3. TYPE OF GOVERNMENT’S ROLE CITIZEN’S
ENGAGEMENT ROLE
Customer ServiceProvide services Taxpayer/
Client
Citizen Engage people in Advisor/
Participation government’s priorities Volunteer
through its processes and
programs
Community Support community to work Producer
Empowerment on its own priorities through
its own associations
8. POWER OF COMMUNITY
Care for the Earth
Care for One Another
Prevent Crime
Respond to Disaster
Promote Health
Instill Happiness
Create Great Places
Advance Social Justice
Strengthen Democracy
9. COMMUNITY IN CRISIS
Single-purpose land use
Increased mobility
More time working
Materialism
Fear
Electronic screens
Globalization
Professionalization
Specialization
18. What makes Matching Fund unique?
● Community matches with its assets,
including volunteer labour
●Community determines priorities
●One time projects only
●Any group of neighbours can apply
●Proposals reviewed by peers
●Quantity and diversity of participation
key to selection and evaluation
30. Keys to Neighbourhood Planning
● Comprehensive plan provides framework
●Community initiates the planning
●Community engagement must be broad and
inclusive
●City provides funding & technical assistance
●Community hires its own planning expertise
●Community defines its own scope of work
●Community drives plan throughout process
37. Value of community-driven planning:
● Implementation happens – plans don’t sit on
the shelf
● Resources are multiplied – government
resources leverage community’s
● Appropriate development occurs –
respecting unique character of neighbourhood
and culture of community
● More holistic and innovative solutions result
● A stronger sense of community is built
38. Other Examples of Government-
Community Partnerships:
● Official recognition of neighbourhood associations:
Portland, Oregon
● Block party toolkit: Airdrie, Alberta
● Citizen councilors: King County, Washington
● Online participation: Minneapolis, Minnesota
● Decentralized interdepartmental teams: Toronto, Ontario
● Leadership development programs: Indianapolis, Indiana
● Neighbourhood summits: Cincinnati, Ohio
● Office of Great Neighbourhoods: Edmonton, Alberta
39. How do you facilitate
bottom-up initiatives
from the top-down?
41. Social problems need social solutions… In
the past, the left focused on the state and the
right focused on the market. We’re
harnessing that space in between – society –
the ‘hidden wealth’ of our nation.
-David Cameron, May 23, 2011
42. Stated Goals for Big Society:
●Give local councils & communities more
power
●Make government more transparent
●Reduce government regulation & bureaucracy
●Open government services to new providers
●Increase voluntarism & giving
●Reform welfare to encourage work
44. KEY INITIATIVES
● Big Society Bank providing start-up for social
enterprise and other community groups
●Big Society Network volunteers facilitating IT
support, participatory budgeting and the Big Lunch
●National Citizens Service pilot for 16-year-olds
●Four vanguard communities piloting Big Society
●Monthly crime data published by police
●Localism bill to reduce red tape, provide option for
local mayors, give community groups right of first
refusal to operate closed facilities, give citizens power
to instigate local referendums on taxes and other
issues, provide for neighbourhood plans, etc.
●Community Organisers
●Community First
45. COMMUNITY ORGANISERS
● Provide stipends for 500 senior full-time organisers
●Train 5000 professional community organisers
●Utilize principles of Alinsky and Friere
●Identify local community leaders
●Build social capital
●Help residents start their own neighbourhood groups
●Support communities to identify and act on their own
priorities
●Manage initiative through Locality, RE:generate and
up to 200 local host organisations.
●Make this initiative self-supporting including an
Institute to be owned as a mutual by the organisers
46. COMMUNITY FIRST
● 30 million pound Neighbhourhood Matching Fund
●Targeted for “deprived” areas
●Up to 30,000 pounds per area over four years
●Residents match with time
●Supports small neighbourhood improvement projects
●Funding recommendations made locally
●Locally supported by community organizer
●Managed by Community Development Foundation
and Community Foundation Network
●Asda supermarket chain partnering for outreach
●Another 50 million pounds intended to leverage 100
million for endowment
47. Suggestions for Central Government
● Decentralize resources as well as authority
●Tie funding to community participation
●Remove barriers to participation
●Don’t over regulate, set predetermined
benchmarks, impose programs or otherwise
stifle local initiative and innovation
●Focus on whole places rather than discrete
functions or problems
●Prioritize “disadvantaged” places but don’t
restrict community development to them
48. ● Differentiate between associations and
staffed organizations
●Provide resources for community organizing
●Provide training for grassroots citizens as
well as local government and non-profits
●Spend less time in cubicles and more in
community
●Share stories of community success
●Recognize which things are best done by
government and other agencies, which by
community, and which through partnership
49. Do No Harm
(Hippocratic Oath for Community Workers)
● Don’t distract the community from its own priorities
● Don’t force the community into the agencies’ silos
● Don’t take people’s time without showing results
● Don’t think of the community solely as people and places
with needs
● Don’t speak for the community
● Don’t do for people what they can do for themselves
● Don’t make the community dependent on you, funding or
other external resources
● Don’t use liability, safety, or other red tape as an automatic
excuse to say no to community initiatives
50. Do Some Good
Help Agencies to Put the Community First
● Work with agencies to remove barriers to community
engagement (e.g. language, liability, runaround, etc.)
● Assist agencies to work collaboratively with a common focus
on place
● Train agencies of all kinds on the value and best practices of
community-led development
● Allow other agencies to benefit from your relationships with
the community
51. Support Communities to Take the Lead
● Help the community to discover its resources and power
● Share tools that enable the community to take the lead
● Assist community associations to network with one another
● Help people find ways to share their gifts with one another
● Pay attention to segments of the community that are being
excluded and find ways to engage them
● Raise objections when you encounter discrimination
● Ask questions to get people thinking about root causes
● Develop leaders
● Be on the lookout for potential new leaders
● Share stories of community success
● Practice what you preach by being active in your community
52. Change only happens through
action
Joop Hofman Jim Diers
Rode Wouw
joophofman@rodewouw. University of
nl Washington
ABCD Institute
jimdiers@comcast.net