Connected Communities team
Steve Broome
Director of Research
Steve has 12 years experience of researching community regeneration and economic development agendas. He specialises in understanding impact through mixed methods research designs. Steve joined the RSA in October 2008 after working on a London New Deal for Communities programme, where he led evaluation and strategy, community safety and community development programmes.
Emma Norris
Associate Director
Emma Norris is a Senior Researcher and has worked on the Civic Commons project, examining citizenship and public participation, and Furthering Opportunity, promoting social justice in the further education sector.
Gaia Marcus
Researcher
Gaia Marcus is a researcher for the Connected Communities project and the social network analysis champion for RSA projects as a whole. Her focus is examining the role of social networks in building resilient, empowered communities; in promoting mental well-being; and in building human capabilities in everything from education to social entrepreneurship.
Prior to joining the RSA, Gaia worked as a research associate and online community manager for the Space Makers Agency. There her roles included facilitating online networks to produce tangible offline projects and change, and researching and supporting innovative uses of empty urban spaces. Most notably, the Brixton Village project showed what innovation and regeneration is possible when a free 'hub' is provided for networks to form and interact around.
Gaia graduated with distinction in an MA in Understanding and Securing Human Rights from the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and holds a BA Hons in History from University College London.
Fellows
Stephen Feber
FRSA
Stephen Feber, FRSA, has started a number of regeneration projects in the UK with a social enterprise focus including the Eureka! children's museum in Halifax and the Stirling Prize winning Magna science centre in South Yorkshire. He is currently development director of the Big Lottery funded £30m redevelopment project, Heartlands, in Cornwall. He has a long term interest in developing local democracy by building the human, physical and knowledge infrastructures which support the growth of social capital. He approached the RSA in the summer of 2008 with proposals for action research to undertake social network analysis in different settings. These proposals have helped inform the Connected Communities initiative.
Alison Gilchrist
FRSA, Independent Consultant
Alison Gilchrist is an independent consultant who has been involved in community development for more than 27 years: as neighbourhood worker, lecturer, writer, trainer, manager, director, policy adviser and researcher. She has worked at local, regional and national levels of government, with community, voluntary and public sector organisations. Her particular interests are networking and equalities practice. Alison is the author of the Well Connected Community, to be published in July 2009. This is a guide to using theories of social capital and social change for practitioners, in particular looking at how network models can be used in community development work.
Carolyn Hassan
FRSA, Director, Knowle West Media Centre
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