TPP Empowering Communities Report

‘I know it soundscheesy but for the first time I feel really inspired, this is real’Participant, Hull

The report was written by Steve Skinner Associates

Published by WEA April 2011

Regional Take Part Champions Programme

Final Report

Contents

1 Introduction

3 Whatdifferentapproacheswereusedtocommunityempowerment andactivecitizenship?

13 Whatwastheimpactoftheprogrammeonparticipants?

16 Howcantheprogrammeachievesustainability?

17 Conclusions-HowdoesTakePartcontributetoBigSociety?

19 AppendixOne–theEvaluation


The Take Part Approach

The Regional Champion programme builds on an earlier Take Part scheme, involving initiatives based in the regions called Pathfinders. Overall the aim has been to help people gain the skills, knowledge and confidence to become empowered, enabling them to make an active contribution to their communities and influence public policies and services. Take Part learning is a distinctive and proven approach that enables people to make a difference in their community by focusing on:

l ‘community-based learning to build theskills, confidence and experience needed to tackle local political, social and technical challenges

l an informal, practical approach that givespeople an understanding of how power works and how they can learn to influence decisions and policies

l open dialogue and reflection as key learningtools, recognising that change in a community emerges from individuals working together’

From CDF’s website description of the Take Part programme

The Worker’s Educational Association

The WEA is the largest provider of adult education in the UK and has been involved in active citizenship work since its foundation in 1903. The WEA reaches and engages disadvantaged

communities by working with local networks, partnerships and outreach activities. WEA’s partnerships are extensive with local voluntary, community, statutory organisations, trade unions and employers. WEA offices are based in Scarborough, Leeds, Scunthorpe, Sheffield, Doncaster and Rotherham with organisers and tutors working within all local communities in the region.

WEA’s roles in the Take Part programmes

Take Part Pathfinder

The WEA Yorkshire and Humber Region was the accountable body for the South Yorkshire Pathfinder. Set up in January 2009, partnerships were developed with three local authorities – Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster – and a successful programme of activities was delivered which included study visits, learning opportunities, residentials, and accredited courses.

Train the Take Part Trainers

The WEA has also been the accountable body for the national Train the Take Part Trainers programme and the Yorkshire and Humber Region was the lead region managing the project overall. The Train the Take Part Trainers programme aims to build active citizenship skills and knowledge alongside the development of flexible teaching and learning methods and approaches.

Introduction

Between 2009 and 2011, the Worker’s Educational Association organised a regionally based programme, called Regional Take Part Champions, working with many local partners to pilot different approaches to active citizenship and community empowerment.

This report describes these different approaches and the impact on people’s lives. It also relates the key findings to the Big Society initiative, so that important lessons learnt can be used and built on. While it contains some evaluation materials, the report is essentially a review that describes the approaches used in the Take Part programme and how these might be used more widely.

Covering three different funding rounds, WEA acted as a regional channel to support twelve Take Part local projects. Each project was led by a partner organisation which organised the design and delivery of a project in their area, based on local needs but still within the overall aims and philosophy of Take Part. Nationally the Regional Take Part Champions programme has been funded by the Department of Communities and Local Government and administered by the Community Development Foundation.

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Regional Take Part Champions

The WEA has been the lead body as regional champion in Yorkshire and the Humber to administer the financial support of the locally based projects. The local projects were funded via WEA through three rounds, including twelve delivery partners in total with a good spread across the region. The delivery partners are a diverse mix of organisations including local authorities, voluntary organisations and a university.

Background of the Regional Take Part Champions programme

From a national survey carried out in 2008, Yorkshire and Humber councils score low on a national indicator on engagement, with only 27.4% of people agreeing or tending to agree that they can influence decisions affecting their local community. The Take Part Pathfinder programme was established by government partly to tackle these issues nationally, and innovative Pathfinder schemes were established in Yorkshire and the Humber. In addition to these larger three year Pathfinder schemes, there was a need to involve the third and public sectors in a more flexible style of working, that in particular focused on engagement with public services.

It is in this context that the TPRG programme was established in 2009 in Yorkshire and the Humber. Its specific aims were:

l Increased awareness and understanding ofthe Take Part process

l Increased levels of skills and confidence ofpeople to engage with local authorities

l Greater levels of civic participation

In contrast to the Pathfinders model involving a limited number of larger projects per region, the Regional Champions programme allowed a core organisation in each region to support the development of a larger number of locally based, smaller projects. The common underlying themes consistent in both the Pathfinders and the Regional Champions programme have been active citizenship and community empowerment. Over the last year with the change of government, the work of the Regional Champions programme also now has wider relevance, given the new

Government’s key new policy on communities. The Big

Society idea promotes empowerment and local people having a say about decisions that affect their communities. One of the core elements is:

‘Empowering communities - giving local councils and

neighbourhoods more power to take decisions and

shape their area’Building a Stronger Civil Society Office for Civil

Society 2010

In this report we explore the relevance of Take Part to Big Society. We now first explore the variety of approaches used in the locally based Regional Champion projects.

Panel:The percentage of people in the region who believe they can influence decisions affecting their community is consistently below 30%, with North East Lincolnshire at 26.9%, Calderdale at 26.4%, Wakefield at 23.2%, North Lincolnshire at 22.4%, and Doncaster at a mere 22.1%. The Place Survey, CLG 2008

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How this report was compiled

The report uses a range of sources:

l Learning Records -designed especiallyfor this programme, were for participants to complete prior to and at the end of participation in training/learning programmes.

l Group review sessions – short structureddiscussion facilitated by the trainer/tutor for participants to share their views on the effectiveness of the training.

l Face to face interviews – by an externalresearcher, held informally with participants after sessions to hear their views on the impact the programme has had on them.

l Key documents – that describe theproject’s aims and intended methods.

l Regional review meetings – threefacilitated discussions were held for partners

to describe and reflect on their different approaches and key learning points from their experience

l Project reports – some projects alsoproduced their own evaluation reports; these are drawn on whether appropriate.

Further information on the evaluation methods and issues are in Appendix One.

The report was written by Steve Skinner Associates, a Leeds based consultancy providing training, organisational support, research, facilitation, mentoring and evaluations.

www.steveskinnerassociates.org.uk

Different Approaches to Empowerment

Improve community cohesion 2

Improve understanding of how local decisions are made 7

Greater influence on decision making 7

Greater awareness of local issues 1

Increased participation in leadership roles 4

Enhance skills of community representatives 1

Improved relations with public services 1

Show service providers value of community empowerment 1

Increase awareness of personal development opportunities 1

Greater community responsibility 1

Build stronger community groups 1

Improve skills of parish and town councillors 1

Increase understanding of local democracy 2

Develop peer support networks 1

Community empowerment and active citizenship can mean different things to different people. This interesting variety is seen in statements of the aims of each RTPC project, taken from the application forms of the ten main initiatives:

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The Take Part projects adopted a variety of learning methods to address this variety of aims. Examples of learning methods include:

l A short course designed around the needs of particular community groups

l Training sessions with a focus on English asa second Language, linked to volunteering opportunities

l Training residents to become ‘community ambassadors’

l Workshop sessions on the Big Society

l An open space conference with follow up sessions of training and mentoring

l A new web based and printed bookletresource on engagement opportunities with a linked training session

l Using visits e.g. to council offices and to amobile IT Unit

l Using speakers e.g. on community planning

l One to one mentoring for participants

l Involving residents in decisions on local grants

l Bringing leaders together from across different sectors and communities

l Sessions on how the city works

l Mixing students with community leaders to encourage sharing of experience and knowledge

l Advice and guidance on future training

We now describe through a series of examples how the twelve Take Part projects used differing approaches to learning, active citizenship and community empowerment. These descriptions are intentionally short, focusing on the particular angle used in each case rather than giving a lot of policy background, information on partners involved or local history.

Organisation Location Event

Calderdale MBC Halifax Consultation on booklet: Get Involved!

North Lincolnshire Scunthorpe Community Ambassadors course in Council Winterton & Westcliffe

North East Lincolnshire Grimsby Empowering People- Engaging inCouncil Neighbourhood Management

One Hull VCS Forum Hull How your City Works

Kirklees Council Huddersfield Consultation on booklet - How to make a Difference Dewsbury Shop – Decision Making Procedures

Voluntary Action Wakefield Training including Big SocietyWakefield District

VOX Wakefield

East Riding of Goole British Citizenship & VolunteeringYorkshire Council

Leeds Initiative Leeds Open Space

Scarborough Borough Scarborough Influencing ChangeCouncil

University of Bradford Bradford Brilliant Leaders training course

Craven District Council North Craven Participatory budgeting

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The particular approach here was to focus on working with local community groups,

combining training and support work to address their particular needs. The

project was based in the Regeneration

and Planning Department of

Scarborough Council with the aim to:

In order to do this, two types of training were organised and run in local centres.

l Basic skills for groups - One shortprogramme was designed especially for six local groups in a neighbourhood who were experiencing tensions which was blocking their progress. The training included sessions on conflict resolution that helped members to get on better, be less aggressive and handle problems in a more constructive way. The course developed from earlier work and was adapted to the needs of the groups.

l Influencingchange -A second shortprogramme was for more experienced groups, including parish councils and an established motor bike project for young people. This focused more on skills to strengthen involvement in local decision-making and increase awareness of how to influence change. It was both about enabling town and parish councillors to more effectively represent the communities they serve and encourage more residents to get involved in standing as parish councillors.

The evidence from the courses will help to influence North Yorkshire County Council’s adult education programme. It will also help SBC and other local organisations to evidence need for specific types of training for which they aim to seek external funding.

The East Riding of Yorkshire Council led on this project, based in Goole involving migrant workers and asylum seekers in both volunteering and community education. Over the last few years Goole has experienced many new people coming from Eastern Europe and this project was designed to enhance community cohesion. Migrants coming to the area are a mix of those who stay for a relatively short time to earn money and return home and others who stay and settle.

There are 3000 plus residents from Eastern Europe in the East Riding, many of whom work in the horticultural and agricultural industries. The project will included working across the county in partnership with these industries helping not only the workers but to have a positive effect on their business. The issues are around a lack of participation due to poor understanding of the spoken language.

A cohesion strategy has existed in the East Riding since 2007 and other organisations have, over time, linked in with the objectives of empowering and bringing together communities. The main issue is always the same however - the barrier of spoken language. This project has addressed this gap by basing a range of educational and volunteering opportunities on language needs and strengths.

The project consisted of two main elements:

l Adult education sessions - involvingEnglish language skills as a core element while covering a range of themes: Citizenship, Work and Health and Safety, Knowing your rights and the law, Local council and local community, Schools and Education, Health and hospitals.

Supporting community groups in Scarborough

Working with migrants in Goole

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The sessions have been modular and intentionally short – two hours each – to allow ease of access. By early April, 15 courses had been run involving 150 participants. The modules have included trips to public services, talks from local Councillors, informal meetings for learners and reading groups.

A key theme was British citizenship – an issue of concern to many migrants who are keen to demonstrate that they have participated in such training.

l Volunteering placements – involving placing people as volunteers in a variety of settings and organisations, including for example, translation work in the local

hospital and helping set up a Latvian help desk. Even without English language skills, people have still been able to be usefully placed as volunteers with different projects and communities.

The project consequently had a dual approach of both strengthening and using language skills – the former through the courses and the latter through the volunteering placements. There is an interesting link between active citizenship which has a local focus and the concept of British citizenship linked to the national agenda – this project combined both concepts of citizenship.

Voluntary Action Wakefield District led on this project, involving practical workshops that were held in a community centre in north Wakefield, with participants from a wide range of community groups and voluntary organisations, as well as elected Councillors.

The objective of the project was to increase community involvement and engagement in local decision making and governance opportunities. The project will assist individuals to become more active citizens. A series of workshops brought together community groups, community members and activists to raise awareness about engagement opportunities and identify any training and support needs within the community. Through exploring the Big Society and related issues, the aim was for these sessions to promote understanding of local democracy and the role of elected members.

The project targeted individuals who were interested in or are currently involved in civic opportunities, focusing on people living in the most deprived neighbourhoods of the District. Each workshop was bespoke to the priorities of each neighbourhood as identified through the Targeted Support Fund and work with Community Anchors.

The training session held on March 9th at St Georges Centre, Lupsett included material and discussion on:

l Perceptions of what the Big Society will involve

l The Community Right to Challenge

l The Community Right to Buy

l Community Organising

l The Big Society Bank

It prompted lively debate about the meaning of the Big Society and some fairly challenging reactions:

l Are we not doing this already?

l The voluntary organisations that aresupporting this type of activity are the ones having their funding reduced.

l It will only really work in affluent areas.

l It expects too much of community groups\to make a challenge to run a building or service

l The increased opportunities to provideservices could be taken up by private sector organisations, including some who do not know the community.

Exploring the Big Society in Wakefield

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Led by North Lincolnshire Council, this project has involved building skills and confidence of residents in two areas of Scunthorpe so that they can more effectively act as ‘Community Ambassadors’. Courses were run in the Winterton and Westcliffe areas; the activities have included:

l A visit to council offices

l A visit to a mobile IT Unit

l A speaker on community planning

l Sessions on what the role of ambassador involves

l One to one mentoring for participants

l Advice and guidance on future training

The training sessions – usually two hours - have included material on:

l How to run meetings

l Applying for funding

l How the council works

l Planning the future of our group

The Community Ambassadorsinitiative built on an earlier work through the Connecting Communities programme. The aim was TPRG project was to:

The idea of Community Ambassadors concept is to create a body of people from communities who know how the area works and have the skills to work with local service providers on issues that

affect them. The aim is to show local people that becoming involved in civic activity they can make a difference and encourage others to become more involved.

The project was useful to the authority to pilot community based training, outside the normal range of adult education provision. The

TPRC funding allowed them to try out a different approach and in particular

to develop further the Community Ambassadors concept.

Organised by the University of Bradford, this Leadership and Management Training Programme was aimed at members of third sector organisations, community groups, students actively involved in community groups, and members of Africa House, a centre for African Studies in the University.

Brilliant Leaders in Bradford was designed to help participants enhance their leadership and management skills, enabling them to be more effective in their local leadership roles. In style it was designed to be ‘inspiring, fast paced and fun’. Emphasis was placed on practical “real life” situations with limited theory, open discussion and debate in a supportive environment.

Thethemescoveredincluded:

1 Your Community Leadership: This wasabout building a strong and supportive group; finding out about the participants and the organisations they represent.

2 Brilliant Leadership: This includedan examination of leadership styles and characteristics.

3 Developing Great Relationships inLeadership:This looked at behaviour as leaders, consensus building and positive thinking techniques.

Others sessions included: Your talents for Management, Sustaining strength and increasing stability, Measuring the Difference, Celebrating Your Success.

Training Community Ambassadors in North Lincolnshire

Building brilliant leaders in Bradford

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The project was jointly funded by the University of Bradford and the take Part Programme and is a good example of the University’s contribution to supporting community involvement and building capacity in the Bradford District. Mixing

students involved with community action with representatives of local community organisations on a training course is an interesting combination.

Through Regional Take Part Champions funding, residents of North Craven in the Craven District of North Yorkshire got involved in a participatory budgeting process. It involved local people contributing to decisions on small scale grants to benefit the area, based on an open public meeting held on the 5th of March. Local groups were earlier invited to put in bids for up to £500 and the decisions on who received the grants were made through a voting system.

The process itself was designed a way to help residents learn more about their areas and understand decision-making issues. The Participatory Budgeting process involved a number of stages:

l A consultation was held in North Cravenin the summer of 2010 to find out what types of new activities were needed

l In early 2011 local groups were informed about the opportunity for funding

l Eleven bids for funding were put forward

l An open meeting was held on March 5th to review the bids

l 351 voting forms were completed

l The votes were counted in the Town Hall after the Farmers Market.

The funding opportunity was open to community groups, clubs and societies, voluntary sector organisations, registered charities, schools, Parish and Town Councils, social enterprises and other not for private profit organisations. To be eligible for funding the projects had to benefit the community and help local people to be more actively involved.

The winners included Burton Recreation Lavatory Block, Ingleton Amateur Swimming Club, Burton Play Area Refurbishment, Ingleton Overground Underground Festival, Ingleton Tourist Information, Bentham Lantern Procession Workshops and Bentham for Bees with a total grant of £3,070.

The whole process generated a lot of local interest and community involvement. Craven District Council Officers and Local District Ward Councillors in the Bentham and Ingleton wards worked together with local residents to deliver the project.

Participatory budgeting in Craven

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ONE HULL is Hull’s Local Strategic Partnership and is the key body that brings together the public, private, voluntary and community sectors to create a better city. The focus is around ‘working collectively to achieve important goals and improve the quality of life for local people’. The Take Part R.C. Project in Hull aimed to ‘empower individuals and local communities to become more actively involved in making decisions that affect them and the places where they live’. The training sessions were piloted in three parts of the city with the idea of rolling them out further at a later stage.

The particular focus here was understanding how the city works – the sessions aimed to:

l Provide information about the work ofpublic sector organisations within the City, how decisions are made and how local people and communities can influence what happens.

l Provide information about the key plansand priorities for the City and to encourage greater community involvement and participation.

l Identify opportunities for furtherparticipation and involvement, including the People’s Panel, the NHS Hull Membership Scheme, the HULL LINk and citywide volunteering.

l Promote greater community cohesionand an increased participation in local decision making.

The programme included the following stand alone modules:

l My City, My Community

l How the Local Authority Works

l How NHS Hull Works

l Understanding the ONE HULL Local Strategic Partnership

l Getting to Know the Voluntary and Community Sector

l Influencing Decisions

l Opportunities for Future Involvement

The 18 hour programme was developed centrally through

consultation with key partners in public, private and voluntary and

community sectors.

It was delivered with the support of the respective Area Partnerships which bring together key organisations and groups to focus on area specific needs and issues.

Community members and young advisors were involved in the development and design of the publicity and programme content. Sessions were facilitated by experienced adult education tutors.

The adult education service management team received training in embedding citizenship across all areas of the adult learning curriculum.

Participants were from a range of ages, 17 – 72 years, and backgrounds.Specific individual needs that were identified included dyslexia, macular degeneration and a learning disability.

Understanding how the city works in Hull

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Calderdale’s Take Part project specifically built on the existing work of tackling historically low levels of satisfaction with engagement and civic participation, in particular by adding value to projects already underway.

A key part of the Take Part work here was based around Neighbourhood Action Plans, which were initiated using an earlier funding programme in the Rastrick and Sowerby areas of Calderdale. These are rural and semi-rural areas, with pockets of serious deprivation. The Take Part funding was used to support specific actions from the Neighbourhood Action Plans which are about encouraging people to become more active in their communities. In identifying specific actions, the focus was on those actions where a small amount of funding could produce substantial local impact.

l In Rastrick, residents and local serviceswere involved in producing a booklet called Rastrick an evolving community that describes how people get involved in their community. It will be launched in early April, with 200 copies printed and distributed locally. The book is about ‘community development in action’, and was written

from material generated through a two day session involving local people, service providers and children from a local school. The book is aims to inspire and inform people in the area to get involved in their communities, as a snap shot into the life of an area. Through examples of people’s own stories, the book shows how communities can work together towards common goals.

l In Sowerby, the Take Part initiative wasalso based on the neighbourhood action plan. It involved two local schemes, one involving a ‘playscape’, working jointly with Groundworks to create a natural environment for local children. The second scheme involved designing a skatepark with young people. Both schemes involved local consultation events and the help of two tenants associations based in this isolated area. The funding here has been used to pump prime local activities that has led to a successful stage on Lotteries bid.

The approach taken in Calderdale was very much ‘learning through doing’ rather than learning based in a training course.

An open space event was held in central Leeds on March 19th involving people from community and voluntary groups, women’s groups and fund raising projects from across the city. Forty people got involved in the event which also involved follow up training courses and mentoring.

Open Space is an interesting method where, in an open meeting, participants themselves decide on the themes to be debated and explored rather than having outside speakers. The event was facilitated by staff from Together for Peace and the Leeds Initiative and was a very lively experience! A large floor space in a city centre venue was used for the day – with seating in one large circle - and the introduction involved using photos, pictures and other visual material to stimulate thinking and engage people.

l The morning involved people workingin pairs and small groups to share their experiences of community action and hear about positive examples of grass roots organising. This was important for people to mix and establish links with each other.

l The afternoon involved an invitation forpeople to form discussion groups based

on the issues that were important to them in terms of getting involved and community action. This led to a lot of fresh thinking and exploring of new ideas, based on a sharing of people’s experience and needs.

There were four forms of follow up from the event:

l Two training courses were on offer run in a city centre location, one evening for 9 weeks and one day time

Supporting Neighbourhood Action Plans in Calderdale

Using an Open Space event in Leeds

‘It had a big impact on

me in meeting lots of

people and learning

about community groups

from different parts of

Leeds’


for 6 weeks. The courses cover teamwork skills, personal development, different kinds of community action, opportunities for volunteering, funding and support - and how communities can access and use power.

l Mentoring sessions provided byvolunteers who have experience in community action.

l Small amounts of start up funding to helpnew ideas and projects get going.

l Sign posting to other sources ofinformation, resources and support.

Voluntary Action Kirklees worked jointly with Kirklees Council to produce and pilot a new booklet describing a wide range of opportunities for active citizenship. The guide was published in draft version in March, piloted with young people in Dewsbury and is now being disseminated across the district.

The booklet, called ‘How to make a difference’ covers different ways to get involved with sections on a range of different themes:

l health and social carel community safetyl educationl local governancel transportl additional roles and useful resources.

The guide is written in accessible language with many useful phone numbers and addresses and each section has a different colour code, making it easy to read and use. The pilot sessions were a good opportunity to test out how the guide was presented and do some fine-tuning before the full print run.

The publication of the booklet is linked to Decision-making procedures training. Thiswas provided by the Civic Partnership starting in early 2011.It helps to equip people involved as active citizens with an understanding of how decisions are made in the organisations they may be involved in.

Thisprojecttoproducetheguidebuiltontheworkcarriedouttowardstheendof2009/10bytheThirdSectorForum(TSF)whenitbecameclearthattherewasnooneco-ordinatedsourceofinformationoncommunityengagement.Theprojectinvolveddevelopingawebbasedresourcethatpullsthisinformationtogetherandaprintedpackthatgivesbriefinformationandsignpostscommunitiestotherelevantareas.Bothwillbeusedwithinformaltrainingsituationsandasaresourceforfrontlineofficerssupportinganddevelopingcommunities.

Producing a one-stop guide in Kirklees

Engaging activists in neighbourhood management in North East Lincolnshire

‘The booklet has

made me aware

of everything! So

many places for me

to get involved’

The project engaged a range of community activists across four neighbourhood management areas within North East Lincolnshire. Based on a series of community conferences, it involved community leaders, neighbourhood forum representatives, parish council members and community groups. The objective was to empower local people to participate in community engagement in North East Lincolnshire.

The key focus for this project was to encourage local people to be more actively involved with their communities by sharing information about neighbourhood working. Neighbourhood

Management work has been the main programme through which local people are encouraged to get involved with delivering the Strategic Partnership’s Sustainable Communities Strategy. In practice this is primarily via neighbourhood forums and parish councils.

l Neighbourhood Management in N.E.Lincolnshire comprises 15 Wards, 5 Areas and 1 Borough – a system known as 15 5-1.

l The workshops were delivered at theArea level of neighbourhood working, which comprised several Wards per area, with the exception of Immingham which is one Ward and one Area.

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l Each area had a workshop and in total 190 people participated.

l The sessions focused on wayscommunity activists can influence local decision making processes more effectively.

The sessions were facilitated by VANEL and delivery was supported by Neighbourhood Management Board partners. The content included the benefits of the 15-5-1 approach to neighbourhood management working, key issues from the communities’ perspective and what is needed to ensure successful outcomes for this approach. Each area had its own particular issues and concerns but all areas covered the improvement of understanding about how community members could be involved in bringing about positive changes. The sessions also explored the role of the voluntary and community groups and their role in supporting community involvement in decision-making via neighbourhood working.

Each of the five workshops included participation by the Area Action Group Chair which added useful perspectives and information on the local neighbourhood management opportunities.

Using dialogue sessions

In addition to the workshops in North East Lincolnshire, this project used ‘dialogue sessions’, involving over 120 people. The content of the organised dialogue sessions is tailored to meet the issues raised by the participants. The format comprises a Chair who keeps the dialogue flowing under Chatham House Rules and only allowing one person to speak at a time without prejudice. The

invited guests speak first to set the scene for the session and answer questions as they are raised during the dialogue. If other partner organisations represented at the session are better placed to answer the questions raised by community members then they are invited to do so.

At the end of the session those present agree any key points to be recorded and any actions arising that need addressing before the next session. As a result of these sessions a question time event, comprising key local strategic partners, was held at Grimsby Institute following the launch of the Integrated Offender Management “Better Together” programme on the subject of reducing re-offending, which was also attended by criminology students.

As a result of taking part in organised dialogue sessions, community members are now more aware of the wide range of services provided by North East Lincolnshire Strategic partners involved with the local criminal justice system. Local community members also know which partners to contact to find out more information and how to get involved with this work via their local neighbourhood forum, parish council or VANEL’s safer and stronger communities working group.

Some participants have worked with local development workers to facilitate community engagement events within their respective neighbourhoods to encourage more local people to get involved with this work. Other participants have taken part in the community crime fighters training or registered as Community Learning Champions.

Opening up services in Wakefield

This second project based in Wakefield and ran by VOX, the community empowerment network, involved six training events held in different venues across the district. The sessions focused on opening up services – informing residents about structures and recent changes including:

l high lighting personnel and contactdetails for the ‘decision makers’ employed or involved within the major organisations and service providers

l describing ways to get involved throughthe PACT meetings or the local LINk, sitting

as non executive Directors, working with the Police Authority or Probation, to becoming school governors, local magistrates or elected Members

l illustrating pathways, methods, protocolsand ways of being able to influence services and local priorities.

The training workshops were each based in one of the seven newly identified areas that service delivery will be based on in future (one was cancelled). The sessions included a panel of speakers from the major service providers who

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Two key aims of the programme were:

l Increased levels of skills and confidence ofpeople to engage with local authorities

l Greater levels of civic participation

A key source of data to identify the extent to which these aims were achieved was the Learning Records designed especially for Take Part provision. These were used where the provision was course or workshop based; other methods were used by partners to suit their particular styles of working.

In total 163 completed Learning Records were received from an estimated total of 600 participants on courses and workshops; this section of the report is mostly based on this material as well as a number of project reports prepared on completion by delivery partners. We use the term ‘participant’ in this part of the report as a short hand term for this sample. Appendix One contains discussion on the limitations of the available data; the following points need to be understood in that context.

Key findings

In terms of the programme aims it is significant that:

l 84% of participants are now ‘more likely tobe concerned about issues in the community’ and nearly 70% are more likely to become a volunteer.

l 63% are likely to take an active role ina local group and 38% get involved in a campaign or local committee, board or partnership. Even the more demanding activity of taking on a leadership role in

the community, such as representing their community in some way, had 25% of participants seeing themselves as more likely to do this.

Obviously expressing interest and stating that one is ‘more likely’ is different from the actual practice; even bearing this reservation in kind, the figures are assuring that the Take Part training programmes appear to have shifted awareness and attitudes considerably.

A second set of questions in the Learning Record ask about the outcome of the training in terms of particular features.

l 82% reported increased confidence and86% increased knowledge in the areas the courses covered. Over three quarters had ‘better understanding’, though the level of improved skills was reported lower at 48%.

l Nearly half now believed they have ‘more tooffer their group’ and 61% had gained more local contacts.

Given the importance of networking in terms of social capital, this seems to be a useful outcome. 38% of participants expressed interest in taking up further learning and other opportunities. These included volunteering, training, becoming an elected Member for the Parish council, setting up a new business, getting new jobs, - and becoming a beauty therapist!

We can also describe the End of Activity state in terms of perceived abilities; here is part of the Learning Record that includes a set of questions derived specifically from the range of project aims:

What was the impact of the programme on participants?

explained how their organisations work and recent changes to structures, as well as opportunities for engaging with, and influencing decision making. Discussion encouraged a two way dialogue and heard peoples’ queries and thoughts. Information packs were provided for all participants on current structures, personnel, representation and influence.

The work built on earlier initiatives in the 12 Priority Neighbourhoods where community activists and leaders were interviewed as part of the Targeted Support Fund work for Wakefield Together. Those

interviewed expressed an interest in finding out more about how things work and how to influence decisions.

The sessions involving 54 participants in total, included material on How Your District Works, How Your Neighbourhood Works, How to Get Your Voice Heard, Councillors and Activists Working Together, Strengthening Democracy, and Representation. Unfortunately VOX lost its funding in 2010 and no longer exists as an organisation.

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Extract from the Learning Record:

l At the beginning of the activity, please indicate your starting level (scale A-D below)

l At the end of the activity, show how far you feel you have progressed using the same scale

A= I can do this well B=I can do thisC=I can nearly do this or I do not do it so well D= I cannot do this

Beginning End of activity of activity

1 Iunderstandhowdecisionsaremadeinmycommunity (such as how the council works)

2 Ihaveaninfluenceondecisionsaffectingmycommunity (such as having a say about local services)

3 Iamactiveinchangingthingsinmycommunity (such as helping to improve the environment)

4 Irepresentmycommunityinsomeway (such as on a local partnership, parish council or network)

5 Igetonwithpeoplefromdifferentbackgroundsinmylocalarea (local area means within 15 minutes walk from where you live)

For understanding how decisions are made in my community,

l 26% of participants at End of Activitydescribed themselves as able to ‘do this well’ and another 27% ‘can do this’. The fact that half of all participants have reached this level of confidence about understanding local decision-making, including for example, how the council works, seems a significant achievement.

l Again over half of the participants at53% of the total perceive in terms of ‘having an influence on decisions affecting my community’ they now ‘can do this well’ or ‘can do this’.

Of particular significance, given the government’s concerns currently with community cohesion:

l 46% of participants felt they now ‘can dothis well’ in terms of getting on with people from different backgrounds in my local area.

l At End of Activity, 48% of participants cando this or can do this well, in terms of being ‘active to change things in my community’ and 38% in terms of ‘representing my community in some way’.

Learning ProgressionObviously such findings need to be interpreted with some caution, as discussed in Appendix One. A key question to consider is what was the starting point or base line position of participants – were there signs of significant progression as a result of the training programmes? This is difficult to explore because of the wide variety of the participant’s levels of experience in civil engagement prior to the projects.

In order to address this issue, part of the Learning Record was completed twice by participants, both at the start of the learning programme and on completion. This produced an opportunity to get some idea of how learners improved in certain areas during the programme.

YourStrengths

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While these figures show positive End of Activity achievements, there is a need to identify the extent of progression. As shown the Learning Record catered for this under ‘Your Strengths’; it was limited only to these questions in order to keep the form relatively easy to use. A useful issue to consider is – what proportion of participants progressed from say D to A during the programme i.e. moved two positions as opposed to one or two positions?

l In ‘Understanding how decisions are madein my community’, 46% of participants moved one position i.e. either from D to C, C to B or B to A. 17% moved two places and 17% also moved three places. Just under 10% perceived they did not move position i.e. stayed at the same level of ability despite the training.

l In ‘having an influence on decisions affecting my

community’ it is understandable that, especially during often relatively short periods of the courses this may not shift significantly – 17% felt there was no change, though 10% moved three places. 17% moved two places and 41% one place – still a useful achievement.

l In terms of being ‘active in changingthings in my community’ 22% described no change, 10% moved three positions, 19% two positions and 30% moved one.

l Again in more demanding areas of‘representing my community’ it is not surprising that 30% reported no change of position, though nearly 10% moved three positions, 14% two and 28% one.

l Finally in the important area of communitycohesion, for the question ‘I get on with people from different backgrounds in my local area’. While 21% showed no change, the majority shifted - 14% had moved three positions, 13% two and 25 % one position.

One issue of concern in interpreting the data is that some participants had poor skills in English and in some cases may not have fully understood the questions. Some completed forms have all boxes ticked under ‘Because of the Take Part activity I feel I now have…’ which may indicate a

certain level of achievement or could indicate a desire to please the tutor while not understanding the questions! It is hard to identify exactly what level of bias this may have caused, so an element of caution on interpreting the positive level of outcome is needed. There are also issues about what people say they are likely to do and the new capacity they perceive they have and the actual practice that then happens in reality. Other concerns about the data sources are discussed later.

Even with these provisos, the data does seem to suggest that the Take Part training

provision had a substantial impact on the participants.

Other sources confirm this conclusion, though in a less systematic manner. Several partners produced their own end of activity reports, drawing on discussions with participants

and with tutors. In some cases e.g. Goole this included discussion

with local employers and agencies. Useful examples that add colour to the above findings are:

‘All participants reported an increase in their own confidence, knowledge and awareness of their area and other people and are forming local action groups and have started work on a variety of projects. One learner who felt quite strongly about Hull decided to become a councilor and asked the group to help her make a decision about whether to join the Liberal Democrats or stand independently, b y having an open honest discussion about the pros and cons. As a result of the discussion she took the decision to become an independent candidate at the next local election.’ Goole

‘As a result of taking part in these workshops the community participants gained a better understanding and awareness about local decision making processes and how the neighbourhood working process would enable them to influence these processes. From the community activists perspective the workshops provided a range of information and access to toolkits. The workshops raised awareness of personal development opportunities provided via VANEL and other local partners for local people to become more active local citizens.’ North East Lincolnshire

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‘The groups were lively, vocal and interested. All participants expressed an interest in continuing to meet on a regular basis and are being supported to do so. Members have offered their skills to be secretary, treasurer, letter writer etc. One group has invited local elected members to meet with them to discuss the needs of the area. What they

had gained was a real sense of community and empathy for one another, preconceived ideas they formerly held about others had been broken down.’ Hull

A key issue with short term funded projects is how they can achieve further impact and longer term sustainability. This question is especially relevant during the current period of reductions in public spending exemplified by the closure of Wakefield VOX – one of the delivery partners - during the lifetime of the funding period. The review sessions involving partners in regional meetings produced some good examples of how sustainability may be achieved through a variety of approaches.

The material in this part of the report relates to the third key aim of the RTPC programme: Increased awareness and understanding of the Take Part process.

In Kirkleesl The directory of opportunities is being used

in mainstream community education provision as part of the on-going curriculum. Some elected Members are using it in their support roles and t is also being used as part of the training of community workers.

l The testing out process during the projectitself helped to develop a wider understanding of the directory as a tool in active citizenship. The revised version will include a ‘trouble-shooting’ section on dealing with any barriers experienced in taking up opportunities to volunteer and have a say in local decision-making.

l The main problem is the likelihood of theprinted details going out of date; however the online version may be developed so that can be updated more easily. Other districts are interested in taking up the directory idea e.g. in Hull.

In Goolel The approaches developed through the

language based courses are now being integrated into main stream community education provision.

l The project allowed innovative waysof working beyond the resources of the authority’s provision to be developed and tested and now with a successful track record, it is being integrated into the on-going provision.

l Volunteers themselves are coming forwardto act as champions in their own communities to engage hard to reach groups.

l In addition, a key new initiative that hasderived from the Take Project is the setting up of a volunteer led world café. This involves migrants of different nationalities and includes a mentoring scheme funded by ESF European funding.

In Hulll The aim is to get active citizenship

integrated into the curriculum of adult learning provision where appropriate; the Take Part project acted as a demonstration that has created a shift in understanding within the authority.

l The website will be used as an on-goingnetwork for community leaders.

l In terms of external resources, a bid hasbeen submitted for Jubilee Peoples Millions funding and if successful will focus on enabling the original participants to champion this and roll out further in their local areas.

How can the programme achieve sustainability?

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In North-East Lincolnshirel VANEL has raised its profile and that of

voluntary and community groups involved with supporting victims of crime as well as ex-offenders as a result of its joint participation in this work.

l This culminated in VANEL beingcommissioned to host the Victim’s Champion role on behalf of the North East Lincolnshire Safer and Stronger Communities partnership to support victims of anti-social behaviour.

l It also resulted in a new voluntary groupbeing set up Street Angels being hosted by Churches Together to provide support to vulnerable people on Friday and Saturday nights due to excess alcohol consumption in the seaside resort of Cleethorpes.

l The North East Lincolnshire CommunityEngagement and Neighbourhood Management toolkits were also promoted to help forums and parish council members

address the challenge of wider community participation.

l After the workshops ongoing support wasprovided by VANEL development workers via the Forum of Forums (Network of all 10 neighbourhood forums to which parish councils are also invited).

l Across the region – the Regional ActiveCitizenship Learning Alliance as an active network supported by WEA is involved in raising the profile on active citizenship learning with local authorities.

l Nationally – WEA will be disseminating thereport on the Take Part programme and using it to influence thinking about active citizenship programme development. More widely, the findings from the Take Part programme need to be used in the planning of Big Society initiatives such as the training of community organisers. We now discuss the potential for this development.

Conclusions: How does Take Part contribute to the Big Society?

The government’s new policy is becoming a major element in the landscape of modern Britain. How can the experience of Take Part contribute? Are there key ‘lessons learnt’ from the work in Yorkshire and the Humber that can enrich the Big Society programme? Having some impact on the development of the Big Society policy and practice is a further aspect of RTPC achieving some on-going sustainability.

The Big Society philosophy is described in Building a Stronger Society published by the Office for Civil Society in the autumn of 2010. It has three distinctive elements:

l Empowering communities: ‘giving localcouncils and neighbourhoods more power to take decisions and shape their area’.

l Opening up public services:‘theGovernment’s public service reforms will enable charities, social enterprises, private companies and employee-owned co-operatives to compete to offer people high quality services’.

l Promoting social action: ‘encouragingand enabling people from all walks of life to play a more active part in society, and promoting more volunteering and Philanthropy’.

Further details are contained in the Localism Bill currently going through Parliament. The Bill includes the right to bid to run community assets - these rights will give local community and third sector organisations the opportunity to challenge their local authority where they believe services or facilities would be better run by alternative providers.

The Government is ‘committed to ensuring that charities, social enterprises and cooperatives have a much greater role in the running of public services’ by promoting contestability to open up more contracts to third sector providers and giving them more information about the costs of existing suppliers. The social action theme includes recruiting 5000 community organisers will be trained over the lifetime of this government to provide extra support to those in greatest need

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to ‘Build and mobilise local networks to drive the change that the community needs’. Increased levels of local volunteering is a key element and the majority of the new ‘community organisers’ will be unpaid.

In this context, what then are the key features of the Take Part approach that can both strengthen and challenge the Big Society initiative? In particular what methods and underlying values can contribute to the training and practice of the new team of 5000 community organisers?

The Take Part approach can be characterized by:

l inclusive and accessible learning for everyone

l learning by doing

l valuing existing knowledge and skills of participants

l promoting equality, diversity and social justice

l working in partnership between voluntary and public sector organisations

l building on and developing community development practice to respond to new policy opportunities and challenges

l using approaches to learning based on the work of Paulo Freire, such as reflection and action

l people finding their own solutions to local problems

l not being top down prescriptive in training style

l using a variety of creative, participative training methods

l active citizenship is not just aboutvolunteering, but a wide diversity of forms of involvement

Please note some of the material in this section on Take Part is based on a presentation made by Gabi Rectnagel of the Take Part Network and kindly used with her permission.

The BS approach has been criticised on a number of points; for example, that it:

l Lacks proper resources for an adequatelevel of local support – the role of local support in acting as a catalyst for change is demonstrated, for example, in the work in Scarborough and Leeds.

l Presents as new what has already beenhappening widely at community level – certainly the Take Part approach has been to recognise and build on what is already happening in communities, as shown, for example, in the work in Craven, Kirklees and Calderdale.

l Is unrealistic in relying on increasedvoluntary effort in areas of deprivation – these issues were identified in the work in Bradford and Wakefield.

l Does not address equal opportunities andinclusion issues enough – the need to address this is especially demonstrated in the work in Goole. Unless there is targeted, pro-active work with marginalised groups, the Big Society opportunities may be mostly taken up by more confident and better connected communities.

l Does not recognise the importance of‘voice’ work – that there is a need for effective representation of communities and the third sector. Work to tackle these issues are shown in Hull, in Scunthorpe and in North East Lincolnshire.

The Take Part approaches used in Yorkshire and the Humber can be seen as directly contributing useful lessons from work with communities. The experience gained through the projects addresses many of the gaps and criticisms that are identified in the Big Society initiative and, in particular, can help to shape the work of the new community organisers.

There is a body of knowledge and experience nationally gained through development work in many regions, through both the Take Part Pathfinders programme and the Regional Champions programme. We hope that this wealth of knowledge and experience can be used to inform the current Big Society thinking.

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As described, the evaluation used a range of sources of information to assess the work of the TPRC programme:

l Learning Records

l Group review sessions

l Face to face interviews with participants during or at the end of sessions

l Key documents

l Regional review meetings of partners

l Project reports

Resources were provided to all projects to help them to consider how they approached data collection and evaluating their own work. This included:

l A general introduction to evaluation in this context

l Enrolment forms from the WEA

l The Learning Records designed from the aims of the projects

l Guidelines on holding discussions with participants at end of activity

The main problems encountered in the design and use of these resources were:

l The design of the Learning Record neededto relate to WEA’s monitoring system and also consider CDF’s advice on questionnaire design. In addition, given that each project was adopting a different approach to delivery with a wide range of project aims, producing one form that would suit the majorities needs would be difficult.

l Some projects were not course or trainingbased and adopted their own methods of evaluation; these sources while useful, were very varied in scope and made analysis difficult.

l Some partners were held up in their deliverytimetable and were still waiting to complete their courses after the closing date for data collection.

l The lead officer in some projects changedover time and materials were not always passed on to the new lead person and/or the staff actually running the training.

l WEA’s own system’s were put under strainin supporting twelve different projects spread around a large geographical area.

For all these reasons in practice only four projects returned completed Learning Records, giving a total of 163 forms.

In using and interpreting findings from this source it needs to be recognised that:

l The total of forms available for data analysiswas only 163 out of the total number of participants.

l As mentioned, some participants e.g.migrants, had poor skills in English and in some cases may not have fully understood the questions. The level that this affected responses is difficult to assess.

l By definition, statements made byparticipants concerning what they are likely to now do need to be treated with some caution. An original intention to interview participants as a follow up several weeks after completion of their courses was abandoned because of a lack of time. Ideally the End of Activity findings would be amended by follow up data.

SteveSkinnerApril 2011.

Appendix One: The Evaluation

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Documents

TPP Empowering Communities Report