The Localism Act — Santa or Scrooge?

I’ve opened the shiny present in the capacious Christmas sack of the Localism Act marked ‘new rights and powers for local communities’, and had a horrid disappointment.  It rattled enticingly, but what has fallen out of it strikes me as having greatly more potential to disempower than to empower.  The year’s labour of the Elves over the Bill has, I fear, been wasted.  It’s time to move on.

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Localism in Action – the South West way

Would you like some advice on how to get local people more involved in local decision making from people in public authorities whose job is doing this?  It’s in the shape of 52 pages of case studies, tools and tips put together by a group of people with no other motivation than a wish to share what they know.

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Neighbourhood planning - will it make any difference

Just thought I'd share a post about new Neighbourhood Planning proposals in the Localism Bill, including a list of the pilot areas in the South West, which is just posted at http://www.southwestforum.org.uk/neighbourhood-planning-will-new-plans-really-make-any-difference

The People’s Budget

Giving people more control over how their area is run is something all political parties say they want, and The People’s Budget is a new campaign to get a much bigger say for local people on how public budgets are spent.  It’s the latest in a series of efforts to interest people in something with a name that is hardly likely to attract headlines and a terrible mouthful to say – Participatory Budgeting.

Persuading local Councillors that their constituents can make better decisions on how to spend money than they can was never going to be easy.  So it’s great that the Participatory Budgeting Unit and others are stirring up more interest in the subject, and using a bit of people power to persuade Councils to move on from using PB just to divvy up small grant pots to taking decisions about serious budgets.  There’s a good discussion on Toby Blume’s Posterous blog.  And there’ll be more here soon, as next week the South West’s PB and Localism Group launches its 52 page guide Localism in Action, which includes 16 pages of case studies tools and tips on PB.  Go to Creating Excellence at http://tinyurl.com/5sv38zz for the flyer, and, from 1^st November, the guide itself.

Speak up while you can

South West Forum’s timely report mixing useful case studies with grim tidings on how cuts are already muffling the voices that influence decision makers (see previous blog post and here) was welcomed at a meeting at Bath Spa University last week of funders and others who support voluntary sector organisations in the region.

A number of funders have been doing their own surveys into how the cuts are beginning to bite, and sounded gloomy – the representative of one national funder said that the cutbacks in funding advisers and support were really beginning to show.

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Who's Listening to the Big Society?

We have recently published a report about the voice and influence of voluntary and community organisations across the South West. It looks at voluntary sector forums and assemblies, and how far they include marginalised groups such as asylum seekers and refugees, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered communities. You can access the report, case studies and recommendations at www.southwestforum.org.uk/whoslistening.

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If it can’t be measured, it doesn’t count

Crying “But we know it works!” doesn’t cut it with bean counters, as community development workers and empowerment enthusiasts know well.  So it’s great to see another shot at turning confidence, engagement, participation and better decisions into brass.  This time the magic words and spreadsheet come from Involve and Consumer Focus, under the name Making the case for public engagement - How to demonstrate the value of consumer input.

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What we know and what works - update

Over 70 people gathered to discuss the past and future of empowerment in the region at this sell-out event on 29th June at the Albemarle Centre, Taunton. Visit the Creating Excellence website for speakers presentations, list of delegates and more.
The afternoon session got people talking about their successes and achievements, hopes and aspirations and generated a long list of resources, contacts and offers (Word file).

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Learning lessons - and remembering them!

Most of us have expostulated at some time or another about the facet of British organisational culture which means that when someone new takes over the running of something, they have a tendency to disregard what went before. Lessons learned from programmes and initiatives are forgotten or rejected as 'old hat', products of projects - tool-kits, courses, evaluations and so on - lay gathering dust on real or virtual shelves. Everyone starts again from scratch.

We have been evaluating South West Empowering Communities during 2010-11 and are impressed with its innovative approach to counteracting the 'not invented here' tendency.

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What we know and what’s next – join the debate

On 29th June community empowerment practitioners and activists will gather to review what has been learnt about successful community empowerment over the last few years, and discuss where to go from here. The conference will explore how to meet the current challenges posed by government reorganisation and funding shortages, and ensure that people, particularly marginalised and equality groups, are empowered to make a difference to their lives. We're starting the debate here...
 

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Localism – What does that mean?

It’s something I’d rather not be asked by someone with a questioning mind.  Should it be a relief that the Government is in the same boat?  Or, to wrap it up in the more formal language of the newly published Report on Localism from the House of Commons Communities and Local Government Committee, there’s a ‘lack of clarity about the nature of localism . . . The Government should be explicit about the choices it has made about what type of localism it wants to pursue.’  Putting it another way ‘the actions the Government has set out so far, both in the Localism Bill and in the programmes of individual departments, give an overall impression of inconsistency and incoherence.’

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A new era for neighbourhood planning?

The government has just announced some areas which are to pilot new Neighbourhood Plans, and I'm interested to see how this new approach will follow on from earlier community plans. See the Department for Communities and Local Government for the pilot areas, which include North Somerset (Backwell), South Gloucestershire (Hanham) Torbay (Brixham) and West Dorset (Sherborne) in the South West.

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Bigger Society

Film Real One are an independent film company who've been collecting people's views on the Big Society idea. Three films have just been posted on their Bigger Society channel and copies have been sent to local MPs and cabinet ministers. Who else do you think should see them?

So far, Film Real One have completed this work unpaid and unfunded. They'd like to roll the project out, and are seeking funding to do so. If you think you might be able to help with this, please get in touch.

The multifaceted nature of community empowerment

I spent a really interesting day yesterday exploring the role of voluntary sector networks in supporting community empowerment. It was a research workshop feeding into the development of a new course for infrastructure organisations (such as CVSs, rural community councils and specialist networks of volutnary organisations) to help them to empower community groups. Changes, who facilitated the day, are now developing a new training course which we (South West Forum) are running on 23-24th June in Taunton.

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A Duty to Empower?

I've just responded to Edward Andersson's blog on the Red Tape Challenge proposals to repeal the Duty to Involve with a legally naive, but socially optimistic suggestion that incorporates equality considerations and meaningful deliberative involvement. It's here. What do people on Empowerment Works think?

It's also worth mentioning that the Equality Act is one of those up for consideration under the Red Tape Challenge. If you feel moved to comment on that, you can do so here.

Practical Tools for Community Engagement

One of the most popular workshops on the Empowering Good Practice programme, was our Practical Tools for Community Engagement course, attended by over 100 people during the life of the project. People seemed to like the range and simplicity of the tools presented. “Very logical, very simple .: very effective” - in the words of one participant

All the tools we use and teach have grown out of a long tradition of participatory working that has its origins in overseas development work, and which continues to develop today. For more about the background see Have you been PA'd? or this exploration of community mapping by the Pathways through Participation project. We've often marvelled at the range of participation tools out there, and how some almost seem to be competing with each other – but in reality the ones that work best seem to share some common characteristics.

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What are you doing to support community empowerment?

Empowerment Works supporters are an army of active and committed people who understand the value of community empowerment and regularly take small and big steps to promote and make the case for community empowerment in their areas. 

For some people it can be isolating working on your own on empowerment, so we’re using this website to inspire each other and share info on what we are doing.

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People Powered Change

Jumping through hoops is how lottery applicants often describe their experience.  I wonder if David Robinson of Community Links had this in mind when in his motivational talk to conclude the Big Lottery Fund’s People Powered Change event at the Lowry Centre in Manchester on Friday he described how dolphins learn to jump through hoops held high in the air by going through them in the water to reach their food, then find them raised inch by inch.

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Now it's down to us to Keep Empowerment Working...

It's now a month since eighty of us packed into a buzzing conference room at Keeping Empowerment Working to think about how we measure and communicate the impact of the work that we do. The memory that has stayed with me was the strong sense of shared values that ran through the day, and the motivation that seemed to generate. I'm still delighted we chose the community-owned Southville Centre, as it's such a great example of what people can do when they work together. Thanks go to the speakers and workshop presenters who inspired and challenged us. The key points that resonated for me are:

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Research that pays off

Young mothers, people with current or recent experience of using local drug treatment services, community champions from Upper Horfield in Bristol, survivors of domestic abuse, and community activists from Torbay don’t sound like people who’d want to celebrate together.  But they and more found much to share at a networking day yesterday organised by South West Foundation to bring together groups which had all completed Community Researcher training.

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Your Local Budget on the road

The Big Society Network and NESTA were in Bristol on Friday for the second Your Local Budget (YLB) learning event on engaging people in local budgets and participatory budgeting (PB). It was good to find six other members of Empowering Communities' eighteen month old PB group also at Colston Hall, and some luminaries from the national scene, including Phil Teece of the Participatory Budgeting Unit and Simon Burall from Involve, down in Bristol again after speaking at our Keeping Empowerment Working event on 10^th February.

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Community Led Planning and the Localism Bill – how full is the glass?

Planners, community representatives and people from the private sector – all experts in different ways – gathered in Tiverton on Thursday 17 February for an over-subscribed day organised by Empowering Communities with Creating Excellence, SWAN and Devon Heartlands Community Trust to consider the prospects for rural and urban communities in the new planning environment being created by the Localism Bill. 

Chair Jim Claydon, a Board member of Creating Excellence and Past-President of RTPI, set the scene with a welcome for the Localism Bill and the opportunities it will offer.  He had questions, however, on whether the reality will live up to many of the good principles behind it, and his mixture of welcome and concern was echoed by the speakers.  Their presentations and other material is on the Creating Excellence website at this link, and more will be added.  So this is just a discussion-starting sip of what they had to say:

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Share your story

We know that good community empowerment makes a real difference to people's lives. It helps them to solve the problems and barriers that they face and improves quality of life and access to resources in their communities. It has the greatest impact on those that face the toughest barriers, such as single parents, refugees, social housing tenants and people who have had limited access to education. We want to tell those in power about the difference that community empowerment has made to people's lives, to explain why it needs to be supported and why it is such a good investment.

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Exeter Refugee Support Group appeals to politicians to protect vital services to vulnerable people - call for your support

Following the recent Equal Rights Equal Voices event which discussed how to influence cuts affecting equality groups, Refugee Support Group in Exeter has written to key politicians to ask them to intervene on cuts in services to the most vulnerable, including refugees and asylum seekers.

Refugee Support Group (RSG) is at risk of closure because even though it does not receive direct public funding, charitable trust funding is becoming scarcer because of increased demand and the economic climate.

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So, how *do* we make the case for community empowerment?

On Thursday 80 people involved in empowerment are gathering at Keeping Empowerment Working to discuss what we can do about all this. How can we make the case for community empowerment? Add your ideas by commenting below.

Simon Burall from Involve will make the economic case for empowerment, Sue Warr from Dorset Partnership for Older People Programme will make the social case for empowerment, and Peter Lipman from Transition Towns Network will make the environmental case for empowerment. You can watch online here, and comment on twitter using the hashtag #empworks.

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A little bit of support goes a long way in Bournemouth

Zebra Collective has completed a programme of workshops for the dynamic West Howe Community Enterprises in Bournemouth, as part of the Empowering Communities Empowering Good Practice Programme. These were put together to meet the needs of this emerging social enterprise. They included training in the core topics below and work with the group to develop their own ground rules, customer service charter, guidelines for confidentiality, boundaries and lone working – and an action plan.

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Making the Case for Empowerment

Keeping Empowerment Working Event

Southville Centre, Bristol, Thursday, 10th February 2011.

A free one day learning event focusing on:

• Making the economic, social and environmental case for empowerment.
• How to evidence the links between empowerment, wellbeing and economic recovery.
• Tools and confidence to stay motivated and to motivate others in times of change.

Places are limited. If you would like to attend please pre-register your interest and contact details to liza@zebra.coop.

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Big Society Empowerment Policy – going in the right direction?

When the authors of a report which gave a constructive welcome to much of the Big Society agenda in the Spring produce a longer follow-up, and write that ‘the objectives of community empowerment and personal responsibility are in danger of being lost’, it’s worth taking a closer look.

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75 ways to take part in your community in Exeter

As part of its legacy of information to help people do more in their communities, the Exeter Take Part team have compiled a 'map of opportunities' listing over 75 ways you can take part in community life in Exeter.

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