Developing community assets: Innovative ways to empower communities
Shelley Breckenridge
#communityassets
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AGENDA14.00 Welcome and introduction
Shelley Breckenridge - Interface – The knowledge connection for business14.05 Challenges of community empowerment
Dr Peter Matthews - Institute for Building & Urban Design, Heriot-Watt University14.25 Building community assets
Dr Tom Moore – Geography & Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews14.45 Innovative assets Dr Peter Matthews – Institute for Building & Urban Design, Heriot-Watt University15.00 Developing assets with a university
Caroline Richards – Prospect Community Housing Association15.15 Accessing the knowledge and expertise of Scotland’s universities and research institutes
Shelley Breckenridge – Interface – The knowledge connection for business15.30 Live and online Q & A16.00 Close
#communityassets
Challenge of community empowerment
Diverse communities and places
Dr Peter Matthews
Institute of Building and Urban Design
School of the Built Environment
@urbaneprofessor
Credits
Contents
• ScotCERB – main proposals and themes
• Whose community are we empowering?
• Putting the community in planning
• All communities are equal but some are more equal than others
• Concluding thoughts
ScotCERB
• Renewing/reinvigorated (restarting?) Community Planning
• Reform of community councils
• Urban community right-to-buy
• Community right to challenge
• Miscellaneous
Tom Parnell: http://www.flickr.com/photos/itmpa/6200745928/sizes/o/in/set-72157627793156184/
Tom Parnell: http://www.flickr.com/photos/itmpa/6200745928/sizes/o/in/set-72157627793156184/
Individuals Percentage of whom live in bottom 15% SIMD areas
AllMen 14.4%Women 15.7%
Health problems / disabilityDisabled 22.0%Long-term illness 22.5%Disabled AND long-term ill 27.5%Neither long-term ill nor disabled 12.8%
EthnicityWhite 15.0%All non-White ethnicities 22.9%
Religion No religion 14.8%Church of Scotland 12.4%Roman Catholic 26.3%Other Christian 8.6%Buddhist 9.3%Muslim 27.1%Other religions 14.4%
Sexual orientationHeterosexual 13.4%Gay / lesbian / bisexual / ‘other’ 17.0%Refused 17.6%
Community? Planning
The Commission heard a consistent view that the potential benefits of a local partnership approach are far from being fully realised; that there are significant variations in the effectiveness of community planning partnerships; and that, for the most part, the process of community planning has focussed on the relationships between organisations, rather than with communities...
(Christie, 2011: 44; emphasis added)
ScotCERB
“It will be important to ensure that community empowerment takes account of diverse communities and reaches both more marginalised individuals within communities and more marginalised communities within society.”
(Scottish Government, CERB Consultation: 7)
The influence of the middle classesTheory name Definition
I’ll stand as the parish council chair
That the level or nature of middle class interest group formation allows for the collective articulation of their needs and demands, and that service providers respond to this.
I’ll write to my councillor and complain
That the level and nature of middle-class engagement with public services on an individualised basis means that services are more likely to be provided according to their needs and demands.
I’ll just phone our doctor That the alignment in the cultural capital enjoyed by middle classes service users and service providers leads to engagement which is constructive and confers advantage .
I’ll vote for them That the needs of middle class service users, or their expectations of service quality, are ‘normalised’ in policy and practice or even that policy priorities can favour middle-class interests.
Empowering the powerful
“Many equality groups and individuals however feel disassociated and disenfranchised from community councils. They have expressed that they are often cliques who do not represent nor discuss anything of relevance to them, and only those with the loudest voices are acted upon.”
NHS Lothian
Strategy of equality
“‘Local control will result in a postcode lottery’ – Decentralisation will allow different communities to do different things in different ways to meet their different needs. This will certainly increase variety in service provision. But far from being random – as the word ‘lottery’ implies – such variation will reflect the conscious choices made by local people. The real lottery is what we have now, where one-size-fits-all policies are imposed by the centre whether or not they work locally.”
(Communities and Local Government, 2010: 5)
“Under no circumstance should any management of spending be transferred to local area groups. Control of spending at local council and national level is essential to ensure fair and equitable distribution of spending for the entire population of Scotland, rather than for the benefit of individual community groups.”
(Arnprior Community Council)
Concluding thoughts?
• Marginalised individuals and communities as King Canute?
• Spaces for deliberation
• Role of representative democracy and political leadership
• You can’t eat community engagement
Role of voluntary sector
• Community development
• As advocates for groups and communities
• As anchor organisations
• Capital ownership and assets
‘Hard-to-Reach’ or ‘Easy-to-Ignore’? - A rapid review of place-based policies and equality
Dr Peter Matthews, Dr Gina Netto and Dr Kirsten Besemer, Heriot-Watt University
http://bit.ly/hardtoreach
"Sharp Elbows": Do the Middle-Classes have Advantages in Public Service Provision and if so how?
Annette Hastings, University of Glasgow, Dr Peter Matthews, Heriot-Watt University
http://bit.ly/sharpelbows
Building Community Assets
Opportunities and challenges of the Scottish Community Empowerment and Renewal Bill
Dr Tom Moore (Centre for Housing Research, University of St Andrews)[email protected]
Developing Community Assets Webinar, May 2013
Objectives of this session• What do we mean by community assets?
• Scale, distribution and policy context of the community asset agenda.
• Reflect on the key ingredients and challenges involved with developing and supporting community assets.
What do we mean by assets?• Ownership of physical assets such as land and buildings that are controlled, managed and owned by place-based community organisations.
• No uniform model:
• Organisations may be stewards, community developers and entrepreneurs (Aiken et al., 2011).
• Assets may be acquired and funded in a variety of ways.
• Involved in the ownership of a variety of assets: village halls, housing, community facilities, land.
Scale and distribution of community assets
• Current scale:• 75,891 assets owned by 2,718 organisations.• Combined value of £1.45bn.
• 66% of assets found in remote rural areas.
• Over 90% of non-housing community assets are found in the 80% least deprived areas of Scotland, while only 3% are found in the 5% most deprived (DTAS, 2012).
Source: DTAS (2012)
Why community assets?• Economic benefits
• Income generation• Reduce grant dependency and create independent revenue streams.
• Physical benefits• Reverse local decline and tackle community disinvestment (Satsangi,
2007).• Restoration of disused or underutilised buildings.
• Social benefits• Tailored solutions to better reflect local needs (McKee, 2012). • Place-based community organisations that accord key roles to local
people in democratic governance structures (Moore and McKee, 2012).• Renewal of local democracy (Satsangi, 2007).
Policy context• Community assets hold popular currency in policymaking
• Land Reform Act (2003) and the right to buy: rural communities offered the opportunity to purchase land when it is up for sale.
• Big Lottery: Growing Community Assets.
• People and Communities Fund (2012-15)
• Scottish Community Empowerment & Renewal Bill proposes:
• Introduction of an urban right to buy• Expansion of asset transfer
The key ingredients of community asset acquisition
• Political will and intent (legislation useful but not a panacea - see Macleod et al., 2010)
• Appropriate resourcing and support is required.
• Finance to support asset acquisition.
• Investment into infrastructure and partnerships to nurture community capacity (Moore and Mullins, 2013).
• Community-led desire, capacity and strategic realism
Challenges to the community asset agenda
• The constitution and impact of legislation.
• Community engagement and challenges of empowerment.
• Skills, resources and desires of communities.
• Asset or liability? (see Aiken et al., 2011).
• Fit with wider policies and strategies.
Implications for Community Empowerment & Renewal Bill
• There is much that is positive about the community asset agenda:• Assets can positively benefit communities, improve local services
and boost local resilience.• Not always the most desirable option.• Bespoke rather than blanket solution.
• History shows it requires stable, dedicated and targeted resourcing.• Tap into existing support services (DTAS, Community Land
Scotland, Highlands & Islands Enterprise).
• Community ownership transcends who and where we are and any new legislation needs to accompanied by a recognition of this.
ReferencesAiken, M, Cairns, B, Taylor, M and Moran, R. (2011) ‘Community organisations controlling assets: a better understanding’, York: JRF, http://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/files/jrf/community-organisations-assets-full.pdf
DTAS (Development Trusts Association Scotland) (2012) Community ownership: a baseline study. Available from: http://www.dtascommunityownership.org.uk/content/publications/community-ownership-in-scotland-a-baseline-study
Macleod, C, Braunholtz-Speight, T, Macphail, I, Flyn, D, Allen, S and Macleod, D. (2010) Post Legislative Scrutiny of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. Available from: http://www.crrs.uhi.ac.uk/publications/reports/reports-and-other-papers
McKee, K. (2012) “Housing Associations and the Big Society: lessons from Scotland’s community housing sector“. St Andrews: Centre for Housing Research, University of St Andrews. Available from: http://ggsrv-cold.st-andrews.ac.uk/chr/publications.aspx
Moore, T. and McKee, K. (2012) ‘Empowering Local Communities? An International Review of Community Land Trusts’, Housing Studies, 27, 280-290.
Moore, T. and Mullins, D. (2013) Scaling-up or going viral? Comparing self-help housing and community land trust facilitation. Third Sector Research Centre Working Paper 94.
Satsangi, M. (2007) ‘Land tenure change and rural housing in Scotland’, Scottish Geographical Journal, 123, 1, 33-47.
Innovative assetsWeb 2.0 and social capital
Wacquant (among others...)
“By the closing decade of the century, the press of stigmatization had arisen sharply due to the explosion of discourses on the alleged formation of ‘cité-ghettos’ widely (mis)reprsented as growing pockets of ‘Arab’ poverty and disorder...”
Dean and Hastings 1999
They are regarded as places of high crime, peopled by the feckless and unemployed, but a key finding is that it is inappropriate to talk of the image of an estate. Rather there are fractured images. Individuals emphasise different aspects of the estate, and perceive it differently, depending on their own characteristics and experiences
Marked by...
• Physicality • Tenure• Disinvestment• Notoriety and myth
Residents’ perceptions
“when I first lived here Wester Hailes Drive you couldn’t escape from Wester Hailes that was your address Wester Hailes Drive you know. And I was unemployed a lot of the time you know in and oot o’ work and sometimes going for a job because of yer address was difficult you know because Wester Hailes had this reputation you were all thieves crooks and drug addicts”
Residents’ perceptions
“they look doon the hill at us you know they can be we’re in the middle but they’re still looking doon the hill at us because we’re part o’ Wester Hailes and they do not want to be involved wi’ Wester Hailes”
Turn back time...
...1977
The Wester Hailes Sentinel
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=322812907796229
2008...
Promise of web 2.0
• Democratisation of the web
• Digital utopians
• Digital dystopians
What’s happened
• Meetings.
• A lot of meetings.
• Getting planning permission
• Getting the totem pole in the ground
© RCAHMS
© RCAHMS
Place attachment and social capital
Place attachment and social capital
• Photos elicit stories
• Stories describe complexities place attachment
• Is this supporting bonding social capital?
• Is there a scope to develop bridging social capital and empowerment?
Bonding social capital
Social media is media
• Audience is based on content
• BanalismoReminiscenceoNarratives of everyday life
• Is this a problem?
Concluding thoughts
• University involvement as catalyst
• Limit to what we can do
• Academics are selfish
• Academics are a pain to work with
Prospect Community Housing
Caroline RichardsCommunity Projects Officer
Prospect Community Housing
•Located in Wester Hailes, South West Edinburgh•We provide and manage899 homes for rent all within Wester Hailes•Set up by local people in 1988, our community attachment will always be strong. We’re still managed by a board made up of people who live in the areas we serve
Prospect and Wider Role• Core business is housing but building
community takes more than homes• Initiate and support projects and
services that benefit tenants and the wider community
• Wider Role activity complements existing area needs and local priorities
• Work in partnership • Able to act as an anchor organisation• Wide range of projects- young people,
employability, health, environmental, building capacity
• Use of social media to engage with local online users• Encourages interaction, builds a network• Sentinel Newspaper archive shows history of estate• Involved in a local partnership developing innovative
ways to publicise and use area’s social history• Social history blog and Facebook page• Positive images that celebrate past and redefine present
From There To Here:Engagement via memories
Journey to Partnership• Social History group- local resident who recognised
potential value of university involvement• Initial contact via Edinburgh University’s
Urban Geography Dept- research on marginality
• Limited long term impact but led to partnership with Edinburgh College of Art
• Community Hacking project looking for a community to work with
• Led to a set of activities/ projects focused on engagement, interaction and capacity building
Ladder To the Clouds• Tales of Things- collecting memories,
linking social history to interactive technology
• QR Codes- information and write back• Code Books- QR coded social history walks
developed by Eoghan Howard and the Wester Hailes Health Agency
• Totem Pole co-ordinated by WHALE Arts Agency
• QR Code Wall Plaques- Prospect CH working with RCAHMS
• Our Place In Time: local partnership
Digital Sentinel• Sentinel was an independent
community voice• Online resource more sustainable• Co-ordinated by local steering group
drawn from Our Place In Time• A live community space for Wester Hailes residents to
share current news, views, interests and stories• Content and format being driven by local community• A front page acting as a portal using free to access
platforms such as Flickr, Youtube, Audioboo etc • Currently training local residents interested in
becoming citizen journalists, uploading content etc.
Benefits of Partnership• Technical expertise and support- e.g. back
office set up for Digital Sentinel, QR codes
• Funding- access to new sources• Fresh viewpoint- new ways of thinking and carrying out
processes• Linked into a network that presents wider opportunities• Sharing of knowledge
and good practice• On-going support in
community asset building
Learning Points• Establish reciprocity from the beginning- what is the
community gaining from the relationship?• Partnership agenda should be driven by local partners• Understand that the university partner will be looking
for specific outcomes that may be very different to other partners
• Your university partner may speak a different language on occasion!
• Challenge of differing timescales• Long term commitment from all
partners is key to success
Contact DetailsCaroline [email protected]
From There To Here blog: http://hailesmatters.wordpress.com
From There To Here Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/FromThereToHereaWesterHailesStory
Social History Code Books:
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