Building Capacity and Building Communities.

We’ve been working with a London Local Authority on their ward based approach to community involvement. Ward residents will meet three to four times a year in assemblies chaired by councillors but coordinated by the community to make decisions and recommendations to the council. It is a new approach with new structures. We are engaged in delivering training and capacity building with councillors and coordinating group members as the structures bed in. The training has a bit of a twist though; we are supporting it through the use of a Wiki space.  

The Wiki is a multi purpose space; it is first of all a source of training material provided by TCC but it also allows participants to add content. The content can be anything from personal experience to a best practice article, all of which are up for discussion in a forum that is simple to use. In essence, as the work of the assemblies develops participants will be able to share experience across all of the boroughs wards.  The ward basis for community involvement is given a borough wide dynamic through the use of the Wiki.

Time will tell if it can deliver a true on-line community.

Comments

[Jonathan Upton]

And if you want to find out more about the potential of a wiki in this context why not come to the Consultation Institute (www.consultationinstitute.org) 'Technologies for Participation' event next week on June 10th, in London? TCC will be presenting a session that will explore different ways that you might use this tool..

[Andrew Brown]

Hello, is this Lewisham you're talking about - the structures fit. If so, is the wiki something that the public are going to be able to use, or is it for internal use only?