Community-led Regeneration Fiona Garven SCDC

Defining community led regeneration Why should we invest in a community led approach? Where are we now and what are the opportunities?

Community-led Regeneration ‘defined by actions that are based on the needs and issues understood by and experienced by communities themselves, where communities are supported to take the lead in identifying and implementing local solutions’

Why invest in community-led regeneration? What evidence do we have that it works? We know what doesn’t work…. Have we arrived at a dependency culture?

Equally Well Review 2010, Scottish Government

text Build skills and knowledge Untap, mobilise and build on local assets Build local groups Support local governance Build capacityBuild influence Build community Environment is structured, predictable and explicable Develop shared spaces Encourage social support networks Identify local assets - knowledge, experience, time Support local people to come together to turn individual issues into community concerns Sense of coherence Regenerated community Engage communities in decision making processes Support the development of skills and knowledge on wider regeneration issues Use local knowledge and experience to influence decisions Develop initiatives which engender meaningful local involvement Support independent action Investment in behaviour change seen as worthwhile Opportunities for individual, family and community advancement taken up Decreased impact on public services More positive health and wellbeing outcomes Increased individual responsibility for behaviour change More community involvement to address neighbourhood issues Greater engagement with initiatives such as work programmes

Where are we now? Sympathetic policy environment, established tools and frameworks Good (enough) data A commitment to change, perhaps take risks Outcomes framework A history of a strong civil society (but not everywhere…) Reduced public sector finance but, all the ingredients to support us being on the cusp of 'doing things differently'

Doing things differently because… Short term interventions for long term outcomes don’t work We haven’t gone far enough in meaningfully engaging communities - ref Go Well research Too many perceived barriers Not convinced Community building seen as peripheral See ourselves as the ‘professional authority’

Opportunities Robust practice theory in place Skilled people in other sectors, opportunity to embed approach in other disciplines Examples of community action – Development Trust model, SURF award winners Transfer of assets – but with caution Small funding = big changes

How do we resource this activity? Low cost compared to large scale physical regeneration Community benefit clauses, community shares, social impact bonds – how do we involve the community in deciding? Ensure match with national funding schemes, Jessica Scotland Trust, BIG, CCF – embed activity in local communities

Questions A commitment to community led regeneration requires cultural change - who provides the leadership for such a change to happen? Whose role is to support the community in community led regeneration – what skills sets do we need and how do we get them? How do we bend spend to support community led regeneration?