Local Level - resolving community issues

Local Level has begun some preliminary community engagement work with residents in West Ealing, London, as part of a consortium with Playlink and Rethinking Cities. The work has been commissioned by A2Dominion housing, in view of significant anticipated regeneration funding for the area.

In this initial phase, we’ll be organising a walk around the neighbourhoods with resident activists, followed a couple of weeks later by a second walk involving both activists and stakeholder-influencers, which will terminate in a facilitated meeting exploring options and possibilities for change.

We’re hoping that the process will create a culture in which it feels legitimate (not to say routine) for local people to come up with ideas readily and pursue them with appropriate support – especially in arts and social enterprise – with less likelihood that their initiative will be quashed by officials. In our view, this should be how community engagement practice really develops now, in an age where the local implementation of policy comes to be based more on consent and permission than decree from above.

We have continued to work with street reps in Shipley, Bradford after earlier help to develop the work of a group of street reps in Windhill.

Working closely with members of the Windhill group we have developed a new web site for them. This has now been launched, and has the potential to be extended to cover the activities of street reps across the Shipley area.

With Council services being re-structured, the work of the independent street reps seems more and more important; the new web site will allow sharing of news and information and highlight what has been achieved.

The Guardian's voluntary sector network has published an article by Kevin Harris on asset based community development (ABCD). The piece notes the emerging potential of community development in UK social policy, and anticipates the contribution of ABCD because of its emphasis on existing skills, energy and resources in neighbourhoods. However, some questions remain because of perceptions that politically less palatable factors, especially external forces like economic decline, weak public services, or inequalities, are screened out of the menu of options for local activists. A further discussion can be found on the Neighbourhoods blog.