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...
The conference will hear from Ruth Townsley from Locality about what opportunities there might be in the new Community Organisers programme, and from Renee Smith-Gorringe from Office of Civil Society about what government’s plans are around community empowerment. Emma Lees and Sophie Ballinger from CDX will also be sharing their experience of setting up the Our Society network, which brings people together to present an alternative to the ‘Big Society’. Creative and successful empowerment projects and services from across the South West will also be showcased. You can follow the conference online as it happens by watching live on this website, or by commenting on twitter using the hashtag #empworks. You can also join a group on the Our Society website to meet others from the South West who are interested in supporting community empowerment.
We want to hear your ideas before the day too…
- What opportunities (or threats!) do you see for empowerment in the Localism Bill now going through Parliament? And what about the Public Services White Paper, delayed from last winter to late July?
- What achievements, contacts and resources do you have to share with others working on community empowerment?
- What works? What needs doing? What inspires you?
- How can we help each other?
Looking forward to the event on Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteI see lots of opportunities in the Localism but only if communities are supported to take hold of the power being offered.
That is where the power of networks and networking will start to play an even larger role in communities.
I have concerns with the Localism Bill in particular clause 5 which could see the equalities act undermined. However, The House of Lords are looking at this at the minute so lets hope we get some clarification on this soon.
I couldn't agree more. There's a real danger that in the environment which may develop it will be just the loudest voices that will be heard.
ReplyDeleteIt was good to see, though, that MPs who take the trouble to go out and ask what's going on recognise the need for capacity to support communities - as the report on localism from the DCLG select committee says: ‘the chances of localism transforming the way the country is governed may be hampered at the outset by a lack of resources to prime the pump by building community capacity. . . realism is needed about how fundamental change will be achieved without resources to support it.’ Read more in the post just below this one.
There are real dangers for disadvantaged people and communities in the Localism Bill. In particular the clauses enabling the government to change legislation which inhibits Councils doing what they want puts at risk all progressive legislation, including the Equality Act 2010. Also, the removal of the Duty to Involve, at the same time as proposing Specific Equalities Duties which don't require evidence of consultation, undoes any protections for communities which are not empowered.
ReplyDeleteAny power proposed for the Secretary of State to amend or repeal legislation without the change having to be taken through due parliamentary process is undemocratic and a threat to relevant interest groups.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the useful if worrying comments, very important that these issues are highlighted. There is much that is useful in the Localism Bill but unless these problems are resolved it will only benefit those who already have most advantage and power and who do not face discrimination. Widening inequalities won't help any of us in the long run.
ReplyDeleteI'm not very familiar with detail of the Localism Bill so I looked up Clause 5 (mentioned in first comment above) and found this useful briefing which explains why that clause could undermine the Equality Act (basically it gives the Secretary of State lots of powers to revoke 'statutory provision', which could be used to waive equality legislation I think (seems incredible!).
See the briefing (from Women's Resource Centre) here: http://www.wrc.org.uk/includes/documents/cm_docs/2011/w/wrc_localism_bill_second_reading_briefing.pdf
Most of us have expostulated at some time or other about the facet of British organisational culture that means when someone new takes over the running of something, they disregard what went before. Lessons learned from programmes and initiatives are forgotten and rejected as ‘old hat’ or irrelevant, products of projects – toolkits, courses, and evaluations and so on - lay gathering dust on real or virtual shelves. Everyone starts again from scratch.
ReplyDeleteWe have been evaluating the South West Empowering Communities project during 2010-11 and have been impressed with its innovative actions to counteract the ‘not invented here’ tendency. At Thursday’s ‘What We Know and What’s Next’ event , we will be talking about a section of our evaluation which brings together some important lessons which we hope the new set of policymakers and legislators don’t spend a whole parliaments-worth of time relearning.
We talked to many people during the evaluation, and they told us about the factors and qualities which make for successful empowerment programmes. None of it will be new to anyone involved in the work, but it was felt that it’s important to keep restating even the relatively obvious in the hope that time and money aren’t wasted in the future.
To keep starting again from first principles as though there is no accumulated knowledge of the fundamentals of what works and what doesn’t means that communities’ time will be wasted as they are disillusioned by another set of short term initiatives set up by policymakers starting with a clean slate.
We’ll post the key messages from the evaluation on the website after the event on Thursday – we’d be interested in your comments and additions.
Sue Martin and Lesley Wagstaffe
React Consortium