Prosocial Place is a synthesis of research into the psychological mechanisms of wellbeing and the quality of urban environments. We are concerned that despite decades of design policy and guidance in the built-environment, we continue to deliver poorly performing places (CABE 2008), with exceptionally low social wellbeing within many new and existing communities. The effect of this is the creation and maintenance of unsustainable communities and places that perpetuate this cycle of failure. Prosocial Place proposes the refocus of design policy towards social wellbeing as the key outcome for any place. The programme aims to provide an informed understanding urban living that will guide the way we design, develop and manage places. Prosocial Place aspires to a culture change that promotes the creation of benign city environments through cooperation and knowledge exchange.

Healthy New Towns is a pioneering programme for NHS England as housing delivery and health are brought together to create healthier places with outstanding services. Demonstrator Sites have been working on some excellent initiatives that will provide much of the content for a guidance publication in Q4 of 2018-19. This practical guidance will disseminate the NHS Healthy New Town approach and implement the ideas gathered over the last two years, influencing the future of housing development in England. The vision is for all new housing developments and regeneration areas to be planned, delivered and managed with health and well-being at their heart.Partnership working is vital to the success of the programme in its final year. As such, Prosocial Place were recently invited to contribute to the programme as members of the Guidance Publication Steering Group,

Supporting communities and local government to transform high streets.

The Heseltine Institute for Public Policy & Practice was launched officially by Lord Heseltine in November 2013 with the aim of bringing academic research to bear on practice and policy that addresses complex, real world, place-based matters through knowledge exchange, bespoke collaboration and consultancy. Counted amongst the HI’s Board members, fellows and partners are practitioners and policy-makers who have been working to resolve complex and ingrained urban issues using solutions-focussed strategies and frameworks to change fortunes at a city scale nationally and internationally. In the Liverpool City Region we have developed the expertise to understand and address the complex ‘urban failure’ that beset the region for decades prior to its strategic resurgence over the past circa 20 years.The Prosocial Place Programme delivers the urban planning and design interests of the HI by thinking about and designing our urban environments with the mental wellbeing of individuals, groups and communities at the forefront. The aim is to develop an integrated evidence base and practice that can inform urban planning, design, development and place stewardship.

This is a Knowledge Exchange role with the university via the Prosocial Place Research Programme which promotes and practices a way of thinking about and designing urban environments with the health and wellbeing of individuals, groups and communities at the forefront. The aim of our socio-ecological approach is to develop an integrated evidence base and practice that informs urban planning, design, development and place stewardship.

Graham is a seasoned urban designer who has been successfully changing places for over 25 years. Principal of Maxim, Graham is committed to sustainable ‘placemaking’ through excellence in design and management, influencing regeneration projects directly as a consultant, and in a design review and enabling capacity through several national panels including Design Council CABE. Graham also works through several charity organisations enabling communities to shape environments and become design champions.

Working with the team at Design Council CABE, my role as a Built Environment Expert includes client project support, mentoring and training. I am currently working with the team to develop the Active By Design Programme http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/projects/active-design.

BEACON OF RECONCILIATION FOR LIVERPOOLOur history in Liverpool is culturally unique, born of world conflict, struggle and survival. The headstones in Anfield Cemetery are the book spines for this library of collected local, national and international stories. Laid in our soil is a record of pain and triumph, love and destruction, hope and reconciliation. This sacred ground represents ‘Mans Search for Meaning’, a journey well described by Viktor Frankl in his seminal book of this title. Frankl, a survivor of the Nazi holocaust, spent his career as a psychologist in pursuit of this question of meaning. Satisfying basic need is the foundation to life; creating ‘meaning’ is the foundation to humanity. In Frankl’s words:"Freedom, however, is not the last word. Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast."A Responsibility Foundation has been established to deliver Frankl’s dream, and a 300-foot national monument, the Statue of Responsibility, will be erected within the next ten years.In Liverpool we propose a Beacon of Reconciliation of similar scale to the Statues of Liberty and Responsibility, but as a living exploratory that is more than a single statement or memorial. It will be a place, a neighbourhood, a district, a city, a reconciled, liberated and responsible community. It will be embodied in the fabric and the people of Liverpool. The concept of reconciliation is wide and can be considered at every level from the scale of international conflict, imperialist empire building, slavery, to the lingering issues of discrimination, impoverishment and misunderstanding.

OUR ROLEFounded in 2007, Engage Liverpool CIC has emerged as a residents champion in this progressive renaissance for Liverpool. We provide an independent forum where people with the will to develop inclusive City Centre neighbourhoods can work together towards this common goal. The role of Engage is to enable open discussions that are democratic, balanced, informed and an accurate reflection of our collective needs and aspirations. Our key role is to ensure that this reflected opinion is valued and influential in the city.Liverpool is a difficult city to encapsulate: unpredictable, changeable, diverse, bursting with opportunity and optimism; uncertain, a little fragile and in need of apt investment to realise its potential. And that is Liverpool: like Janus the Roman god of beginnings and transitions, journeys and exchange, concerned with travelling, trading and shipping.Liverpool is cosmopolitan, developed from a world not regional people, comprising a rich culture attractive and welcoming to interesting and creative people. It is a city community capable of helping itself when the opportunity arises and capable of articulating its views when they do not. In the modern world she is a city of firsts: the mother of invention concerning the built environment, culture and society. Liverpool need only look to itself for inspiration and assurance from past achievements - not what we have done, but that we have done it. Population growth in the City Centre has been fast paced over the past decades, creating a new and different urban community that is generating increased demand for modern facilities, amenities and services that are all but absent, making urban living difficult for pioneering residents. In short, today's challenge is to create resilient and sustainable neighbourhoods for a permanent community.

PLACED delivers a range of activities that give young people an opportunity to learn about the towns and cities, why design is important, and an understanding of how places are created.Activities include pupil and teacher workshops in school, partnerships with universities and tailor made programmes of outreach activity. Exciting hands on workshops develop a wide range of skills, from presentation to team working, building confidence and raising aspirations. Activities have clear links across the curriculum and are appropriate for a wide range of age groups, abilities and skills.

Working with the TIBER Young Peoples Steering Group, we are developing a Prosocial Programme for the regeneration of this important high street in Toxteth. The young people have secured a 4Ha site from the city council and £100k from the Portas Pilot to develop a public square as a catalyst first phase project.

Pilot Urban Regeneration Company. Closed March 2008 after delivering the majority of its strategic regeneration framework - valued over £3billion.