We are a team of thirteen Community Builders, managed and mentored by Exeter Community Initiatives, who are active throughout the community. The builders take an Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) approach, using local strengths, organisations and passions as a starting point for enabling greater connection, activity, and collective support. The Community Building project is central to the Wellbeing Exeter model which runs alongside the social prescribing work.
The Community Builders work in all thirteen wards in Exeter and Cranbrook.
The aim of our role is to work at neighbourhood level to build confident, more connected communities. We do this by identifying and mapping community assets, listening to local people and helping them develop what they want, improving links between services, local groups, initiatives and the community and enabling increased community activity.
Wellbeing Exeter is a strategic alliance of public, voluntary and community sector organisations. It was set up to pilot a particular approach to social prescribing, in combination with asset-based community development to provide firm foundations to enable individuals and communities to improve and promote their own health and wellbeing.
The wider project involves GP practices who are referring patients who they believe would benefit from some form of social intervention to Community Connectors employed by Age UK Exeter, Westbank, Estuary League of Friends and Westbank Surgery.
