Thursday 30 May 2013

Feeding of the community spirit

This Sunday will see The Big Lunch happening around the country. There will be thousands of communities, and local (parish and town) councils feeding the community spirit by holding a lunch gathering in their local area.

T
he Big Lunch is a very simple idea from the Eden Project. The aim is to get as many people as possible across the whole of the UK to have lunch with their neighbours once a year in a simple act of community, friendship and fun.

Since starting in 2009, thousands of Big Lunches have taken place in all types of community across the UK. Last year The Big Lunch fell on the same weekend as The Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations on Sunday 3rd June and The Big Jubilee Lunch was part of the main Diamond Jubilee programme of events announced by Buckingham Palace. Our research shows that an astonishing eight and a half million people took part in events across the UK.

A Big Lunch can be anything from a few neighbours getting together in the garden or on the street, to a full blown street party with food, music and decoration that quite literally stops the traffic.

Get inspired by this film:http://www.youtube.com/user/biglunch?feature=watch

The Big Lunch commissioned LGIU to write and research a report which analyses the social impact of The Big Lunch. For more information on this, read this:
http://www.lgiu.org.uk/the-big-lunch-feeding-community-spirit/


Wednesday 22 May 2013

Community How To


Most of the community groups I come across in my role as Chief Executive of Online Centres Foundation - the organisation behind the national network of 3,800 UK online centres - have a To Do list as long as their arms.  Many are pushed for time, and all are pushed for precious resources.  New technologies - and researching new ways to get things done - are not a priority.    
I want to see that changing.  Or at least moving up those To Do lists. 

It’s often the smallest of these groups who work with and through local councils to do the most amazing things for local people and communities. These are also the groups least likely to be using new technologies.  For some it’s not only an issue of resource, it’s an issue of skill and knowledge.  If you don’t know what’s out there, you can’t find it.  And if you don’t have the IT skills to use it anyway, what’s the point? 

The point is that digital technology can save community organisations time, hassle and even money.  There are many amazing digital tools out there which are FREE (or very low cost), and incredibly easy to use.  They’ve often been designed to help organisations do the things that are important to them - like event management, volunteer coordination, fundraising or profile raising.   

That’s why we’ve teamed up with Nominet Trust to create the Community How To service. 
It brings together top digital tools under one roof, alongside case study recommendations by the community groups already using them.  The idea is to help people working in communities find and use new tools.

If you think any of the groups or organisations you work with could be doing more with digital, let them know about Community How To - www.communityhow.com.  If they find a tool they think could help, but don’t think they have the digital skills to make it work, UK online centres are there to help people get to grips with the basics, and get the confidence to give IT a go. 

Take a look at the Community How To service at www.communityhowto.com, and find out more about UK online centres and OCF at www.ukonlinecentres.com, help@ukonlinecentres.com

We’d love to hear from you, and we’d love to help you help local community groups do more of what they do best.  

Guest blog from Helen Milner, UK Online Centres. 

Wednesday 15 May 2013

A new role in community action


The Sustainable Communities Act has great potential for parish and town councils. The Act is a radical new “bottom-up” process that allows local people – for the first time in this country’s history – to drive central government action to help their local communities.

Up until now, parish and town councils have been excluded from this process. This was totally unacceptable. Parish and town councils should be at the forefront of driving government action to help communities. Well after successful campaigning by the National Association of Local Councils, County Associations, Local Works and local councils, this has all changed.

The campaign for the Sustainable Communities Act arose out of the very concerning problem of community decline, which can be seen in the national decline of everything from small shops and Post Offices to green spaces and recreational facilities. This decline has huge and worrying social, environmental and democratic implications. People see their community dying around them, feel powerless to do anything about it and so disengage from democracy and their community.

At the heart of the Sustainable Communities Act is this philosophy: citizens and communities are the experts on their problems and the solutions to them. They therefore should drive the help and actions government takes to reverse community decline. The Sustainable Communities Act sets up a ‘bottom up’ process that does just that.

Here’s how it works: the Act allows people – through their councils – to suggest ideas to government and government is obliged not only to respond, but to “reach agreement” with a totally independent panel on which of the ideas that come forward should be implemented. This is a radical idea – it is about turning government upside down and allowing local people to drive the agenda, reversing decades of “Whitehall knows best” dogma.

Since being passed in 2007, the Act has achieved some notable results. In Sheffield for example, the Act has been used to help save post offices from closure and to boost their revenues. The Act has also been used to encourage renewable energy and close a loophole that allowed gardens to be used for development.
Up until now though, parish and town councils have been excluded from the process,

Parish and town councils are the most local part of government and the body most closely connected to the community. Their connection with local people and their knowledge of the local area means you are ideally placed to make use of the Act. No one knows the local community like they do.

There will be issues in your local community that the Act could assist with. Perhaps you want to be able to promote renewable energy schemes in your area but lack the means or knowledge to do so. Or you want to help increase the amount of recycling in your area but there are rules and regulations that prevent you from doing so. Or perhaps you think government should do more to promote woodland and have ideas for how they could do so.

For more information on this please visit:www.nalc.gov.uk or http://www.barrierbusting.communities.gov.uk.

Wednesday 8 May 2013

Connecting citizens by a game


Community PlanIt is a game about the issues that face local government, designed to get people (especially young people) more involved and understanding of what goes in to managing their communities.

Anyone who has sat through a community planning meeting knows--well, they’re not always exciting, and not always terribly involving. The traditional civic decision-making process can be a turn-off, even if you care deeply about the issues involved.
The goal of Community PlanIt--a game built around local issues that’s now been played in several cities--is to engage people more, challenge them for their thoughts, and bring new residents into the process.
It works like this: A group--say, a planning commission or small business--puts up a few hundred dollars for community investment. Players register on the Community PlanIt platform, and take part in three "missions." To win pledgeable "coins," they complete "challenges" within each mission. Then the projects with the most pledged coins get real cash to spend.

Although this was developed in the USA it does not mean it cannot be transferred to the UK and lessons learnt. And let us hope the game makers will be hitting our shores soon.

For further information:http://www.communityplanit.org/

Wednesday 1 May 2013

Can rural areas be engines of economic growth?


What is ‘the rural economy’?

Land management industries are important to us all – we depend on their provision of food, timber, water, energy and other goods – but the rural economy reaches far beyond this in terms of jobs, enterprises and output.

The rural economy can contribute to all the economic sectors, and is affected by all of the pressing challenges (infrastructure, planning, finance etc) that feature in national and local growth strategies, yet its contribution is often handled separately and focused on farming or tourism:
— Manufacturing, wholesale and retail, construction,
education and health, public administration and
professional and business services sectors flourish in the
countryside and many leading global, European and
national businesses operate from rural areas.
— Land management provides a wide range of ecosystems
services, including not only production of food, timber and
energy, but also provision of clean water, leisure facilities,
carbon storage and flood management.
— Rural areas display high levels of entrepreneurship, with
more businesses per head of population than in England’s
towns and cities.
— Most city economies are well supported by commuters,
businesses, consumer and environmental services from
neighbouring rural areas.

Just as firms vary across towns and cities, so the mix of business sizes, sectors and performance varies across rural areas:
— Manufacturing and professional firms are more likely to
be found in and close to rural towns in less sparse areas.
— Micro-businesses, social enterprises and self-employment
make a more significant contribution to rural employment
and services than those in urban areas.
— The high levels of entrepreneurship are partly driven by
large numbers of home-based businesses, (especially those
run by women), by self-employment and by incomers.

Why are rural economies important?
Cuts in public spending and the need to rebalance the economy reinforce the need for economic growth and innovation to come from all areas and sectors, not just from
urban centres.

Rural businesses already make a significant contribution to economic growth:
— They currently represent around 28% of England’s firms.
— Rural areas contribute at least 19% of Gross Value Added
to the English economy.
— Healthy environments are known to make critical
contributions to economic growth and society’s wellbeing.
Stewardship of the rural environment is central to achieving
this balance between economic growth and environmental
and societal wellbeing.
— Rural economies have demonstrated their potential to
provide more growth and employment if given appropriate
stimuli and support from national and local business leaders
and policy makers.
Rural Economy and Land Use Programme

Rural areas contribute at least £211billion a year directly to theEnglish economy but have great potential to achieve even more.

During the decade to 2010 our countryside and smallest settlements achieved higher rates of growth in numbers of businesses and jobs than any other settlement category in England.

Cuts in public spending and the need to rebalance the economy means that our expectations of what private and social enterprise can achieve in employment, wealth creation and service provision have increased.

We must, therefore, see growth across the whole country rather than only in certain cities or sectors. The distinctive characteristics, business and employment structure and past performance of rural economies mean that they are well placed to meet this challenge

How does the rural economy offer opportunities for growth?
Rural areas have a number of dynamic features that enable economic growth:
— Rural areas have more business start-ups per head
of population than many urban areas.
— Firms started by people moving into rural areas are more
likely to sell their products and services on national and
overseas markets, thus earning revenue beyond the locality.
— Many manufacturing businesses are located in rural areas
and this sector provides a higher proportion of rural jobs
than are supported by urban manufacturing firms.
— Rural economies have pioneered privatisation and
community provision of many local services, fuelled
by a combination of delivery and access difficulties and
the distinctive nature of rural demand.
— As the economic value and potential of ecosystems
services are recognised these will offer increased
opportunities for growth.

What barriers are holding rural economies back?
There are also some key weaknesses to be found in rural economies:
— Low densities and dominance of very small firms,
especially in sparse and peripheral rural areas, can lead
to a poorer choice of local employment opportunities
for rural residents.
— Lower business revenue and lower productivity in some
sectors leads to many rural jobs offering lower pay.
— Affordable housing for employees is limited in many areas.
When combined with poorer public transport, greater
distances between firms, this presents employers with
difficulties recruiting or retaining staff, and adds to
higher average living costs than for workers who are
residents in towns.
— Fuel costs are high for firms and for employees who need
to commute.
— Lower levels of local authority funding are available for
spending on consumer services and economic support.

For more information: Rural Economy and Land Use Programme
Centre for Rural Economy
School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU
Telephone: 0191 222 6903
Fax: 0191 222 5411
Email: relu@ncl.ac.uk
www.relu.ac.uk