The Dumbiedykes estate, in the shadow of Arthur's Seat, is an anomaly at the heart of Edinburgh.

Bounded by Holyrood Park on one side and Holyrood Road on the other, this little community of 670 households sits near the Scottish Parliament.

It is adjacent to festival and tourist hotspots. Yet much of the housing is poor and a high proportion of residents live in poverty. While not the most deprived area of the city, police regularly field complaints about anti-social behaviour, often related to addiction. A driver was subjected to a car-jacking there last Monday.

As of the New Year it will be the focus for a social experiment. The Twenty More project has one aim - to improve the income of every household there by £20 a week, permanently.

It is funded by the Clore Duffield Foundation, which awarded a grant of £50,000 last week to the small Edinburgh charity Comas to develop the idea of its chief executive Ruth Campbell, herself a Clore Leadership Fellow.

There is no one strategy for doing this, because Ms Campbell believes "single solutions only tackle a bit of the problem".

The approach being planned is to employ a small team of workers to knock on doors in Dumbiedykes and help people in individual ways. This could be by ensuring they receive benefits they need, or helping people to cut their bills. But it could also include helping people help themselves - setting up microbusinesses, for example, with migrants from Eastern Europe, who make up part of the local population. Community-buying schemes for shared products such as broadband could also form part of the mix.

Ms Campbell's vision is that helping everyone should mean everyone. But she sees ways in which those who can spare £20 might give it to those in need. Buying from microbusinesses, perhaps, or from a community-led care service.

She's concerned the project shouldn't come across as blaming the poor for their plight but says poverty can make long-term thinking difficult. Ultimately, the aim is to employ local people and perhaps use the model in areas of more entrenched poverty.

The idea is essentially a form of asset-based community development but the holistic approach is new. She said: "It is experimental. We will respond to what is in front of us. It is great to have been given this funding just to try something out."