Community empowerment and regeneration

JRF has a long-standing interest in how to empower communities, in particular at the local level, so they can get involved in regeneration, place-shaping, governance, and other initiatives that make a difference to residents. It places particular emphasis on how deprived communities can be helped in this way.

These interests are particularly relevant to recent Government policy statements in England such as Prosperous Places, Transforming Places and Communities in Control, which bring together Government thinking on housing, regeneration, and economic policy, as well as citizen engagement and community empowerment. The UK's devolved administrations are also pursuing an interest in these themes, for example via Scotland’s Community Planning provisions and Wales' Communities Next programme.

Key issues

• Community empowerment and regeneration are complex and multi-layered issues: perspectives at neighbourhood, local authority and national levels differ markedly. 
• JRF's 2002-6 Neighbourhood Programme provided some clear illustrations of what works (and what doesn't) in England, Scotland and Wales, in the field of community-based regeneration.
• It's not just communities that need help in this field of work: local authorities and other government agencies often lack the experience, skills and capacity to understand neighbourhoods and to establish effective and lasting ways of working in neighbourhoods.
• Government policies on community empowerment have become increasingly complex, as new policies are regularly layered over previous ones. There is an opportunity now to provide an independent critique of these policies.
• As the credit crunch and the economic downturn hit deprived communities, there is a real danger that good work done in these areas will be undermined.

What we are doing

• National dissemination work on JRF's Neighbourhood Programme came to an end in 2008. 
• There are plans to commission a JRF piece of work critiquing Government empowerment policies. 
• JRF is launching a neighbourhood project in Bradford in 2009. Working with a range of stakeholders in the statutory, voluntary, and community sectors, the project will look at neighbourhood policies across the borough. Through visiting other locations, as well as focusing on key themes and issues, the project aims to help improve interactions between neighbourhoods, service providers, elected members and other stakeholders.
• This work theme also combines well with other current JRF work, such as the Unheard Voices and Community Assets programmes.