Chapeltown Carnival, Leeds

Our range of work includes:

·        Mapping resources and needs – we can help you design and carry out a community survey to map groups, centres and resources in the area.  There are various approaches to community profiles and we can discuss what will be best suited to your setting.

·        Assessing community strengths – working closely with community groups, voluntary organisations and the public sector, we can help bring together local stakeholders to identify the level of community capacity in the neighbourhood. This is a useful starting point when planning neighbourhood management and regeneration programmes.

·        Assessing impact – ChangeCheck is a new method to help community organisations assess the impact they are having on users, groups and the neighbourhood. ChangeCheck was devised jointly by Steve Skinner and London based consultant Chris Church and published as a handbook by bassac (British Association of Settlements and Social Action Centres) in 2007. The method helps organisations to map and review their work in the light of survey based feedback.

·        Partnership building – we can work with neighbourhood based partnerships to help them review their progress and build the skills of all partners in working together and representing their sectors. This can be through evaluations, facilitation work or skills based training in representation, based on recent research.

·        Developing a strategy – involving a range of partners and stakeholders, we can facilitate and help to write a strategy for local neighbourhood management. This may be part of a wider policy on area based arrangements led by the local authority and Local Strategic Partnership.

Examples of our neighbourhood work includes:

·        In Chapeltown and Hare Hills, in inner city Leeds, we worked with local leaders to develop a community engagement plan that was then adopted by the neighbourhood partnership.  For more information please contact Leeds Voice on www.leedsvoice.org.uk

·        In West Halifax, we carried out an evaluation of the Park Community Initiative partnership and facilitated the board’s   future planning work, as well as training the outreach team. This project involved interviewing 17 local service providers to identify blocks to more effective neighbourhood management. For more information contact pci-office@calderdale.gov.uk

·        In inner city Bradford, Steve worked jointly with other community workers and consultant Mandy Wilson from COGS to survey community groups in order to establish a baseline of community capacity. This was used to guide the design of a project funded by the Bradford Trident New Deal for Communities programme. The resulting method, called Assessing Community Strengths, was also published as a handbook by the Community Development Foundation and is being used widely across the country. See www.cdf.org.uk

Our services are tailor made, drawing on recent research and delivered to high standards.  We can help you and your organisation in a variety of ways – do give us a ring for a chat about what you are interested in.

In neighbourhood development – and all our work - we emphasize the importance of practice and methods being based on a set of values – methods and techniques are not enough!  We promote diversity and equality in our work and encourage a close look at more inclusive ways of doing things. Our experience has been both at strategic and policy levels with statutory organisations and partnerships, as well as at the grass roots with community groups and residents.  We use a community development approach, supporting local people to get involved in ways that builds and values experience and skills.

We generally support an ‘empowering approach’ working with you to build effective engagement in and with communities.