town’s planning process. Taking an asset-based approach to counteract the often-times deficit-focused view of the town, the project’s goal has been to investigate possible answers to the question, “What can help us to become thriving people in a thriving place, despite a complex and uncertain future?” In doing so, they have sought to consolidate and expand the web of local people and assets that came to the fore during Covid-19, joining the dots between them using varied approaches to take stock, reflect and kickstart an inclusive process of holistic recovery led by diverse local people.

In the final quarter of 2020, they created an online space to bring together local community organisers to think about the town’s emerging future, carried out community mapping, and conducted a discovery walk where they invited local people to share ideas and plans for the future of the town, sharing these ideas in the form of a map (available here). And, in early 2021, they hosted a series of online events on the town centre, housing and gentrification sustainability, and a collective response to a new Local Plan. 

Over the course of the project, they have engaged with 38 local community organisations and over 300 individuals in their work to understand and pull together a collective vision for a thriving future for Hastings. By focusing on what is needed for a positive future, rather than on questions of how to ‘fix’ what is ‘wrong’ with the town, they have been able to ignite interest, fire up imaginations and encourage sustained participation in articulating that vision.

You can read an article in the local Hastings press about the project here, or head to the Leisure & Learning site here.