EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - Civic Pioneers Case Study Review

Civic Pioneers Case Study Review

Introduction

The Civic Pioneers network was set up by the civil renewal unit in 2003 to support local authorities and for them to support each other in improving their work to engage with and empower citizens and communities, this report reviews learning points from projects funded by the programme.

Description

The case studies within this review represent a broad range of activity to empower citizens and communities. They show that there is no one way to drive community empowerment and that different problems require different solutions.

There are clear benefits of allowing local people to become involved in the design, delivery and governance of their own neighbourhoods and communities.

There is a wealth of useful learning in the case studies and overall this report pulls together key advice for officials, practitioners and active citizens seeking to work together to tackle local problems.

Background information

Civil Renewal is at the heart of the government's vision for a better quality of life in local communities and is being taken forward under the banner of Together We Can; the campaign seeks to achieve sustainable change and is dependent on people becoming actively engaged in the problems of their communities, in a true partnership with public services.

In 2005, funding was made available to community organisations in Civic Pioneer authority areas to carry out projects focussing on solving local problems using community engagement. 18 projects were funded in 13 local authority areas between October 2005 and June 2006.

Methodology

The review is presented in two ways:

Case studies – activities of each project are outlined separately, together with assessments of what they have achieved and what they have learnt as a result of their work.
Learning conclusions – across the 18 projects, a variety of common experiences and learning points can be drawn out.

Conclusions

Learning points are detailed within the report and cover the most important lessons, which are: