Does your neighbourhood suck?
There’s a lot of evidence it might
Is it poorly connected by expensive, inconsistent public transport?
Are there few local jobs? And are those that exist low-paid and insecure?
Are there fewer and fewer places to hang out and meet your friends and neighbours?
It doesn’t have to be this way.
I’ve been reflecting on what I’ve learnt during my time at Power to Change, and these are the five ways I’ve observed it takes to transform neighbourhoods for the better.
1️⃣ Create Spaces
Social infrastructure refers to the spaces and places where people meet and interact with their friends and neighbours. From the pub to the post office, to libraries and youth centres, these places are disappearing.
But, when you support communities to own and develop such valuable community assets, magic happens.
Community businesses often provide much needed social infrastructure. Many start after residents discover their only shop, pub, post office or other local facility is closing. Many then become a ‘one-stop shop’ or ‘community hub’ providing crucial services, often over and above ‘basic’ provision, in response to community needs and wants.
2️⃣ Connect People
Social capital refers to the networks of relationships between individuals, built on mutual trust, understanding and reciprocity. To build this, we need spaces and places where we can connect with each other — like the pub or the bingo hall or the community centre.
When these spaces are in community hands, they are not only more likely to survive, but thrive. Neighbours start talking to and supporting each other, coming up with ideas on how to improve their neighbourhood and making them happen.
3️⃣ Strengthen Local Economies
A lot of councils love ‘big box’ employers. The giant supermarket or delivery despatch warehouse that promises hundreds if not thousands of jobs. Yet these jobs often suck and these types of firms are extractive by default. They’ll use your cheap labour and take their profits elsewhere, thank you very much. And if the profits start to dry up, they’ll desert your area and find cheaper labour elsewhere in the world.
Community-owned businesses on the other hand, care about their local area. That’s why 56p of every £1 they spend stays in the local economy, compared with just 40p for large private sector firms. Community and public ownership of high streets also leads to fewer empty units too. Because they are accountable to their community, they help build and retain wealth locally.
4️⃣ Unleash Skills
We all have skills, knowledge and resources we can use to address the challenges our neighbourhoods face. But deprived neighbourhoods are often treated like they’ve had a collective lobotomy and need new knowledge pouring into their empty heads.
Yet time and again I’ve seen the importance for both individual agency and collective action, of encouraging people to use what they already possess rather than focusing on deficits and bringing in outside organisations and resources. Many community businesses are also founded on these principles. The evidence shows time and again that mobilising existing knowledge and skills, as well as building improved confidence and capacity within local residents, is key to improving neighbourhoods.
5️⃣ Give Control
Only 27% of us feel we personally can influence decisions which affect our local area. Perhaps then it is no wonder that voter turnout has been falling since the 1950s and electoral participation is falling fastest among the young and the least affluent. A key risk of this is that it reduces the incentive for political parties to address their interests.
I’ve seen how community businesses are well placed to address this democratic deficit and boost community pride in the most deprived communities, by enabling local people to have a say in, and control over, how they operate.
Most are founded by local residents who come together over a shared cause or challenge. They work together and put people at the heart of all they do. They enable people to have a say and control over both their own lives and what happens in their neighbourhoods.
🚀 What next?
So how can I make this happen in my neighbourhood I hear you say? Well, I’m glad you asked. I’ll have more to say on this in due course, including the launch of some groundbreaking research on Monday 20th Nov which explores further what does and doesn’t work for transforming neighbourhoods.
But for now, I’m interested in what others think — does your neighbourhood suck? Could these approaches make a difference? What other ideas do you have?
👇 Drop your thoughts and comments below
