Thrive

‘Just Thornaby’ (now called Thrive, and for the whole of Stockton) initiative has been working in Thornaby, Stockton on Tees, for over a year. The project is the first pilot of the Sustainable Livelihoods approach, developed overseas, in a UK context.

The livelihoods approach takes people as the starting point and examines how their strengths are enhanced or inhibited by political structures. These strengths are in five areas which are required to build up a livelihood which is sustainable. The initiative so far has mapped existing community resources according to the Livelihoods framework, Macro, Meso and Micro (international / national, regional / sub regional and local).

Through community links developed by the project worker 24 households then volunteered to take part in research which aimed to understand how these three tiers of power affected people and how they adapted their strategies for ‘getting by’. There proved to be gaps between the two areas and several issues for potential interventions were identified, including mental health, jobs and training, financial inclusion, leisure services and participation.

The initiative is presently in the process of developing these issues and gathering local people to take ownership of any interventions. The aim here is to further involve sections of the community whose life choices are most limited by political structures and think about the way in which such institutions work.

For more information on Just Thornaby contact Greg Brown.

For more information on the Sustainable Livelihoods approach, as used within international development, visit the Livelihoods website, administered by the Institute for Development Studies.

You can also watch a 10-minute video of people being interviewed about their experiences being part of this Sustainable Livelihoods project.