‘What Community Development Does’

The CDAS pamphlet ‘What Community Development Does: a short guide for decision makers to how it achieves results’ is now being widely circulated. Every MSP should have received a copy, and every Councillor in Scotland an electronic copy. Many local partnerships and networks are circulating it.

We are still keen to get requests from member organisations for copies to circulate to appropriate contacts. If you have circulated it in electronic form, it would be helpful if you could let Peter Taylor know.

Information from Members Meeting, 18 June

Main discussion

Charlie McConnell welcomed members to the new headquarters of the Carnegie UK Trust and explained its role as a proactive, developmental organisation.

Morven Masterton introduced the work of the Trust’s Democracy and Civil Society programme, based upon an enquiry into the future of civil society in the UK and Ireland. The Trust would be seeking to enhance the capability of civil society organisations to understand and influence decision making.

The enquiry had identified the following main “fault-lines” in civil society:

• The challenge of sustainability
• Growing isolation of the poorest
• Social cohesion under pressure
• Shifting activism and increasing obstacles to engaging with civil society
• Traditional political engagement on the wane
• Application of technology
• Voluntary and community organisations lose their distinctiveness
• Diminishing arenas for public deliberation
• Marginalisation of dissent

And these ‘burning issues’

• Civil society and growing pressure on global resources
• Spaces for meaningful conversation
• Civil society and the media
• The marginalisation of dissent
• Bridging groups in a more diverse society.

Nick Wilding spoke about the Trust’s Commission for Rural Community Development. The Charter for Rural Communities was issued in 2007. The Trust was seeking to create communities of practice to implement it. HIE would host one on sustainable energy. A Rural Action Research Programme was being funded in conjunction with the Big Lottery Fund.

Points emphasised in discussion included:

• Carnegie’s desire to build partnerships in all the devolved jurisdictions of the UK
• The need for new skills for community workers to deal with rapid change
• The development of new, diverse leadership in communities.

 

SURF had circulated a report of its discussion on community development and ‘a mentally flourishing Scotland’.

SURF drew attention to the fact that after a period of uncertainty the Scottish Government appeared to have endorsed the ‘hub’ initiative, announced by the previous government, which was to be a new joint venture between the public and private sectors designed ‘to support the delivery of accessible, seamless, quality services from single access points based in local communities.’ SURF would be following this closely.

 

CDAS activities

In addition to activities reported elsewhere, it was agreed that CDAS’ Action Plan for its proposed three years of Scottish Government funding should centre on a systematic examination of the contribution of community development to each of the Scottish Government’s five strategic objectives, focusing on one or two each year. In the current year the priorities for attention will be ‘Safer and Stronger’ and ‘Greener’.

CDAS has made comments on the Scottish Government Discussion Paper on Tackling Poverty, Inequality and Deprivation in Scotland. They state some general principles both about how community development can contribute to the actual process of tackling poverty and disadvantage, and to supporting the effective engagement of disadvantaged groups.  CDAS hopes to help the Poverty Alliance to organise a Forum on the community development contribution to these issues in the autumn.

Community Empowerment

As we have mentioned, COSLA has established a Working Party of elected members and others (including Stewart Murdoch, Chair of CDAS) to take forward the joint statement and action plan agreed between COSLA and Scottish Government and propose ways of implementing it at the local level. Its proceedings will be reported to COSLA’s Community Well-being and Safety Executive Group. Further information on its remit, membership etc (not apparently on the COSLA site yet) has been provided by Local People Leading.

Enterprising Third Sector Action Plan

The Scottish Government has published its Enterprising Third Sector Action Plan. This is very much about the economic role of the Third Sector, whilst recognising that this contributes to ‘solidarity, cohesion and sustainability’. The overall objectives of the Action Plan are:

• Opening markets to an enterprising third sector
• Investing more intelligently in the sector
• Promoting social entrepreneurship
• Investing in skills, learning and leadership across the third sector
• Providing support for business growth
• Raising the profile of enterprise in the third sector
• Developing the evidence base

However Local People Leading comments that the strategy “does not contain one reference to Scotland`s community sector”.

In a linked development, the Scottish Government will make available a £30 million Scottish Investment Fund from September 1 to help enterprising Third Sector organisations. The fund is aimed at already fairly well Third Sector organisations with the potential to grow their turnover or become financially sustainable – they must have been trading successfully, partly through income generation, for at least three years.

Health Inequalities Task Force

The Scottish Government has published the report of the Ministerial Task Force on Health Inequalities. In its comments on the report the Community Health Exchange (CHEX) finds many positive features:

• there is much within the report relating to the underlying causes of inequalities
• one recommendation states that “the Government should protect current resources targeted in at reducing health inequalities and consider the need for further investment in its longer term spending plans”
• another confirms that “Fairer Scotland Fund resources deployed by community planning partnerships should contribute to health outcomes and improved healthy life expectancy”

However (in a personal view) I would suggest one note of caution. The section of the report which appears to be intended to cover the contribution of communities and community development is headed “Third Sector contribution”. It consists mostly of two case studies. One (of Fife Community Health Project) mentions in passing that the community development workers involved are employed by the local authority. The other is of the Aberdeen Healthy Living Network, a network of many organisations, but where I believe that the same may apply to the support staff involved.

It would appear therefore that neither of the examples given would themselves be able to benefit directly from the only recommendation made in this section of the report. This says “Funding for Third Sector organisations through the Government’s new Scottish Investment Fund [see above] should support Third Sector action in the priority areas identified in the Task Force’s recommendations, and this should be contained in the criteria for the Fund”.

However, the report proposes that a full implementation plan be drawn up by the end of 2008 “which gives more practical detail about how these recommendations will be turned into action and who will be responsible at both national and local levels”. We hope that this will reflect the contribution of community development work at all levels and in all sectors.

Community Energy Scotland

Community Energy Scotland will take over from the Highlands and Islands Community Energy Company in July 2008 and will work across the whole country. Its purpose is to build confidence, resilience and wealth at community level in Scotland through sustainable energy development.

Climate Challenge Fund

This new Scottish Government fund makes grants available to empower communities to take action to reduce their carbon footprint and make a real difference to the local and national environment.

 

Publications:

A Guide to Engaging Muslim Communities

The Chartered Institute of Housing has published a ‘Guide to Engaging Muslim Communities’ about engaging either social housing tenants or people mainly living in older, owner-occupied neighbourhoods. The emphasis is on engaging with poorer communities that are likely to be socially excluded and may be directly affected by housing or regeneration programmes.

Community Engagement and Community Cohesion

A Joseph Rowntree Foundation report suggests that more needs to be done to enable new migrant communities to be heard and ensure resources are allocated openly and fairly.  It finds that community development support is an important factor in involving new communities, as part of wider strategies to promote cohesion. It provides ‘illustrations of promising practices’, but point out that these depend upon ‘the development and implementation of community development strategies’, which ‘need to be resourced via community development professionals’.

Community Development Training in Europe

CDF has made available for free download ‘Training and Learning for Community Development in Europe’,  the report of Grundtvig 4, a seminar group working across 17 countries, assessing the challenges facing community development. It:

• Demonstrates the common ground that can be found in community development training and learning, once differences are overcome
• Celebrates the unique contribution community development can bring to lifelong learning
• Provides an overview of community development institutions across Europe, including contact details.

Importance of neighbours for older people

CDF and Age Concern have published a new book ‘Neighbouring and older people: An enfolding community?’

Role of Housing Associations in Community Regeneration

The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations has produced a report “Making Places Work: Future directions for the role of Housing Associations in Community Regeneration in Scotland” by Colin Armstrong and Nick Hopkins. On the subject of community empowerment, conclusions include that:

• Many housing associations think community empowerment is central to what they do.
• Current involvement includes building the skills and confidence of activists, assisting communities in exercising power and promoting broad based participation.
• There was not a good understanding amongst other regeneration stakeholders of housing associations’ involvement in community empowerment that extended beyond their traditional housing role.
• Housing associations are keen to do more community empowerment work in the future.