Lesley Santiago, former Chair, Garth Residents Association, Hull

Lesley Santiago was Chair of Garth Residents Association in Hull. She was a participant on the Hull 1996/97 programme. She explains why she joined the programme and what she - and her community - got out of it

I am chair of a residents association on the Bransholme estate in Hull, the biggest housing estate in Europe. We do lots of things to improve our area by working with the council and police and companies, but we also get our own residents to stop calling for everyone else to do something and to start doing something ourselves.

What gets me really angry is what people think of people who live on housing estates. They think that we are spongers, druggies and thieves - failures. It's not true. I phoned up when ASDA opened a store here and there were queues of people going round and round the block going for the jobs. I told the photographers to come and see just how much Bransholme people want jobs.

The trouble is if you are known to be a failure then you become one. Kids around here grow up feeling they are inadequate failures. Before they even go to school they are asking what's the point, there's nothing for us.

That's what I want to change. Common Purpose was so wonderful. I learnt so much about my own prejudices. I learnt so much from the arts day. I don't dismiss things out of hand any more. And I learnt about how decisions are made. The governance day was a total eye opener, finding out how things work.

It gave me a voice. I learnt how to question clever people better. But I also got my point across to the other people on the programme.

And it gave me so many new contacts. They help all the time, from stuff for car boot sales to getting bumps put into our roads so that less kids have accidents.

But most of it was about me. Most of the changes aren't visible, they are inside me. I'm very proud of the person I've found I am.