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Welcome to the first edition of the London Empowerment Partnership
e-bulletin
In October 2007, London Civic Forum was delighted to be chosen as the lead body for the London Empowerment Partnership (LEP). When the London Civic Forum was launched in 2000, it brought together London's private, public, community, voluntary and faith communities in order to give a voice to London's civil society and ensure that they have the opportunity to influence decision makers and the decisions which were likely to impact on their lives.
The London Empowerment Partnership, a strategic level initiative which aims to improve the quality, coordination and evidence of community empowerment in the London region, helps to support, broaden and progress the work of London Civic Forum.
The LEP works with a cross sector Regional Consortium to deliver an ambitious action plan which supports regional progress around community empowerment. It works to ensure that a wide range of perspectives are represented in the work that it does.
Key to the success of the LEP is ensuring that the myriad perspectives and experiences of all those involved in community empowerment are heard and learned from.
This e-bulletin will ensure that information about the work of the LEP, the Regional Consortium and all those who are involved in the development of community empowerment in their communities is shared, discussed and disseminated as widely as possible. It will keep readers informed of both national and regional policy developments around community empowerment and ensure that readers are given every opportunity to have their views and opinions heard. It will showcase good practice and offer a forum for debate and discussion in all aspects of community empowerment and community engagement.
Deirdre McGrath
Head of Civic Engagement
London Civic Forum
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Upcoming Events
Good Practice in Volunteer Management
Conference and Networking Lunch
17 February 2009
10am-2.30pm
Cost: Free
Open to representatives from BME organisations
The conference, organised by the Latin American Women's Rights Service (LAWRS), will present a unique opportunity for BME organisations to share best practice in volunteer management. Participants will hear advice on how to better manage volunteers from the angle of BME organisations.
Read more here...
BME Third Sector Community Enterprise Roadshow
18 February 2009
Cost: Free
Open to all
Organised jointly by the Development Trust Association and the Black Training & Enterprise Group, this event will raise awareness of, and promote the benefits of, the DTA's Community of Interest membership to the BME Third sector.
Read more here...
On Target: Community power and the feeling of influence
19 February 2009
10.00am-15.00pm
Cost: £150 for LGiU affiliates; £250 for others
Open to councillors, performance and policy officers, community or neighbourhood officers, and all those interested in community involvement and empowerment
This seminar will provide an opportunity for local authorities to engage in discussions about how best to promote community empowerment and local democracy in thier areas. In addition, the seminar will look at the challenges and barriers to promoting empowerment while also discussing how local authorities can work towards meeting local targets such as NI4. This seminar is organised by the Local Government Information Unit.
Read more here....
An Introduction to Social Enterprise and Legal Structures
19 February 2009 and
17 March 2009
10am-4pm
Cost: £30 inc VAT
Open to all
This workshop is for any individual wishing to learn about social enterprises, including what they are and how their legal and governance structures differ from other organisations. This workshop is organised by Social Enterprise London.
Read more here...
Recipes for Community Representation- What Ingredients do you Need?
3 March 2009
9.45am-3.00pm
Cost: £50 for VCS; £75 for public sector
Open to all, particularly voluntary and community groups.
Together with NAVCA, Urban Forum have organised this one day workshop aimed at helping voluntary and community groups increase the effectiveness of community representation in their area.
Read more here...
Getting the best out of working with local communities
10 March 2009
10.00am-4.30pm
Cost: £105 for small charities and individuals; £258 for large charities, public sector and businesses
Open to all
Run by TalkAction, this workshop will help individuals gain the skills and tools necessary to effectively facilitate local meetings and other engagement processes, leading to more productive neighbourhood and community engagement.
Read more here...
Duty to be Involved?
16 March 2009
10.30am-3.00pm
Cost:free
Open to representative from community organisations with only volunteers, small voluntary organisations with only 2 full time equivalent staff, community of interest groups and organisations that are concerned with a specific neighbourhood.
Run by London Civic Forum, the London Empowerment Partnership and ChangeUp, this event will show participants how their community or voluntary group can benefit from the government's proposals around community empowerment and the Duty to Involve.
Read more here...
London 'Make A Difference' Campaign Roadshow
20 March 2009
10am-4.00pm
Cost: Free
Open to voluntary sector organisations, support provider/umbrella or second tier organisations, front line organisations and individual campaigners
Organised by Novas Scarman Group, NCVO Campaigning Effectiveness and AdviceUK, this workshop will provide an opportunity to meet others involved in campaigning and learn new skills.
Read more here...
Councillors in Control?
A Short Course in Community Empowerment
1 April 2009
10.00am-3.00pm
Cost: free
Open to all councillors
Organised by London Civic Forum, the London Empowerment Partnership, IDeA and Capital Ambition, this event will provide councillors with an opportunity to explore their role in the community empowerment agenda.
Read more here...
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News & Updates
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New Opportunities: Fair Changes for the Future White Paper published by Communities and Local Government
Communties Secretary Hazel Blears and Communities and Local Government have published a new White Paper which outlines measures to invest in young people in some of the country’s most deprived neighbourhoods. These measures include plans to create a network of ‘Inspiring Communties’ where young people are encouraged and supported to succeed. Further funding will be available for communities to develop innovative solutions to tackling the issues that young people in socially deprived may face. The White Paper also strongly emphasises the need for collaborative work between parents, educators, local businesses and the voluntary and community sector organisations to ‘turn around the life chances for some of our poorest children’ (Communities and Local Government, 2009).
Read more here...
New legislation to help build stronger communities
The new Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill published in early December will carry forward many of the proposals set out on the Community Empowerment White Paper, Communities in control: Real people, real power which aims to increase local people’s involvement in decision making and democratic processes in their community. Key elements of the Bill include a new duty on local councils to promote democracy, new rights for citizens to have more information and influence over local decisions, new powers to hold politicians and officials to account and a new duty on local councils to respond to petitions. These proposals, and the Bill in general, will aim to ‘give every neighbourhood, city and region the opportunity to unlock the potential and the talent of its people. It will give local authorities more power and freedom to respond to local needs- and through stronger engagement and consultation with their communities they will be able to do this more effectively’ (Hazel Blears, 2008). The bill is available here.
Read more here...
London Councils 'Be a Councillor' campaign to launch nationally
The Leadership Centre for Local Government today announced its plans to roll-out a national version of London Council’s ‘Be A Councillor’ campaign following its success in London. The campaign aims to inform people about the role of Councillors and encourage more people to stand in the upcoming 2010 elections. The campaign ‘challenges the classic image of councillors as older white men...and employs existing London councillors as ambassadors who prove that being young, female, or from a Black, Asian or minority ethnic background is no barrier to being a councillor’ (London Councils, 2009). Further information about the 'Be a Councillor' campaign can be found here.
Read more here...
First Community Asset grant announced
The Community Assets programme have announced its first grant: 337,000 for the Pelton Fell Community Resource Centre in Chester-le-Street. This programme, funded by the Office of the Third Sector and delivered by the Big Lottery Fund, aims to ‘empower communities by offering grants for refurbishment of local authority buildings in England, to enable their transfer to the third sector’ (Big Lottery Fund, 2009). A total of 38 projects across England have been shortlisted.
Read more here...
New funds available for faith-based community groups
Church Urban Fund and GrantScape have launched ‘Believing in Your Local Community: Wildlife and Green Spaces’, a new grant programme which supports faith-based community groups interested in delivering nature and green spaces projects in London. Social action groups and small voluntary organisations linked with a faith, belief and/or church or place of worship are eligible to apply for small grants of up to 10,000. Applications must be received by 17 March 2009.
Read more here...
Government publishes response to Improving Local Accountability consultation
In August 2008, Communities and Local Government issued the consultation document Improving Local Accountability, one of the many policy commitments set out in the Communities in Control: Real people, real power White Paper. This consultation sought views various aspects of local accountability, including proposals to increase the visibility and accountability of local public officers. The Government has now released a summary of the responses received as well as its own responses to the consultation.
Read more here...
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Speaker's Corner
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The Difficulty with Defining Empowerment
Just as ‘power’ is continually being redefined, so it seems is ‘empowerment’. Empowerment has begun to drown the vocabulary of those working in local government and the third sector, with many comparing it with The Performance Management Movement. But how many of us can actually say what it means?
Empowerment has different meanings for different people – strongly evidenced by the fact that refugees and asylum seekers often report feeling empowered even though they have limited entitlements. In the broadest sense, empowerment refers to movements in the direction of autonomy. However, within that definition there are vastly different explanations for what it means to be empowered. This begs the question of whether it is important that we are allied in our understanding of community empowerment? Many would argue that we cannot achieve the kind of cultural change that is necessary if we are not reading from the same page. But perhaps it is enough that there is a common thread in our understanding, that we are working towards the same aim.
Decentralization was a major theme in the eighties, and its aim was to close the gap between government and people. This is thought to be part of the process of empowerment, and is something that the recent Community Empowerment White Paper (2008) picks up on. But the White Paper goes further than that, delving into ideas of customer satisfaction and service improvement. The government’s definition is 'a process of giving individuals the confidence, skills and understanding to influence decisions in their localities'.
The USP (unique selling point) for this definition is that, if people are empowered to make decisions about services then those services will be better tailored to meet their needs. This would, in turn, lead to greater satisfaction with the services we receive (and at some point greater wellbeing kicks in). This is a kind of rationalist view of empowerment, a methodology for improving the things that affect our lives.
However, this announcement – that power will now be given – sends many of us running to buy tents and pen slogans onto our picket boards. After all, as members of the Obama Generation[1] we have been indoctrinated to the idea that power can in fact be taken (at the very least, we feel like the ‘community’ bit has been forgotten). The serious point is about the value of empowerment in itself: some would argue that the ‘giving’ entails substantial disempowerment. The missing piece is the part of empowerment which refers to the individual or group’s ability to make deliberative choices, the part where we are agents of our own outcomes.
Importantly, however, ‘agency’ doesn’t capture everything about empowerment either. Even if people have the capacity to make choices, the structures that they operate within can limit those choices. For example, your ability to have a voice to influence is affected by basic institutional rules such as ‘freedom of speech’.
Therefore, it is important that the government develops opportunities for citizens to be involved in decision-making. These opportunities (Duty to Involve, Duty to Promote Democracy etc) could enhance the impact of those trying to have an influence. They may not lead to empowerment on their own - good community development work and capacity building are key ingredients too - but they are an essential part of it.
The differences between competing definitions of community empowerment are yet to be ironed out. Work will have to be done around the difference between empowerment as an outcome, and empowerment as a process. But whatever definition we arrive at in the end, it will have to include something about ‘agency’ and something about ‘opportunity’.
Hannah Peaker
London Empowerment Partnership Co-ordinator
London Civic Forum
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Have your say...
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In your area...
Local Consultation- CAMDEN
Consultation on arrangements for admission to primary and secondary schools
Closes: 27 February 2009
Open to all Camden Head Teachers, Chairs of Governors of Community and Voluntary Aided Schools and 'relevant parents'
This consultation seeks comments from interested parties on the proposed admission arrangements to Camden community schools.
Read more here...
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The Mayor's Equality Framework: Equal Life Chances for All
Closes: 20 February 2009
The Mayor of London has launched a public consultation on the Greater London Authority's Framework for Equalities. Individuals are invited to take express their views on how opportunities can be opened up for all Londoners.
Read more here...
Legacy Now and the Legacy Masterplan Framework
Consultations and Workshops
February 2009
The Mayor of London, Communities Secretary Hazel Blears and Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell recently unveiled plans for the legacy of the 2012 Olympic Games. The London Development Agency will be consulting on these plans (also known as the Legacy Masterplan Framework). In addition, a number of topic and local drop-in workshops have been scheduled throughout February to provide interested individuals with further details about the plans.
Read more here on the Mayor's announcement. For more information about how to be involved in shaping these plans, please click here.
London Assembly Transport Committee scrutiny of Dial-A-Ride services in London
10 March 2009
10.00am
Cost: free
Open to the public
The London Assembly Transport Committee is holding a hearing on the performance of the Dial-A-Ride, a service run specifically for disabled Londoners by Transport for London. Ahead of this, the Committee has launched a survey for Dial-a-Ride users to find out about their views and experiences of this service.
To access the survey, please click here...
Consultation- Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity
Closes: 12 March 2009
Open to all
This consultation seeks views on the future of the Publicity Code and in particular on the code as an instrument for protecting public money while allowing councils to issue effective publicity. This proposal was originally included in the 'Communities in Control: real people, real power' White Paper published July 2008.
Read more here...
Consultation- Changing Council Governance Arrangements: Mayors and Indirectly Elected Leaders
Closes: 13 March 2009
This consultation seeks views on permitting e-petitions to demonstrate support for a governement referendum, as well as reducing the threshold to trigger a governance referendum. This proposal was originally included in the 'Communities in Control: real people, real power' White Paper published July 2008.
Read more here...
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Did you know?
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Results from the Citizenship Survey were released by Communities and Local Government on 29 January 2009. These results cover the period from April-September 2008, and provide a snapshot of the state of community empowerment, community cohesion and prejudice and discrimination in England. A summary of the findings are outlined below.
Empowered and active communities
- In April-Semptember 2008, 39% of people felt they could influence decisions in their local area, a similar proportion to 2007-2008 (38%) but lower than in 2001 (44%).
- White people were less likely than people from minority ethnic groups to feel they could influence decisions affecting their local area (37% compared with 51%). White people were also less likely to feel they could influence decisions affecting Great Britain (19% compared with 39%).
- The proportion of people engaged in some form of civic participation has not changed since 2001 (39% in 2008 compared to 38% in 2001). The proportion of people engaged in consultation about local services or issues has also remained unchanged (20% in 2008 compared to 20% in 2005).
- Levels of formal volunteering (at least once a year and at least once a month) have fallen since 2005, although levels of volunteering at least once a year have risen since 2001.
Community Cohesion
- In April-September 2008, 82% of people perceived their community as cohesive, agreeing that the local area was a place where people from different backgrounds got on well together. This figure is unchanged since 2007-08 (82%), but represents an increase from 80% in 2005.
- In April-September 2008, 76% of people felt they belonged strongly to their neighbourhood. This figure is unchanged since 2007-08 (75%) but has increased since 2003 (70%).
- In April-September 2008, 81% of people were satisfied with their local area as a place to live.
- Young people were more likely than older people to mix with people from different ethnic and religious backgrounds.
Read more here...
(Reference: Communities and Local Government) |
Contact Us
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We Need You!
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Deirdre McGrath
Head of Civic Engagement
tel: 020 8709 9770
email: deirdre@londoncivicforum.org.uk
Hannah Peaker
London Empowerment Partnership Co-ordinator
tel: 020 8709 9775
email: hannah@londoncivicforum.org.uk
Natalie Murr
Civic Engagemnet Team Project Support Officer
tel: 020 8709 9772
email: natalie@londoncivicforum.org.uk |
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The London Empowerment Partnership is eager to ensure that information about community empowerment and engagement is shared and discussed as widely as possible. If you would like to publicise the work of your organisation or advertise an event or training opportunity, please email Natalie at natalie@londoncivicforum.org.uk.
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© Copyright London Civic Forum/London Empowerment Partnership
18a Victoria Park Square
London E2 9PB
Company reg number 1097837 |
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