Today began the journey of building the next vision of Winchester! Our group, the “Lifetimes” working group, was tasked with building a community in which there are a lifetime of opportunities. But to do so, we first had to start with what that means!

 

We began our discussions with a map of our beautiful city. This prompted us to reflect on how the outer areas of Winchester interact with our centre, and how there are areas that may feel more distant from the city by hills, indirect roots to the centre or even just physical distance! How accessible was each area of Winchester to spaces of community? What barriers could we see to people connecting with Winchester as a place to spend their time? This brought up theories of a 15-minute community: a city where, no matter where you lived in it, you were always within 15 minutes from the community essentials (i.e. food, cafes, open spaces to play, activities).

 

We then reflected on who within the lifetime journey was less represented in Winchester and it became apparent that young people, specifically 20s – 30s, were missing. This could be for a number of reasons, housing, employment opportunities for those graduating from school or university, or even areas such as nightlife. But we all decided one area of research we needed to delve into more was how to make Winchester a place for all ages to thrive.

 

And this lead us onto our final train of thought: Winchester being a space for all. Many studies demonstrate that the needs of young people can be very similar to the needs of the older generation – open spaces, places to socialise, support networks. And so similarly, we needed to grasp how to make Winchester an inter-generational city.

Going forward we are going to be researching what each demographic needs within a community and how to ensure each group can thrive together. We are combining this research with making sure that all areas of Winchester are feeling this sense of community, and not just the centre. I am looking forward to seeing what we find next…