Values into Action
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Transcript of Values into Action
Values into Action
- lessons for community development and sustainable regeneration.
We are a English Midlandsbased social business. Ourgoals are:
To provide high quality services tailored to people’s needs and preferences
support which helps people to live fuller lives
neighbourhoods which are better places to live.
fch: the organisation
Neighbourhood Management
The fch approach
Anticipating National Strategy Anticipating National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewalfor Neighbourhood Renewal
Pilot neighbourhood initiativesPilot neighbourhood initiatives• Anti-povertyAnti-poverty• Sustainability of neighbourhoodsSustainability of neighbourhoods• Service deliveryService delivery
Building capacity Building capacity Enabling communities to have Enabling communities to have
greater impact on decisionsgreater impact on decisions
Neighbourhood Management
The Way Forward
New Government initiatives for joint
working
Community-led approaches, not
short-termist approaches of the past
Most effective strategies engage
at all levels
fch Locality Teams provide nucleus for
such strategies in its key neighbourhoods
Sparkbrook, Birmingham
Among most deprived areas in the UK
First housing action area in Britain, 1975
Inner city partnership programme funding
for the area in 1980s
Urban Action Plan for the area (1995),
developed by Birmingham City Council
SSTARI Regeneration Initiative (1996)
Designated health improvement area
Local Service PartnershipA Community Vehicle for
Sparkbrook
Involves fch, Focus Housing
Group and Birmingham City
Council
Specially established body
delivering a range of services
Involves local community in
running multi-function
services
Inadequate communication between
agencies
Agencies not well integrated with
SRB Partnership
Facilitating Childcare Project
Quality of Life Project (CURS, 2000)
research demonstrated need for better
co-ordination of regeneration activities
Background to LSP
Local Service Partnership
Objectives:
• To obtain accurate information and views from the community about the neighbourhood
• To develop a suitable mechanism that meets local needs and addresses issues of decline
• To establish a model of neighbourhood community involvement
Structure
• Board comprises 4 local community representatives (including schools and businesses)
• 5 local residents
• 3 landlord representatives
Consultation involved tenants and service users of fch and Focus
Identified need for capacity building
Role of capacity building to develop, later to include prioritisation and budget reviews
Emphasis on active involvement of tenants, rather than local councillors
Community involvement in the LSP
• Enables effective and inclusive involvement of the community in establishing the LSP
• Local community mapping exercise and developing database of local groups
• Enables groups to access training, employment and funding opportunities
• Identifies opportunities for joint working by social landlords in providing “street services”
• Aims to build capacity of wider community, not just social housing tenants
• Transferable model of community empowerment, if developed successfully
Community facilitator project
Lessons learned to date
Contending with other City Council priorities
• Some activities overtaken by politics of whole stock
transfer
• Provides useful information to shape future City
proposals
• Confirms the need for holistic view of service
provision
Financial viability
Three -stage process
Multi-landlord v single landlord experiences
Involving frontline staff
Evidence - anecdotal v. empirical
A paradigm shift
•UK Government expects cultural shift in attitudes of staff in statutory and local agencies
•Could take up to 10 years for local strategic partnerships to include genuine community representation
•Statutory agencies vulnerable to overnight changes in political leadership and direction
•Local Agencies in a better position to sustain this shift
Conclusions
Effective Neighbourhood
Management must… recognise that holistic
working is resource intensive and needs time to develop
not create structures which are set in concrete at the outset
recognise the need for informal as well as formal structures - the “weak” tools of persuasion and knowledge building as well as the “strong” tools of regulation