topic: Community

Local Democracy

Local democracy is about more than voting in an election; active and diverse community groups are part of a healthy local democracy too…

Local democracy is about more than voting in an election; active and diverse community groups are part of a healthy local democracy too...

In more detail

Local democracy isn’t just voting.  Councils were set up, originally, in English cities, like Manchester and Birmingham, not because people voted for them, but because people campaigned for them.  Taking part - participation - is an equal part to local democracy as is representation and voting for representatives.  Neither participative not representative democracy is better than the other – though each may be better suited in different situations.  One thing seems clear - successful neighbourhoods have active participative and representative democracy: people turn up and vote and people turn up and do.  Turning up and doing is as much part of a healthy local democracy as voting in the election.

Representative Democracy

Representative democracy is where the people or members of an organisation elect representatives to serve them in the governance (decision-making) of a council or other organisation.  Representatives are said to be ‘democratically accountable’ to the people or the members of the organisation – not just the ones who voted for them, but all the people in the area they represent.  Local councils are organisations run on the basis of representative democracy.  Decisions are often  made in councils and representative democratic organisations by voting.  It is fair, because everyone gets a say and we go along with whatever the majority says.

Participative Democracy

Participative democracy is where the people or members of an organisation are able to take part in the work and decision making of the organisation.  In general, people who put a lot of work in to an organisation may expect to have their voices heard and counted in decisions, but everyone who is a member can be involved.  Most community groups are run on the basis of participative democracy.  Decisions are often made in community groups by discussion and consensus (which means working out a decision that everyone is at least reasonably happy with).  It is fair, because everyone gets a chance to take part and no one has to go along with something they don't believe in.

There are advantages and disadvantages of both forms of democracy.  They generally work best in different situations and councils, for example, will use both kinds of democracy to achieve different things.  A successful neighbourhood is served well by both representative and participative organisations and organisations – like local councils and community groups – which can use both approaches when needed.

Key Facts:

Representative democracy means voting fairly and honestky for people to represent us.  Participative democracy means working working for those things we believe in regardless of who votes for it.  Both forms of democracy are legitimate and help make neighbourhoods what they are.

Page Links from here

In the toolkit see:

Your Council 

Civil Society

 


OR you can use the navigation menu above right to look at other parts of the toolkit.

BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.

created: 2016-06-25 15:36:24 by: admin status: f published

Faith Communities

The biggest communities in your neighbourhood are likely to be faith communities. Community planning is for everyone in an area regardless of their beliefs. But involving faith communities is likely to be a way of increasing the number and range of people involved – and getting involved in community planning could itself be seen as an act of faith!

The biggest communities in your neighbourhood are likely to be faith communities. Community planning is for everyone in an area regardless of their beliefs. But involving faith communities is likely to be a way of increasing the number and range of people involved - and getting involved in community planning could itself be seen as an act of faith!

In more detail

A community is a group of people with a shared interest and an identity.  Faith communities are communities in which members share a religious faith or spiritual outlook.  They matter for at least three reasons:

  • all communities matter – community planning depends on widespread and active involvement. About one-third of people has some sort of regular connection with a faith community.  About the same number of people regularly attend a mosque, Anglican church or Catholic church in England.  Significant numbers of people regularly attend other types of church including Baptist, Pentecostalist and Charismatic churches as well as Sikh gurdwara and Hindu temple.  You can find how people in your neighbourhood describe their religious faith from the census information at the government’s neighbourhood statistics website.
  • faith communities (like sports clubs) frequently create links between other communities – the overlaps that stitch local society together. Not everyone who goes to a church is rich, or poor, there is usually a mixture.  Not everyone who visits a local place of worship necessarily lives in the area, but they still use it and have links to people who do live locally. The links between communities within neighbourhoods and across them that faith communities can make means they are often particularly important.
  • members of faith communities share values and often these values have a lot in common with what you might call ‘civic values’: good neighbourliness; ‘helping out’; charity and compassionate etc. Community planning isn’t an appropriate vehicle for faith communities to spread their faith, but there is no reason why members of faith communities who get involved as participants and volunteers etc shouldn’t feel that they are living their faith – putting their values into action - by becoming involved.

Aren't Most People Not Active Believers?

More people in England are not members of a faith community than those who are.  Likewise, there are many more people who are not members of sports clubs than those who are.  If you want to use community networks as a way of involving people in community planning, however, you can only work with communities that exist.  Your target should be to try to involve faith communities, sports clubs and every other kind of community which exists in your neighbourhood.

Key Facts:

Faith communities are often large communities which own local assets including a meeting place. Involving them is a way of involbving more people in community planning and matters because: every local community matters; faith communities may act as 'glue' between other communities (young and old, for example); and faith communities frequently share 'civic values' which are close to those behind the impulse to work together to make better places to live.

Page Links from here

Engaging Faith Communities in Urban Regeneration - from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation website

Have a look at the Faith Based Regeneration Network, the Faithful Neighbourhoods Centre and the Nehemiah Foundation

In this toolkit:

Community

Community Groups

Community Hubs and Networks


OR you can use the navigation menu above right to look at other parts of the toolkit.

BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.

created: 2016-06-23 12:45:57 by: admin status: f published

Community Cohesion

To what extent do the communities which share a neighbourhood, and therefore an interest in its improvement, have the ability to work and plan together?

To what extent do the communities which share a neighbourhood, and therefore an interest in its improvement, have the ability to work and plan together?

In more detail

Community cohesion is the extent to which the communities which share a neighbourhood, a city or a country, overlap and have points of common interest.  A neighbourhood has been described, at best, as a ‘community of communities’.   In many neighbourhoods, however, communities may share a physical space... but their members may live separate lives.

The video below presents what a range of people think of community cohesion.  It was made in 2009 and features Hazel Blears who was the Government minister responsible for communities:

Making bridges between communities is one of the most likely ways of improving neighbourhoods.  Remember: communities are not just defined by ethnicity, but by class, age, housing tenure and many other factors and are brought together by many other interests.  The networks you build as part of successful community planning in your neighbourhood are what will make your neighbourhood strong and sustainable.

Key Facts:

Community cohesion is the measure of the extent to which communities which share the same neighbourhood are able to work and plan together to improve it.

Page Links from here

In the toolkit see:

Community Networks and Hubs

Civil Society

Community

 


OR you can use the navigation menu above right to look at other parts of the toolkit.

BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.

created: 2016-06-14 15:28:26 by: admin status: f published

Community Assets

Community assets are the resources you have to make your neighbourhood a better place to live. They are more diverse than some people imagine. But… sometimes what look like assets might turn out to be liabilities? Working out what assets are in your neighbourhood and how they could be better used is a key part of community planning…

Community assets are the resources you have to make your neighbourhood a better place to live. They are more diverse than some people imagine. But... sometimes what look like assets might turn out to be liabilities? Working out what assets are in your neighbourhood and how they could be better used is a key part of community planning...

In more detail

Community assets  are resources communities can use to get things done.  Examples could include:

  • meeting places
  • social networks
  • volunteers
  • land and buildings
  • contracts and businesses
  • business supporters
  • a farmers’ market
  • members' and their enthusiasm and wisdom
  • relationships with the managers of local public services
  • a network of community groups
  • projects which help people share - like timebanks and toobanks
  • community groups.

Some community assets are land and buildings, but most aren’t.  Some are owned, but many aren’t (you can’t legally own a relationship or a network) and some could be managed and not owned and they would still be assets.  Some of the list relate directly to the aims of the community group (which might be to provide a community centre or affordable housing).  Some assets are indirectly related – they earn money which enable you to do other things.  Some community assets are intangible – networks and relationships for example can be vital resources, but they aren’t things you can touch or get valued by an estate agent.  Finally, the assets which one community has in a neighbourhood aren’t necessarily shared by others in the same neighbourhood – unless you have some means for exchanging and sharing them – like a timebank or a toolshare, for example.

Making an Inventory (and Map it)

If you aim to plan and make a better your neighbourhood a better place to live, you might find it useful to make a list (an inventory to use a formal accounting expression) of relevant community assets?  When you do, bear in mind community assets might:

  • include land and buildings but are not just land and buildings
  • be owned by the community, or might be managed by it or simply be usable by it
  • relate to the aim, directly or indirectly, of making the locality a better place
  • include dedicated public servants and local business people who care about the place as much as you
  • be things you can lay your hands on and might also include relationships, understandings and networks
  • include tools, but the skills to use tools can be more important and valuable
  • be owned by a community group or someone else, but not worth much if you have no way of trading and exchanging favours and resources
  • liabilities – that is things that get in the way of doing what you want to do. Community centres can be full of asbestos.  Contracts can be impossible to deliver at a profit.  Trading activities can make a loss.  And relationships can be based on you doing everyone a good turn and never getting one back.

Social Value

When you have made a list of local community assets, you can work out out what value they currently have (to do with how they are being used at the moment).  You can also think about what social value could be added by using assets in different ways (ie how they might be used in future).  Rather than worrying about who (if anyone) owns partocular assets, think about how they could be used to add more social value to the neighbourhood?

Key Facts:

Community assets aren't just land and building, but also relationships, networks, people and skills etc.  If you wan to work out how to make them benefit your neighbourhood then make a list and think about how they could be used in different ways.

Page Links from here

The Locality website explains community assets

You might also be interested in looking up an approach called Asset Based Community Development (ABCD)  and the ABCD Institute which were pioneered by John McKnight and John Kretzmann who wrote Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing A Community’s Assets in 1993

And on this site:

Social Value

Community Asset Transfer

Social Capital

Community Hubs and Networks

Community

Community Groups


OR you can use the navigation menu above right to look at other parts of the toolkit.

BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.

created: 2016-06-12 14:47:33 by: admin status: f published