Small-Town Regeneration Insights #6
Before fixing what’s broken, towns take time to understand what’s valued.
Strong foundations start with strong relationships. The Piketberg Municipal Task Team and Community Task Team worked side by side to map what already works in the town.
Why Listening Comes First
In many towns, development starts with a checklist, identify the problems, define the solution, and get going. But in the Small-Town Regeneration Strategy (STR), the second phase takes a different approach. It starts by asking a more foundational question: What matters most to the people who live here?
Phase 2: Explore Your Community and Town is the point in the STR process where listening becomes deliberate and assumptions are set aside. It shifts focus away from problems and toward the values, assets and aspirations and recognises the strengths that already exist. In doing so, it lays a foundation for regeneration that is rooted, responsive, and far more likely to succeed.
From What’s Broken to What’s Already Working
Too often, planning begins with diagnosing what’s wrong. But when that’s the only story being told, it can make communities feel overlooked or misunderstood. The STR turns that thinking on its head. Phase 2 marks a deliberate shift in thinking. It moves the spotlight away from what’s missing and toward what’s meaningful.
Phase 2 begins by recognising that every town already holds value, sometimes hidden, sometimes in plain sight. Towns are encouraged to explore their history, culture, places of pride, and everyday networks of support. These may be cultural traditions, long-standing relationships, informal support networks, or trusted local institutions. The job of this phase is to surface those assets and bring them into view.
The goal isn’t to ignore challenges, it’s to frame regeneration around what already gives the town its character and resilience. It’s about creating a more complete picture that includes strength, pride, and potential alongside need.
This shift to an asset-based approach has practical value. It supports better planning, stronger ownership, and more effective collaboration across sectors. When people feel seen for their strengths, not just their needs, they are more likely to participate, contribute, and stay involved.
Exploring as a Collective Process
This phase isn’t a technical audit or a one-time engagement. It’s a community-wide invitation to pause, reflect, and speak.
At its core are four essential questions:
- Where are we now?
- Where do we want to go?
- How can we get there?
- How will we know when we’ve arrived?
These aren’t abstract questions, they are explored through community walkabouts, storytelling sessions, mapping activities, and informal conversations that reveal lived experiences and shared aspirations.
This kind of exploration helps towns:
- Deepen community pride and trust
- Identify overlooked or underutilised resources
- Foster connection across demographic and cultural divides
- Build clarity and consensus on future direction
Who Holds the Work Together?
Phase 2 continues the partnership between the Municipal Task Team (MTT) and the Community Task Team (CTT), set up in Phase 1. These two teams play distinct roles but must operate in close alignment.
The MTT represents municipal leadership. It leads governance, policy, and infrastructure planning, but in this phase, its role is also to listen, to allocate resources based on community insight, and to open institutional doors for collaboration.
The CTT is rooted in community life. It bridges lived experience and planning processes. It ensures that voices from across the town—including underrepresented groups, are heard, recognised, and reflected in how assets are defined and how direction is set.
Together, these teams:
- Translate community insight into usable planning knowledge
- Map formal and informal assets
- Facilitate inclusive engagements
- Identify emerging partnerships
| Municipal Task Team | Community Task Team |
|---|---|
| Institutional Lead Policy and planning oversight Data and infrastructure support | Lived-experience anchor Everyday engagement Voice of diverse residents |
💬 “It only works if both the technical and the human are respected.”
The Power of Storytelling and Shared Memory
One of the most powerful tools in this phase is simple: storytelling. Residents are invited to speak about their town, what they value, what they miss, and what they hope for.
These stories reveal more than sentiment. They uncover shared values, informal networks, hidden resources, and new leadership potential. They also help rebuild the social contract—a sense of being in this work together.
This is also where early public-private-community partnerships start to emerge. Local businesses, faith groups, NGOs, and civic actors can begin aligning their efforts with community-led insight. These early collaborations lay the groundwork for implementation later.
Why It Matters
This phase strengthens more than project plans, it strengthens relationships. It builds the kind of shared insight and shared ownership that keeps work moving when challenges arise.
It’s also where the tone of regeneration is set. When people see themselves reflected in the process, not as beneficiaries, but as partners, they engage differently.
🗣 Sample Prompts for Dialogue:
- What matters to you about this place?
- What would you not want to lose?
- Who do you go to when things go wrong?
Final Thought: Ask Before You Answer
The Explore phase is not a gap between planning and implementation. It’s a crucial moment of reconnection, where towns choose to lead not by assuming, but by listening.
When municipalities and communities take time to ask, “What matters most?” they often find that people already know the answer. They just need a process that’s willing to hear it.
Key Takeaways
- Phase 2 focuses on assets, not just deficits. It values strengths like cultural traditions, trusted people, and informal support systems.
- Belonging and identity matter. Reconnecting with what residents love creates stronger foundations for future plans.
- Storytelling is strategic. It reveals shared values and unlocks inclusive visioning.
- The MTT and CTT each have defined roles—governance and grassroots—working in tandem to steer the process.
- Early partnerships begin here. These relationships become vital in later phases.
- Everyone has something to contribute. The most successful towns ensure broad participation across all demographics.
What’s Next in the Series
Over the next blog posts in this series, we’ll walk through the core tasks of Phase 2:
- Understanding the Town’s Vision – What does the community want the future to look like?
- Identifying Local Assets – What’s already working, and what should be built on?
- Defining Development Pillars – What focus areas matter most for regeneration?
- Setting Community Priorities – How can towns align what matters with what’s possible?
We’ll also share lessons from Piketberg, Senekal, and Modimolle, where Phase 2 helped reconnect people to place and turned shared insight into shared direction.
For More Information
STR Implementing Agent: CITEPLAN (Pty) Ltd | Technical Manager: Istell Orton-Nightingale at istell@citeplan.net or Communication Contact: Eriva Nanyonjo at eriva@citeplan.net
Project Sponsor: Department of Cooperative Governance | Project Manager: Prabin Govender at prabing@cogta.gov.za or Communication Contact: Moferefere Moloi at mofereferem@cogta.gov.za
