Love the way you Lye: How community story-telling and partnership changed the town’s image

| Azad Sharma

Summer 2019 gave us the opportunity for partnering up with Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council’s Public Health team and the wonderful people of Lye. Lye had unfortunately received bad press with reports of crime, fly-tipping, littering and community divisions. 

The Public Health Team’s Community Development workers went out to collect stories on the ground from Lye residents to find out the real story behind this negative image which had resulted in Lye being labelled as a ‘no-go-zone’. The common themes of the stories embraced Lye as a friendly town with great diversity and community. There are stories of love, learning and education, work and play, togetherness and creativity. We’re really proud of the document we co-produced with Dudley Council and Lye’s residents but as is the case with a lot of community story-telling, it’s best to let the stories do the talking:

Click image to view the stories!

Photo by Nong Vang

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