Delivering the S for Escape 2 Make – uO Workshop

urbanOvation lead a workshop for Escape 2 Make (E2M), a social enterprise aiming to create a safe space to help 11–18year olds in the Lancaster & Morecambe area to escape from boredom, social media, loneliness and any pressure at school or home by providing a building that can host social spaces, workshops and short courses hosted by local businesses, national businesses, local artists and university students.

Insights

The workshop brought together a group of urbanOvation members and E2M leaders to unpack the business case and new approaches to invest, develop and operate a building in Morecambe. Some insights from the workshop included:

• Current services for 11-18year olds are often non-inclusive and insights from the E2M community has highlighted a need for a place where teenagers can go to feel, safe, connected and develop new skills
• Most city or town centres focus on commercial office and retail offerings and often lack the infrastructure and services to support teenagers
• New approaches to supporting 11-18year olds could significantly reduce resource and financial pressures for police and health services
• Challenges facing the youth of Lancaster and Morecombe are common across many UK towns or cities
• Social Value is a rising priority for investors and urban professionals and a new social enterprise model could provide a valuable mechanism to invest in a building for E2M

@Jeremy Salmon, architect, Urban Place Network, distilled feedback from 11-18year olds from a previous workshop and produced a vision document that showcased youth service modelled and how a new multiple functional building design could serve the growing and diverse needs of the E2M community.

A special thank you to @Jeremy Salmon, @Jenny Natusch, Peter Charnley, @Joanna Foxley, Paul Hanegraaf, @Pete Cooper, @John Scott, @Bill Kistler for sharing your expertise, knowledge and insights.

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We look forward to sharing more news in the future about our partnership with Escape to Make and how members could be involved.