Thursday 21 April 2011

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.

Tuesday 19 April 2011

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.

Friday 15 April 2011

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.