The Campaign Company Blog

Empowerment to the People!!

Richard Wilson Director of Involve has posted an article on the Guardian Blog about the "empowerment gap" and gives an excellent overview of how the government has sought to tackle it over the last decade.

I commented on it and made 3 points, which I expand on in much greater detail here:

• As Richard points out there has been a lot of progress, but as a result of many of these initiatives being driven by individual government departments through the relationship with relevant local agencies there has been uneven empowerment development across public sector bodies within localities. So for example, some sections of local government (eg, planning) may be far ahead of other departments in the local authority as well as compared to other local bodies like Primary Care Trust's (PCT's). There would be nothing wrong with this if it were a conscious decision arising out of collective local priorities, but this has actually emerged through many, sometimes unconnected, decisions made at various times in separate Whitehall departments. The next stage could be to develop a combined empowerment agenda at Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) level, to enable local public sector and voluntary bodies to advance together and become collectively more accountable to the communities they serve. Ways to achieve this might include: LSP's to jointly commission single public engagement units in each local government area which would benefit from economies of scale with duplication of savings ploughed back into more engagement; agreeing common local standards to various consultations; strengthening the scrutiny function in local government as well as perhaps even developing a formal scrutiny function for MP's over their own local public services?
• Capacity building is vital and part of this requires greater investment in community leadership support and training at a local level. This should not just be aimed at Councillors but should also be targeted at less well-off communities. TCC has already done work on developing local community champions for communities covering specific policy areas like recycling, but also in a wider role. This approach can help develop the local leaders of the future and widen their representativeness and diversity. This would be a broader approach than rely simply on the electoral process in a locality to throw up a small number of individuals who might then receive training from their local authority. Early intervention here can widen the pool of local leaders thus helping to build wider local trust in institutions.
• TCC, in working with PCT's, has discovered that in reviewing services there is an issue around "low expectations" whereby people may say a service is fine because they have no way to compare it with the equivalent in another area: eg you may find that people say they are happy with GP services, even when they do not compare well with somewhere else. This can also be linked to the wider "Delivery Paradox" whereby people say they are satisfied with their local service, but feel the same service is as a whole declining. So far the government has generally relied on league tables and delivery incentives from the centre to drive up some improvement, but if expectations are low in the first place, there is much less local pressure from below on organisations to improve. Greater local democratic accountability is clearly part of the solution, but is probably not enough on its own. Training up "expert residents" in local communities to learn more about what is happening elsewhere and be able to assert themselves as part of a wider community champion scheme might be a way forward to help build a critical mass for higher local expectations. We have formal twinning between Council's in different countries across Europe and even with the developing world, why don't we have twinning within the UK so Council's twin with other Council's to share knowledge and good practice with much of the work being done online to ensure value for money. Most local authorities will have historic connections with many others across the country so the decision over who to twin with could be quite an interesting process in its own right. Twinning could also be taken further so good practice is shared between twinned LSP's and therefore services in areas like health are twinned too.

Increased social capital makes for a more socially cohesive society. Community Empowerment provides an opportunity to challenge complacency at the local level, whilst making people feel they can influence more at a national level.

As Richard says in his article, we don't need countless repeat measures to tell us that. What we need is to use the current broad political consensus in this area to make some clear progress in wider local empowerment in the coming years!

Googling Alone! - A quick way to assess local social capital

You may have heard of the book Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam where he surveys the decline of social capital and suggests how it can be revived. The evidence base is generally drawn from American sources, however the points he make are very much applicable to other developed democracies.

Putnam conducted a lot of research for his book, but many working in their community trying to assess social capital for their area do not the time or the academic resources Putnam had.

Perhaps there is a web 2.0 solution?

If you are reading this article, there is a good chance you use Google or another good web search engine. If you use Google a lot you may be aware of many of its search facilities. One of the most interesting is if you type a full postcode in you get many internet entries associated with that geographical area.

As someone who was a Councillor for 20 years, I was fortunate in having a pretty good understanding of the social geography of my area. As a result recently I started typing in postcodes for some of the wealthier areas of my borough and some of the poorest.

The results were reasonably predictable. In areas that were quite wealthy you would find postings for people who ran their own businesses or were in community groups. In poorer areas you would generally find websites that related to wider public sector bodies but little community or small scale enterprise activity. At times I found up to 10 times as many pages for a relatively well-off residential road with no other facilities compared to a poorer area of flatted social housing.

Of course some might say it is all about access to home computers between poor and well off areas and that in poorer areas it is the mobile phone that has much more usage. A fair point. However in this much more connected world access to and participation on the internet can be a reinforcing factor for developing social capital in wealthier areas. The fact that the gap is so wide in the number of Google pages is a useful proxy indicator for quickly assessing levels of basic social capital and social connectedness.

What can we do about this?

One idea I had was that Local Strategic Partnerships (LSP) could trawl every postcode in their locality and ensure they are connected with every group listed. I suspect there is good software that can automate much of this process. This in itself might go some way to increase the overall stock of social capital across a local authority area as more groups and individuals would be connected to key local stakeholders. A far-sighted LSP might even seek to connect people within a community together through encouraging the development of geographical based social networking software similar to Residents HQ that I have previously blogged about.

Another thought was for Local Strategic Partnerships to identify 10-20 postcodes with low Google pages and perhaps conduct a pilot survey of them regarding internet access. It may be that residents are not using free facilities in local libraries? Some extra publicity and perhaps even the sort of doorstep engagement that TCC recommends for many projects could be easily provided. This could be linked to an offer of simple computer training.

This sort of approach might go some way to connecting people up and creating the sort of network effects that can perhaps start to increase the stock of social capital in some poorer communities.

An E-Bowl of Sugar!

An interesting new approach to social networking, which is normally associated with widely dispersed communities.

This time it is to reinforce a real geographical community.

Residents UK is a social network site for people living within modern blocks of flats to communicate with each other. In other words people don't ignore their neighbours or have a chance meeting on the landing but actually move in and check out who lives in the block and who might share an interest with them or who can help them.

It will be interesting to see whether it takes off and whether developers of these blocks encourage it? The danger is that it might increase social segregation by making such electronically "gated communities" even more cohesive and less connected with surrounding poorer communities.

I would therefore love to see a local council kit out one of its own housing blocks with home computers and encourage people to join a local block social network - a sort of "e-tenants association". Could such a network go some way to tackle the generally lower levels of trust in poorer communities and perhaps enhance community cohesion?

The Death of Communities?

The Independent on Sunday has coverage of a study by the Prince's Trust about community decline. The report claims that a third of people are predicting the death of their communities as traditional social networks decline in the face of rapid change in the composition of communities.

The report claims that:

"Most people believe the days of face-to-face contact are numbered, with 65 per cent saying that people in the future will have more contact through the internet than in person. Almost one in 10 Britons, nine per cent, admits to failing to meet other people socially on a weekly basis. And 15 per cent go a week without speaking to any of their neighbours."

More significantly from a community cohesion perspective the report claims that:

"Poorer communities are the least confident about the future of their community and the least satisfied with life in general. More than one in five people here said they had not spoken to a neighbour for at least a week, while eight per cent have not spoken to a neighbour for at least a month."

The Independent also reports on laudable actions by government and the voluntary and private sector to support those poorer communities. Whilst one can always argue for more resources, a more important issue is how we use existing resources better. Two things come to mind:

• Investing in community assets so they draw in a wider community of people to increase social interactions and strengthen social networks.
• Supporting people in the community to act as local champions and advocates - perhaps through a relaxing of some inflexible benefits rules to enable them to be better supported in the work they could do talking to a range of local people.

TCC, working with the New Deal for Communities (NDC) Network as well as with local authorities on community cohesion, has come to the view that it is investment in some of those smaller changes that can make a bigger change in the long-run.

If we are to either sustain or rebuild social networks and community cohesion, it can only be through engaging with the people in a community and helping them to identify the shared challenges that face them and their neighbours. Only when you identify those challenges can you create a potential for dialogue across other cultural and social barriers.

Do something good with your Xmas cards!

As the company that proudly devised the Recycling for Real method of consultation, we were pleased to read about the Woodland Trust's Christmas Card Recycling scheme launched last week by Anna Ryder Richardson (she of lovely houses and jungle fame).

The target this year is to collect 100 million cards, which will enable 24,000 trees to be planted and save 2,600 tonnes of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gases - the same as taking over 800 cars off the road for a year!

Special collection bins will be available throughout January at mainland WHSmith High street stores, Tesco stores, any TK Maxx stores and M&S stores.

So now that it's twelfth night and your decorations are down, get yourself down to one of those places now, do your bit and feel extremely good in the process!

Is Civil Society Prepared for the Future?

Geoff Mulgan wrote in the Guardian yesterday about the Carnegie UK Trust Inquiry into the future of Civil Society. He was Chair of the Inquiry and in his article summarises some of the key findings.

Quite a few findings were pessimistic. Societal fragmentation, inequalities, racial tension, loss of public spaces (both physical and intangible) and increased fear through raised security against terrorism were all issues that could challenge civic society.

Third sector involvement in the delivery of public services was expected to modestly expand, but there was an issue of the private sector displacing the third sector in areas where it was established.

At the same time there was much greater debate, public awareness, government interest and cross-party consensus over the need to support civil society than the past and no senior politician ever argues "there is no such thing" nowadays!

Geoff Mulgan concludes by posing the question:

"So is civil society prepared for the future? Probably not. Most organisations have to live hand to mouth, juggling short-term funding and perpetual minor crises. Even the bigger ones rarely get much time to stand back and look at the bigger picture. Many are on a treadmill chasing after contracts and new funding."

This is probably the biggest challenge out there. Only through more wide ranging community engagement and public debate can we perhaps address the question posed.

Young People to lead on environmental change

A new report from the Sustainable Development Commission, Every Child’s Future Matters, calls for local authorities and young people to lead on environmental change, and calls for schools, youth services and community groups to empower young people to do this. TCC has recently been working with schools and youth groups in EC1 on recycling and climate change – aiming to empower children and young people to be recycling champions in their local areas. In East Sussex we have also been working with the County Council, young people, and the wider community on participatory budgeting projects which are seeing young people having a genuine say and making a positive impact on their local environment. The SDC report explores the influence of the environment as a whole - from road traffic to green spaces to climate change - on children and young people’s well-being, and provides evidence that the environment can deliver the Every Child Matters outcomes. Does anyone have any other examples of how local authorities and other bodies are working with young people on environmental change? Read the report here

Sign of the Times?

Could the furore over the London Olympics Logo have been avoided?

Perhaps it might have been if the choice of the logo had been made by the public in the first place following a public design competition.

Rather than spend public money on an expensive ad agency, the money could have been ploughed into wider community engagement where:

1. A design competition was held across London reaching out to a wide range of individuals and groups of all ages.

2. A stakeholder group including representatives of ordinary Londoners drew up a shortlist of designs.

3. The shortlist was then voted on through phone and internet polls as well as perhaps a public opinion poll.

This would have secured a design with much greater consensus behind it as well as sending the message that London 2012 was going to involve people from the outset.

In launching the current logo, London 2012 Chair Sebastian Coe said:

"London 2012 will be Everyone's Games, everyone's 2012. This is the vision at the very heart of our brand. It will define the venues we build and the Games we hold and act as a reminder of our promise to use the Olympic spirit to inspire everyone and reach out to young people around the world. It is an invitation to take part and be involved."

Fine words, but I think they missed a trick with a logo that could have been chosen by "everyone"!!

Power to the Young People

Launching his campaign for leadership of the Labour Party, Gordon Brown has called for a ‘servant state’ which would include ‘youth budgets with young people making their own choices’. The Young Mayor for Lewisham and South Kilburn NDC Youth Board are great examples of young people being empowered through making real choices about real budgets to improve their local areas. I’m currently also working on a project in East Sussex which involves young people being given a budget in order to improve their local environment. It’s a follow-up to a previous piece of Emotimap work we conducted for East Sussex County Council a few months ago. As a result of that project – which has been blogged about on these pages before and involved young people ‘mapping’ their feelings about their local neighbourhoods, ESSC is now able to provide some money to enable young people in Peacehaven and Hollington to practically address some of the issues they identified. Young people will oversee this budget, select which parts of their areas they want to improve (through a vote in local schools and youth clubs), and work in partnership with the wider community to effect real change in their local community. So far lots of great ideas have been suggested, ranging from making the local shopping centre more ‘youth friendly’ by brightening it up with art work, through to cleaning up local parks and streets and having a big event for young people and the wider community. I’ll update these pages as the project progresses so watch this space!

A lot done...a lot to do?

As we move to a significant change with a new Prime Minster it is perhaps right to take stock of what changes we have seen over the last 10 years.

It is an opportunity to ask the question, to paraphrase our Company strap-line: "Does Democracy work better?"

Inevitably for any government managing a complex developed society the results will always be mixed, but it is arguable that simply on the basis of significant constitutional change enacted early in the present government that there are far more opportunities for the public to vote and to engage.

The fact that the people of Scotland can have a significant debate on their future as they are currently doing is something that would not have been able to happen 10 years ago!

So what are the areas we have seen change and what are the challenges for the future:

Health

We now have an increasing number of large membership Foundation Trusts. TCC has done a lot of work helping Trusts to develop the representativeness of their membership base. For the future it will be interesting to see whether Gordon Brown takes up the idea of an Independent National Health Board and whether we see a directly elected element on Primary Care Trusts?

Education

The development of Academies and Foundation Schools is slow. Governing bodies still have difficulty attracting people to stand. It will be interesting to see whether remuneration will be introduced and whether local membership schemes for schools or more likely for groups of schools similar to Health Foundation Trusts will ever be piloted.

Citizenship Education was introduced. This is likely to have a significant impact but probably over the longer term. TCC has developed initiatives in this area such as its Young Mayor Schemes, which enable young people to take much greater responsibility locally.

Crime and Justice

The Freedom of Information Act and the Human Rights Act were landmarks as the government itself knows having lost cases under them. At the same time modern threats such as trans-national terrorism are forcing an ongoing debate on civil liberties.

For the future, the direct election of Police Commissioners may go up political agenda.

Constitutional Issues

The establishment of the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly are having a significant impact not just on their own areas but on how the English define themselves. It is likely there will need to be further review on these relationships, with the previously fringe issue of an English Parliament moving further into the mainstream.

The use of proportional representation has increased with Euro elections, the Scottish Parliament, GLA and Welsh Assembly now being joined by the Scottish Local Government Elections. It is likely that as the possibility of a hung 2009/10 Parliament looms that further extensions such as English Local Government will be considered with even a possible referendum on Westminster elections on the agenda.

The Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland has with many false dawns slowly led to a long-term power sharing agreement in Northern Ireland, which should be in place the day before Tony Blair announces his resignation.

The slow pace of reform to the House of Lords may at last be resolved with the House of Commons coming to a likely settled view that 80% of it should be elected. However it still likely to be years before any reform is complete.

Party Funding whilst made substantially more transparent is clearly still controversial with no clear consensus as to future change in terms of local and national capping and donations, however reform of the Honours System is likely to be due for an early review once the current Police investigations are resolved.

Another possible change for the future is the possibility of future Parliamentary votes on the deployment of British troops.

Local and Regional Government

There was change with more unitaries, the establishment of the GLA, a power of general competence and the abolition of CCT. However elected Mayors did not take off (perhaps because they were seen as to "top-down") and the move to strengthening the local role of Councillors as "Mini-Mayors" is, if resourced, likely to be more significant in developing a bottom-up approach in this area. Local Government Finance, remains an area of caution and whilst that is the case it is likely to hold back further local devolution.

There was significant investment in regeneration with numerous communities benefiting. However these is still a lot to do and TCC has worked closely with the New Deal for Communities (NDC) to raise the profile of very deprived communities.

Environment and Culture

Free entry to museums has contributed to many more people visiting them, which is surely good for a civilised and engaged society. Winning the Olympic bid is likely to see substantial redevelopment in the Thames Gateway area, however TCC's work on community engagement in this area demonstrates the need for ongoing communication with communities affected by rapid change.

Climate Change is increasingly an important part of political debate. As the recent online petition on congestion charging and the furore on fortnightly bin collection has shown many in the public express concern, but still do accept the need for significant lifestyle change. This is an area for much wider engagement and TCC is working on practical projects in this area to raise public awareness.

Economy and Trade

Trade Unions as large members organisations operating in the economy are increasingly seeing the need to break out of traditional ways of working. The merger of Amicus and TGWU to form Unite with the aim to create a global union in response to globalising economic trends is a significant development. The Government has invested in the development of Union Learning and Union Modernisation and TCC has worked with many unions to improve the way they work in the modern workplace.

International

Both EU and UN institutional reform have been very slow despite all the efforts of the government to move things forward. This is an area where change is measured over more than a long-serving prime-minister's term. More effort now seems to likely to be invested in "soft-power" and "cultural projection" after liberal interventionism, successful in Kosovo, was found to be not enough on its own in Iraq. As a result the expansion of the work of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy is an area the government needs to look closely at. TCC has also worked in helping to build democracy in a range of transitional and developing countries and knows the benefit of this work.

Conclusion

In the words of the song, from democracy's point of view, after many years of mainly market led and individualist reform, "things could only get better". However as illustrated above whilst a lot has been done, there is a lot more to do. The fact there is much greater consensus between the major parties in this area compared to the 1980's is likely to ensure that the changes that do exist are likely to survive and that further change is likely to happen.

That is a "legacy" that some people might even want to be proud of!

‘Aspire’ to a better life

Recently, stories have abounded about unethical recruitment agencies but hardly ever do we come across real life examples testifying to the contrary. Last week those attending the quarterly NDC Network meeting had a chance to see how an agency can both make money and promote social development. How is it done?

Aspire, a not-for-profit employment agency developed in the East Manchester NDC area, hires people for the duration of 1 year providing them with a steady remuneration, social benefits and a paid holiday. Thus, people, who use the agency, are placed in temporary positions with different companies but at the same time remain Aspire’s employees enjoying the comfort and security of full-time employment. All throughout the contract duration the agency also invests in their further development through skills trainings.

Although the agency has been operating for a relatively short time, it has been developing dynamically and its prospects are bright. If it continues to grow at the predicted pace, it will soon be able to become a self-sufficient commercial vehicle and expand the benefits package. Aspire also plans to become more involved in local community projects and thus, help turn people’s aspirations into reality.

'Neighbourhood Fix-It'

MySociety have launched their latest project – ‘Neighbourhood Fix-It'. Launched in partnership with the Young Foundation , and supported by the Innovations Fund, the project tests an online mapping tool that makes it easy for people to talk to their local authority and other local people about broken civic infrastructure in their neighbourhood. Check it out at www.neighbourhoodfixit.com

Youth of SK have their say!

We have previously blogged about the South Kilburn Youth Festival. Footage taken in the Videoqube at the event can now be viewed online:

smilies and frownies

Jack and Emma have recently blogged about our Emotimap work with young people in East Sussex. Over the past few weeks over 60 young people aged 7-19 from two particular East Sussex neighbourhoods – Hollington & Peacehaven – have taken part in this project. Using large scale maps and MSN Messenger-style ‘emoticons’ - expressing emotions such as ‘feel safe’ or ‘feel scared’ - they identified local places and described how they felt about them. They then went out ‘on location’ to film and interview one another talking about these places and what they thought could be done to improve them. Common themes were identified in both areas and young people had various ideas about what could be done to improve their neighbourhoods. Suggestions ranged from making public transport cheaper and more accessible, to improving street lighting, cleaning and litter and graffiti, and providing more constructive activities for teenagers. I presented the findings of the project to East Sussex County Council’s Stakeholders conference last week, and showed them the video that we produced in conjunction with the young people involved. The Council will work to ensure that the young peoples’ views are addressed in their key strategic plans. You can also view the video here, and the full report can be accessed Download east_sussex_emotimap_report.pdf .

It’s a constant challenge to engage with young people in a meaningful way, and we are always looking for new and innovative ways to do it. We’ve found that the Emotimap approach is particularly effective because it has the dual benefit of providing a visual interpretation of young peoples’ views about their area, and is also a really good way to stimulate discussion and debate about local issues that are important to young people. Does anyone know of any other examples of young people demonstrating their views about their local environment?

maps are still cool

Jack and Sarah have recently blogged about our Emotimap work in East Sussex. In the meantime, Londoners have also been mapping their area through the Museum of London’s ‘Map My London’ project – a kind of online variation of our emotimap which invites Londoners to map their memories of their local neighbourhoods. Check it out at www.mapmylondon.com. At a conference I was at today, a representative from Transport for London also talked about a similar-sounding new project they will soon be launching which will also involve maps and people sticking flags in particular areas to describe what they think needs doing there. So GPS Satnavs might be all the rage right now, but the trusty map lives on in the consultation world!

Child Poverty Matters

Footage from the Child Poverty Matters consultation event we organised on behalf of the DWP can now be viewed online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1drEcXYzpPQ . As you can see the young people had plenty to say about Child Poverty and what they think the Government should be doing about it. You can also check out the report hereDownload child_poverty_matters_report___final.pdf  – let us know what you think!

Britain's first green eco-suburb in Newham

We at The Campaign Company are very happy to see that our friends in Newham are about to embark on the construction of Britain's first carbon-free 'ecopolis'. The site, built over the remains of an old toxic east-end gasworks, marks the first in a long line of regeneration activities in this area built to reduce carbon emissions.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2425241,00.html

We are doubly happy because we are set over coming months to do some work for the borough in engagement activities around the environment and recycling. So it's really refreshing to see that Councils are willing to put their money where their mouths are in terms of climate change issues, especially when there's so much 2012 money going around and the pressure's on to put on a world class olympic games.

Anyone got any good ideas how we could use this news to practically contribute to our upcoming work?

Youth Action on Child Poverty

Youth Action magazine, published twice a year by the National Youth Agency, have used a shot of our Child Poverty Matter bridge-building exercise for their Autumn issue. The mag also includes article by the co-chair of the Young People Select Committee, Jenny Ginley, on page 17. You can download a copy of it from the NYA website website shortly.

Can sport change deprived communities?

Today's Observer sees Nick Cohen writing about StreetGames, amongst other things. (Scroll down his comment piece as it's about half way down).

He highlights the great work this new charity is doing, to help reach young people in deprived communities by bringing sport to their doorstep.

We've been working with StreetGames and are pleased to see their new website up and running. Take a look. There are some great photos from the recent North West StreetGames tournament, which brought together young people from the most deprived areas of the region.

The site also has some excellent resources - such as how sport can affect everything from youth offending to health - plus news from StreetGames projects across the country.

They work a lot with NDCs and local authorities. So ask yourself - could StreetGame be of benefit to my local community? They are also looking for some high profile patrons. Get thinking!

Trust Youth

Clients such as NDCs, NHS Foundation Trusts and similar organisations may find ‘Trust Youth’ helpful. In partnership with CRAE and the Governance, the British Youth Council has launched Trust Youth, a guide on what being a trustee means for children and young people and how to recruit them. The guide has been developed which children and young people; it explains what the National Occupation Standards for Trustees and Management Committees mean in words that children and young people can understand, as well as outlines the practical steps organisations can take to recruit young trustees.

Bedtime Stories

At TCC we are very keen to develop our community engagement work with libraries and further contribute to the many examples of best practice that currently exist in this field. I was interested to read about one such example employed by Bristol City Council library service.

‘Bedtime stories’ has engaged prison inmates in the production of story CDs for their children and also aims to raise prisoners' awareness of the benefits of reading to children and to enable them to help their own children enjoy books. The prisoners have been writing, reading and recording their stories onto CDs to send to their children. This has helped them safeguard important links with their families. They have also acquired literacy and IT skills, which are transferable and will help them find employment on release.

Prisoners are encouraged to read their finished stories onto CDs for their children to play at home and to create artwork for their stories. The children then have a multimedia reminder of their parent and the prisoners consolidate some basic skills. The scheme has ensured that time spent inside has not necessarily been lost time, for the prisoners or their families. The scheme supports social inclusion and prisoners’ employment prospects on release, making for safer and stronger communities. 

Doing one’s duty

Doing one’s duty: a case study of volunteering in a deprived community. An Economic and Social Research Council study on volunteering has found that volunteering plays a valuable role in developing social capital within communities. It also found that most people volunteer to make a difference in the community rather than for career development. For more info on the research click here.

Ressy Rocked!

It's not every day you get to design and construct a suspension bridge, grill a bunch of government ministers and civil servants in a Select Committee, fly on the London Eye, dine at Planet Hollywood, meet a TV celebrity, tour the Houses of Parliament and have lots of journalists clambering to interview you and take your picture... especially not when you're 14 years old and live in some of the most deprived areas of the UK. But this is what our 25 young people who took part in the DWP's Child Poverty Matters event have done over the past 24 hours, and they have really done their communities proud.

All participants put so much effort into their work, and all clearly got a lot out of it. Jim Murphy and John Hutton spoke to a lot of the young people at some length during the bridge building session in Victoria Tower Gardens this morning, and Floella Benjamin gave a motivating speech drawing on her own experiences of growing up in poverty. The young people then gave the Select Committee witnesses a really good grilling, with lots of questions about what the Government are/are not doing to tackle child poverty, and plenty of their own ideas about what they think the Government should be doing.

Most importantly, all involved are determined that this is only the very beginnning of a very constructive dialogue between young people and Government on the issue of child poverty. It will all be illustrated in photos on these pages very soon so watch this space (and www.myspace.com/childpovertymatters!) for updates.

who deserves a pat on the back?

The LGC awards are looking to give national recognition to local initiatives that have really made a difference.

Categories cover things such as community engagement and innovation.

Deadline is 11 October 2006 and you can find out more here.

All set for Child Poverty Matters event

Time flies! It was only a month ago that we were asked to do this, but now we’re all set for the DWP Child Poverty Matters that will be taking place tomorrow and Thursday. 25 young people aged between 13 and 16 from across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will be descending upon Westminster tomorrow to discuss the issue of Child Poverty. The young people taking part have been specifically recruited from deprived communities, including New Deal for Communities (NDC) and Neighbourhood Management Pathfinder (NMP) areas. They will be ambassadors for their neighbourhoods and have the opportunity to tell the Government what it is like to live and grow up in their area and what they think should be done to improve opportunities for young people where they live, and achieve the Government’s ambitious target of eradicating Child Poverty by 2020. Activities taking place include:

·           Videoqube – there will be a Big Brother style Diary Room where young people can tell the Government about where they live and share their thoughts on what the Government should do to tackle poverty

·           Bridging the Poverty Gap – a bridge will be built demonstrating young people views on what the Government should do to ‘bridge the poverty gap’. Two pillars will be built out of blocks - one pillar illustrating ‘Today’ and the problems faced now, and the other illustrating what the situation should be like in ‘2020’. The pillars will be ‘bridged’ with the positive steps that should be taken to achieve the Government’s target of eradicating child poverty by 2020.

·           Young People Select Committee – the young people will have the chance to put Government ministers and other decision-makers in the hot seat and question them about what they are doing to end child poverty. Witnesses include Lisa Harker (Independent Adviser to DWP on Child Poverty), Kate Green (CPAG), Colette Marshall (Save The Children), Julia Sweeney (DWP), Jim Murphy (Minister for Work), John Hutton (Secretary of State for Work and Pensions), Pat McFadden (Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office)

And one of my childhood heroines - Floella Benjamin - will also be making an appearance. Although best known for presenting Playschool, one of Floella’s many other projects is Touching Success, a focused programme aimed at children and young people - especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds and culturally diverse communities - to ‘help them develop a vision for their own future, build the skills to develop self belief, to reach for the sky and feel self worth’.

Will try to keep you posted on how it goes over the next couple of days!

Remember when August was a quiet month...

Time was, that August was the opportunity to sit back and relax, and think about the previous months' hard work and autumn's challenges.

No longer!  This week sees TCC undertaking a major consultation exercise in Cumbria, working in London with the Department of Work and Pensions, Ministers and a collection of young people from all over the UK developing strategies for combatting child poverty and undertaking focus groups for the Bakers' Union in Guisborough and laying the foundations for a Democracy Wall in North Yorkshire.

Look out for regular updates on all of these in the blog!

Does it stay or does it go?

We have just learnt of our success in a partnership bid with Mouchel Parkman to undertake a consultation exercise for Sheffield City Council. The project is to look at the various options in relation to the future of a community recycling / waste disposal facility. We're delighted to be able to apply our community consultation and engagement skills to this project while Mouchel Parkman bring their extensive technical and planning skills. Critical to the ultimate decision will be the need to ensure that whatever decision it takes Sheffield, like all authorities, is able to meet increasingly demanding re-cycling targets. The attitudes and behaviour of citizens are crucial in achieving these targets and the importance of making decisions 'with' people is crucial. We very much look forward to this project and enabling the key stakeholders to contribute to and inform the decision the council will take.

DWP - End Child Poverty residential event

We’ve just been contracted by the Department for Work and Pensions to organise a

residential consultation event with young people on the issue of Child Poverty.

The Government has set an ambitious target of eradicating child poverty by 2020. Jim

Murphy, Minister for Welfare Reform, has said that tackling this is the DWP’s number one

priority and a renewed strategy will be published in the autumn. The aim of the event is

that young people, particularly those from deprived communities, should help to

influence the development of the Department’s strategy on eradicating child poverty.

We’ll be working with colleagues at New Deal for Communities and Neighbourhood Management Pathfinder organisations, as well as other organisations such as Save the Children, End Child Poverty, the Child Poverty Action Group, and others to recruit 20 13-16 year olds to take part in this event which will take place at Westminster on August 30^th-31^st.

We’ll be using a variety of our engagement tools including Videoqube and Democracy Wall. The event will culminate in a ‘Young People Select’ at the House of Commons – a ‘Select Committee’ led by young people, where they will question the Minister and senior DWP staff about the issues that concern them in relation to this topic.

I’m really excited about this project – watch this space!

Transforming Lives: Re-engaging young people through community-based projects

The DfES and Neighbourhood Support Fund document offers a source of support and guidance for those working with hard to reach young people. It includes innovative ideas, approaches and materials from Neighbourhood Support Fund projects across the country and gives a useful insight into the processes used to engage at risk young people.

Summary document: Transforming Lives: Re-engaging young people through community-based projects: http://www.info4local.gov.uk/searchreport.asp?id=21709&heading=e-mail+alert Full document: Transforming Lives: Re-engaging young people through community-based projects http://www.info4local.gov.uk/searchreport.asp?id=21708&heading=e-mail+alert

SK Youth Board manifestoes

View the South Kilburn Youth Board manifestos online here! 25 candidates to battle it out for 12 places! This election is going to be even bigger and better than last year's!!

Slivers of Time

A very interesting presentation at the NDC (New Deal for Communities) Network meeting from an organisation called 'Slivers of Time'. Essentially they offer people who are unemployed, and without much of an employment CV, the opportunity to sell small amounts of their free time (an hour or so) to employers who have an immediate need to one or two hours work. So in a TCC context - assuming we had a local Slivers of Time arrangement - our problem is that we need to get 1000 packages in the post by noon tomorrow. What we'd do at the moment is either ring round our list of field staff to see if anyone was available (and maybe spend 30mins to an hour doing it with uncertain success) OR a few of us sit in the office doing it. The 'Slivers of Time' way would let us post our request - that would pull up a list of available people - graded as to track record of previous performance - choose one and send confirmatory e-mail or text - probably a 5 or 10 minute job.

So - a great way of an employer getting out of a staffing crisis / operational problem and good for the person to build up a CV to help them get a proper job. But - and there always is one - not sure how comfortable I am with someone becoming a 'commodity' in this way. I can see how it could work for say 3 months to enable someone to build up the CV to get the proper job - but not sure about encouraging this way of working in the medium to long term. As I say great for the employer side but people want more from work than just that hourly rate - don't they??????

However - did make me think that the website element, where a person logs their availability, would absolutely transfer to our management of field staff - and in fact is exactly what we have talked about - so have a look www.sliversoftime.com

Save the Hoodie!

David Cameron's speech about showing more understanding of 'hoodies' reminded me of something a young man (or 'hoodie') representing EC1 New Deal for Communities said at the Youth Matters NDC/NMP consultation event we organised a while back. He was talking about how all too often young people are wrongly percieved as being threatening when they are hanging around in groups, when in fact they are not causing trouble - they just have nowhere else to go and as he put it, their 'only crime is being young'. The rolling out of Youth Opportunity Funds will finally put the power into young people's hands and go some way to ensuring that there are things to do and places to go for young people. TCC is doing a lot in this field already, but I think that everyone should also join Lady Sov's Save the Hoodie campaign!

As the Lady says, 'For too long we've been wrongly stereotyped for what we choose to wear, and now the Hoodie - a piece of clothing - has been getting the blame for everything from anti-social behaviour to criminal activities. Lady Sovereign and her Save the Hoodie Campaign aims to show the jobsworths tryong to ban it how wrong and misguided they are - so we can wear our Hoodies with Pride once more!'

The site includes an on-line petition, photo gallery and save the hoodie internet game. Our very own Lady Sarah Sov models how it's done:

'Empowerment and the deal for devolution'

I'd forgotten about David Milliband's pamphlet  'Empowerment and the deal for devolution' - a discussion document that he published when he was still at the ODPM.Well the responses were published yesterday  'Empowerment and the deal for devolution' - discussion document and response .For me the key issues are in the whole area of ensuring that any new governance 'settlement' has the facility to allow neigborhoods in particular to take advantage of them-it has to be about more than simply hoping for the best if you really want to give away power.

The responses recognise that"for communities to move from consultation to more complex modes of engagement, community capacity building is required." And also  that if there is any chance of success "The community.......needs to see...that they are having an effect – this includes issues of communicating action taken/outcomes as a result of engagement, and managing the community’s expectations,.......Dealing with issues that matter to the community ...and Making it attractive and accessible – being innovative and breaking down barriers such as accessibility or childcare needs, especially for the hard to reach. There are also development needs for local government: for it to be able to carry out the role and to support/build the capacity of the community "

Where is the best practise for this?

Young Mums

Over the past few weeks the TCC SKFreshsay team have been working really hard to engage young people in South Kilburn www.skndc.net in the South Kilburn Youth Board election www.skfreshsay.co.uk. The Youth Board project is in its second year now, and now that the local community and youth service providers know what the youth board is about and are aware of a lot of the great work the young people have been doing over the past year, the process is a lot easier than it was a year ago. Sarah and i went along to the brand new kilburn youth centre on friday, where we caught up with a lot of the youth service providers and NDC staff that we have been working with. The brand new Youth Centre is beautiful!www.kilburnyouthcentre.org.uk. Tomorrow we are meeting up with a group of young mums who may hopefuly be interested in standing as candidates. Has anyone else had any experience of engaging with young mums - if you know what  mean!?

Welcome to the TCC Blog

The Campaign Company (TCC) is a communications consultancy. 

We believe that the success of organisations depends on their ability to connect with people. This connection can only happen when there is a lasting and genuine dialogue between themselves and the communities they serve.

This connection ensures that organisations make good decisions that lead them to thrive – because better decisions are made when people have had the opportunity to participate more fully in the decision making process.

We work with many local authorities, health trusts, New Deal for Communities, Trade Unions and other bodies to increase member or public participation in decision-making processes.

We have extensive experience in community engagement, membership development, strategic communications, issue-based campaigns, political management, youth engagement, fundraising, democracy development, public opinion research, event management and marketing

Our experience and record of success in encouraging and increasing public participation, coupled with our agility and unique package of skills puts us at the cutting edge.

We have decided to launch a blog to better engage with our clients.  We hope that you will find it useful and feel able to contribute to it.