Agenda item
Minutes:
The Committee endorsed the contents of the undernoted Community Development Strategy, which had been the subject of an extensive public consultation exercise, and noted also the contents of a delivery plan for the strategy.
Community development can be thought of as both the means by which we work together to support communities and to describe the outcomes we wish to achieve. Community development is thus both an approach to how the council should go about its work and an overarching aim in itself. It can be thought of as both an occupation (for example, the role of a community development worker in a council) and as a way of working with communities. As such it has a fundamental role to play in supporting and shaping how the council plans and delivers its services.
This is also true for our statutory partners and will become more central when Community Planning legislation is introduced to Northern Ireland. At the heart of Community Planning is a commitment by statutory organisations to engage in a co-ordinated way with communities in the design and delivery of public services.
A new strategy for the Council
While the council has supported a community development approach in many aspects of its work over the years, this has often been in isolation of any wider framework or strategy for community development. (This situation has changed somewhat in recent months with a number of organisations developing their own strategies including the Health and Social Care Board and Public Health Agency, the East Belfast Community Development Agency and the Rural Community Network. The council has welcomed these initiatives and has committed to supporting these strategies.)
Research and experience from Belfast and from elsewhere across Europe has demonstrated the importance of community development in ensuring that quality public services are delivered effectively.
While much good community development work has been done with the council it has become increasingly apparent that a well defined position on community development would have obvious benefits for our services. It would allow us share practice across the council and with our partners. It would also support staff in building professional skills in community development. A strategy would also allow us to define the outcomes the council wishes to achieve from community development work. This would allow us to measure more clearly the community impact of the work of the council. If successful such a framework could be shared with our partners across the community, voluntary and statutory sectors in the city.
Consulting on the strategy
We spent much of 2011 engaging with our councillors and staff, the community and voluntary sector, and with our statutory partners, to develop a strategic approach to community development that could support this shared approach. The council has been guided in its thinking by the expertise of organisations such as Community Change and by academic work from Dr Brendan Murtagh at Queen’s University and Gabriel Chanon, former director of research and policy at the Community Development Foundation.
In our engagement and in our public consultation on the draft strategy there was considerable support for the council in taking a lead in this area. At a series of workshops and briefings our approach has been informed by the views of groups from across the community, voluntary and statutory sectors.
There was recognition of the importance of community development work to the city and its value to the citizen and in enhancing the work of organisations. This final draft of the strategy incorporates a number of challenges and suggestions from those with whom we consulted. Key challenges included:
- Considering the relationship between elected representatives and community development work
- The nature of community organisations and active citizens
- The need to draw together the wealth of evidence and experience to build a renewed vision for continued improvement of CD practice in Belfast. The council, as civic leader, is in a unique position to encourage this.
- The shared roles and responsibilities of organisations within partnership arrangements.
- Encouraging a shared emphasis on an asset-based approach; recognising the importance of existing community infrastructure as a basis for shaping intervention.
- Emphasising the critical role that community development work has to play in supporting Good Relations particularly given Belfast’s post-conflict environment. We are operating in a fairly unique environment and our approach to community development must be informed by this drive towards a shared city.
- Taking a CD approach that recognises that the nature of community is not restricted to one defined by geography but which might also include communities of interest, communities of identity or communities of action.
- In earlier drafts of our strategy we used the metaphor of building blocks to describe aspects of community development work. This was challenged by many as too mechanistic and not reflective of the nature of the work where groups or communities move between strands at different times and in different circumstances.
What’s in the strategy?
This final strategy does not attempt to address all of these challenges. Indeed given the nature of CD work it would be inappropriate for us to attempt to do so. The strategy instead provides a common basis on which to engage with communities, councillors, and our partners on these subjects and work towards shared approaches. We do this by offering a number of elements:
1. A working definition of community development
2. Our vision, aims and underpinning values
3. A community development model to share across Belfast
4. Developing an outcomes framework
5. An outline implementation plan specifically for the council
Community development in Belfast
There are many definitions of ‘community development’. However, for our purposes a simple definition that can be shared widely is:
Community development activity is the main means by which we can be better engaged with local people and support their involvement in improving the city and its neighbourhoods. It enables people to come together to:
· influence or take decisions about issues that matter to them and that affect their lives;
· define needs, issues and solutions for their community; and
· take action to help them and make a difference.
It is a long-term, value-based process which targets positive social change.’
Belfast City Council would suggest that a shared vision for community development is that all the communities of Belfast will become engaged, effective and enterprising.
- By engaged we mean that communities will be inclusive towards all their members and will have the skills and confidence to work positively with public agencies, with other communities and with elected representatives.
- By effective we mean that communities will be skilled in meeting their own needs, in prioritising and articulating needs in relation to public agencies, and will be able to negotiate solutions and assist change and development.
- By enterprising we mean that communities will be places of creativity and energy where economic value is multiplied, investment is attracted and opportunities expand.
Implied in all of these dimensions, and underlying them, is the necessity for individuals and communities to be active on numerous issues and interests for their own and others’ benefit in order to improve the quality of life for all.
Community development as a professional approach is informed by a core set of values which are now recognised by the National Occupational Standards[1] We provide more detail on these standards in Appendix One. Briefly they underpin:
- Social justice
- Self-determination environment
- Working and Learning Together
- Sustainable Communities
- Participation
- Reflective Practice
It is important to note that adopting a community development approach can contribute directly to the council’s aims of improving quality of life. Communities that are challenged, or have weak community infrastructure, can greatly impede our ability to deliver on our corporate priorities. Successful community development activity can foster an environment in our neighbourhoods that makes what we do much more effective.
A shared model of community development
To achieve the dimensions of engaged, effective and enterprising communities requires a full range of community development methods, each with its own characteristic outcomes.
These can be considered as four strands of community development practice, though in practical situations they become intertwined and mutually reinforcing.
The four strands correspond broadly to the dimensions in the following way:
- To assist communities to be widely active and generally effective, and also to underpin the other dimensions, requires Core Community Development.
- For communities to be engaged requires that some of the community development effort focuses specifically on Engagement and, at a more structured level, on Partnership working.
- For communities to be enterprising requires that some of the community development effort focuses on Shared Service Design and Delivery.
Communities, groups and organisations may focus on one or more strands at different times and in different situations. However, the idea of Core Community Development, the trunk of our tree, with CD values and principles at its root is likely to form the substantive basis of all community development activity.
Four strands of community development
1. Core community development work
2. Engagement that works
3. Building effective partnerships
4. Shared service design and delivery
Strand 1 - Core community development
Working with communities and individuals to build up a critical mass of active citizens, associations, groups and networks that provide the foundations for communities to articulate their needs, issues and purpose and to begin to understand how to work best together and with local and central government bodies.
Strand 2 - Engagement that works
Communities need to have the ability to engage effectively within their own communities (geographical or otherwise); with other communities; and with those who deliver services to ensure that such services meet their needs. Groups therefore need the skills and information necessary to both identify priorities and propose solutions. From the deliverers’ perspective, councils and other public bodies must acquire the skills and capacity to engage meaningfully and effectively with communities.
Strand 3 - Building effective partnerships
Increasingly, more formalised partnership-working is at the heart of many of the relationships between communities and service providers in our city. For this to work well community organisations and service providers need the capacity to co-design, monitor and evaluate services that address local need. They also need to be able to understand the wider interlocking social, economic and environmental issues which impact on local areas. Such partnerships might range from loose collegiate arrangements to more formal structures.
Strand 4 - Shared service design and delivery
Although not always relevant or appropriate, in some instances communities may wish to move to a position where they are the co-deliverers of local services. Community groups become delivery partners in meeting local needs, developing community assets and delivering local and central government aims.
The entire basis of the
work of the council’s Community Services is predicated on a
community development model that has a particular focus on
core community development activity. However,
most services across the council already contribute in a variety of
ways to community development goals that cross all four
strands.
Strand 1 - Core community development
What is this?
This ‘trunk’ is about developing active citizenship and positive networks and relationships in and between communities. Through community groups, associations, environmental, residents’ and other local voluntary groups this strand builds the foundations for communities to articulate their needs and issues and begin to understand how to work best with each other and with local and central Government bodies. This is often an organic, bottom up response to a local need or issue.
Who currently does this?
The council’s support for this strand in communities is primarily the work of Community Services. While work elsewhere in the council certainly contributes to the strand, it is uniquely the central aim of Community Services.
Where do we want to go?
There are a number of areas of work the council is already involved in, or could pursue over the longer term, to strengthen its contribution to this strand. These might include:
- Build a shared community outcomes framework that can contribute to the measurement of the community impact of the council’s work;
- Strengthen and improve the quality of community activity which in turn builds social capital.
- Develop a volunteer framework which supports active citizenship internally and externally.
- Provide support and advice to new and emerging community groups.
- Manage and support our community facilities as accessible assets for communities and groups to use.
- Provide grant aid in support of community groups’ activities and facilities and for area based networking and capacity building.
- Work to identify and meet specific CD training needs across council.
- Promote community development skills and knowledge across the council as part of our organisational development programme.
- Ensure that front-line council workers understand the role of community activity, groups and networks and respond to and support them where appropriate.
How do we know if we’ve been successful?
There are a range of outcomes we would wish to see from this strand and which could be shared across council and, over time, with our partners. They include:
ü Community groups are flourishing and networks are vibrant across the city
ü Citizens have access to a wide range of community groups and activities and are more active in their community.
ü Community sector networks operate effectively and reach all relevant groups and organisations.
ü All community groups have access to use of affordable premises for meetings and activities.
ü All community groups have reasonable and fair opportunities to access grants for activities.
ü The needs and concerns of all sections of the community are articulated effectively.
ü Disaffected or marginalised groups develop confidence, influence and negotiation skills.
How might we begin to measure success?
Indicators might include:
ü Large-scale or micro surveys showing how far groups are confident of increasingly meeting their own objectives
ü The range of issues addressed by groups
ü How well groups attract and retain volunteers
ü Whether groups have adequate resources and support
ü Nominal Group Technique to measure social capital
ü Quality of services, opportunities and environment enabling groups to function
Strand 2 - Engagement that works
What is this?
Communities and organisations can engage transparently to design and shape services to meet local need.It supports community groups to gain the skills and information they need to work together, and with others, to identify and articulate shared priorities and to propose solutions. Equally it develops the abilities and knowledge of people working in local government and public bodies to engage meaningfully and effectively with communities.
Engagement is an increasingly important strand of work across the council and will be a key capacity for successful Community Planning. Currently, Community Services act both as channels or facilitators for local engagement. Other services with a strong engagement element include Parks and Leisure, Community Safety, Good Relations, Health Development and Cleansing Services. Current activity includes the design of community engagement in the Titanic Quarter, the BIG Lottery Community Planning pilot and work on the redevelopment of Dunville and Woodvale Parks.
Where do we want to go?
There are a number of areas of work the council is already involved in or could pursue over the longer term to strengthen its contribution to this strand. These might include:
- Facilitate shared learning on community engagement within the council and with community and public sector partners.
- Develop the capacity to assist council departments to design and undertake community engagement.
- Engage with community centre users in developing programmes and management structures.
- Engage with user groups, advocacy groups and community networks to stimulate feedback and invite informed influence.
- Support the council framework for consultation and engagement that ensures we:
o engage communities to help inform and shape Council policy and decision making;
o work with partners in the public and community sectors to identify and apply good practice.
- Value the contribution that community development can make to the corporate themes and individual departmental objectives.
- Increase CD skills and make wide use of CD in the course of our work.
How do we know if we’ve been successful?
There are a range of outcomes we would wish to see from this strand and which could be shared across council and, over time, with our partners. They include:
ü Services are improved and better targeted and delivered as a result of constructive dialogue between communities and council departments.
ü Council engagement activity is responded to widely.
ü Communities are influential in shaping services and decisions based on them are considered to have been arrived at in a transparent manner.
ü Residents, community groups and voluntary organisations have good negotiating skills and use them effectively in relating to the council.
ü There is a strong engagement culture across the organisation
ü Staff have good skills for engaging with and responding to communities and use them effectively in relating to local residents and groups.
How might we begin to measure success?
Indicators might include:
ü Reports showing how far resident influence is a factor in departmental decisions.
ü Whether delivery of services is improved by community feedback.
ü Whether groups testify to improved confidence and capability as a result of community development input.
Strand 3 - Effective partnership working
This involves effective partnerships between communities and service providers that lead, co-design and monitor and evaluate services.
Our services are involved in formal partnerships for health, community safety, policing, education, neighbourhood renewal, older people and good relations. We also work collaboratively with organisations and communities at a more informal or operational level to deliver projects, services or to respond to emerging issues. The council also leads on Community Planning and is building capacity and learning on successful partnership working.
Where do we want to go?
There are a number of areas of work the council is already involved in or could pursue further over the longer term to strengthen its contribution to this strand. These include:
ü Continuing to represent the council on all Neighbourhood Renewal (NR) Partnerships and relevant sub-groups
ü Work with the SNAP team to facilitate communication between council services and the NR Partnerships so that the Neighbourhood Renewal programme can effectively influence local area service provision across our departments;
ü Co-ordinate the council's work on its priority themes of improving services for children and young people and the Traveller community.
ü Support, participate in, and (where agreed) lead city-wide, area and neighbourhood fora and partnerships which further the corporate aims and priorities. These include the Good Relations partnership; Community Safety Partnerships and the Strategic Health Partnership.
ü Ongoing development of a Community Planning model for Belfast that ensures communities have an effective means of participating in community planning processes.
ü Partnership work with communities for the successful delivery of neighbourhood projects, e.g. Connswater Community Greenway project.
How do we know if we’ve been successful?
There are a range of outcomes we would wish to see from this strand and which could be shared across council and, over time, with our partners. They include:
ü Increased cooperation between Council services and community and voluntary groups and greater trust reported.
ü Community representatives or advocates on partnerships have wide credibility in their own sector and effectiveness in relation to authorities.
ü Better joint planning and collaborative working on key quality of life themes and local priorities, including shared contributions
ü Community groups successfully create or negotiate multiple improvements to neighbourhood conditions.
ü Evidence of a collegiate approach.
ü Groups understand the Council’s business and budgetary planning cycle.
How might we begin to measure success?
Indicators might include:
ü Reports showing how far groups feel they can influence decisions of council departments and partner bodies.
ü Increased joint use of facilities.
ü Joint planning by communities and agencies.
ü Better satisfaction with services as a result of cooperation.
Strand 4 - Shared service design and delivery
What is this?
Communities as co-deliverers of sustainable services such as social economy enterprises or community-managed assets. These meet local needs, develop community assets and help deliver local and central Government aims. They are supported through grant aid, contracts and earned income. Not all communities will wish to proceed to this stage.
Who does this?
Services across council have been exploring the option of working with communities in the direct design and delivery of services – and it’s a direction encouraged by national government policy. Both Community Services and the Parks and Leisure department have a number of facilities that are directly managed by local community organisations and the council’s generalist advice services are delivered by local advice consortia. In Waste Management, Bryson House deliver a kerbside recycling contract operation as a social economy enterprise.
Where do we want to go?
There are a number of areas of work the council is already working on or could pursue over the longer term to strengthen its contribution to this strand. These might include:
ü Support community-managed neighbourhood facilities through grant aid, service agreements and advice on management.
ü Support community organisations in the development of social economy enterprises.
ü Facilitate an area planning approach to maximise access to and use of community facilities in the council, public and community sectors.
ü Provide advice and support to community managed facilities to enable them to become more effective and self sufficient.
ü Promote and develop shared facilities and amenities with both the community and public sectors including new arrangements for co-production and management.
How do we know if we’ve been successful?
There are a range of outcomes we would wish to see from this strand and which could be shared across council and, over time, with our partners. They include:
ü Community and voluntary organisations take on delivery of specific aspects of public services.
ü Community assets are increased.
ü Training and employment opportunities are increased through community organisations and social enterprises
ü More social economy enterprises supply goods and services to the council and other public sector bodies.
How might we begin to measure success?
Indicators might include:
ü Increase in volume of trading by community and voluntary organisations
ü Increased user satisfaction with services provided by voluntary and community organisations
ü Increased occupational training through these organisations
ü Increase in employability through volunteering.
Drawing together the various contributions suggested in each strand, a number of current and potential future roles emerge from the strategy for services across the council. These include:
Specifically for Community Services
- Provide support and advice to new and emerging community groups
- Manage and support community facilities as accessible venues for community activities and events.
- Support community managed facilities through grant aid, service agreements and advice on management.
- Provide grant aid in support of community groups’ activities and facilities and for area based networking and capacity building.
- Develop a volunteer framework which supports active citizenship internally and externally.
- Promote community development skills and knowledge across the council as part of our organisational development programme.
- Strengthen and improve the quality of community activity
- Develop the capacity to assist council departments to design and undertake community engagement; facilitate shared learning on community engagement
- Engage with community centre users in developing programmes and management structures.
- Represent the council on all Neighbourhood Renewal Partnerships and relevant sub-groups
- Work with the SNAP team to facilitate communication between council services and the NR Partnerships
- Co-ordinate the Council's work on its priority themes of improving services for children and young people and the Traveller community.
- Build a shared community outcomes framework that can contribute to the measurement of the community impact of the council’s work;
- Ensure that front-line council workers understand the role of community activity, groups and networks and respond to and support them where appropriate.
- Promote community development skills and knowledge across the council as part of our organisational development programme.
- Work with Community Services to identify and meet specific CD training needs
- Facilitate shared learning on community engagement
- Support the council framework for consultation and engagement that ensures we:
o engage communities to help inform and shape Council policy and decision making;
o work with partners in the public and community sectors to identify and apply good practice.
- Support, participate in, and (where agreed) lead city-wide, area and neighbourhood partnerships which further the corporate aims and priorities. These include the Good Relations Partnership; Community Safety Partnerships and the Belfast Strategic Partnership for health and wellbeing.
- Value the contribution that community development can make to the corporate themes and individual departmental objectives
- Ongoing development of a Community Planning model for Belfast that ensures communities have an effective means of participating in community planning processes.
- Build on SNAP’s co-ordination role to ensure that the Neighbourhood Renewal programme can effectively influence local area service provision across our departments.
- Partnership work with communities for the successful delivery of major regeneration projects e.g. the Connswater Community Greenway project and local improvement projects.
- Support community organisations in the development of social economy enterprises.
- Facilitate an area planning approach to maximise access to and use of community facilities in the Council, public and community sectors.
- Promote and develop shared facilities and amenities with both the community and public sectors including new arrangements for co-production and management e.g. developing the potential of those Community Services and Parks and Leisure facilities that are managed by community organisations or social economy enterprises.
- Support in practical ways local community initiatives which complement Council services and priorities (Neighbourhood Watch, local clean-ups, recycling, etc).
Measuring community development outcomes
The previous sections illustrate some of the expected outcomes and indicators for each strand. As part of the implementation of the strategy Community Services staff plan to work with others in the council to expand these initial ideas to construct an outcomes framework that will allow us to jointly measure our community impacts.
In the past it’s often been assumed that measuring the impact of community development is difficult. However, evidence can take many forms and be collected at different points in the community development process.
Surveys of staff, councillors, communities and community venue users are already undertaken by the council periodically. These will be continued but their content will be reviewed to find ways to relate it more accurately to community development.
An outcomes framework for more continuous feedback through community development officers’ reports and proposals for shared approaches with other departments. This framework will reflect ‘theory of change’ reasoning, i.e.:
Ø The work is being done in order to change something.
Ø What is it that needs to be changed?
Ø What is its present state?
Ø What is the desired state that we want to change it to?
Ø What actions are most likely to bring the change about?
Ø How will we recognise whether the change has happened or not?
Ø How will we judge whether the change was the result of the action taken?
Since it would be too onerous to collect evidence of everything that happens, a limited set of indicators will be established for a period to capture whether the community development process as a whole is succeeding in contributing its maximum value to the council’s corporate themes.”
Supporting documents:
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Community Development Strategy, item 6n
PDF 113 KB -
APPENDIX_1, item 6n
PDF 51 KB
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APPENDIX 2, item 6n
PDF 815 KB