Examples
of Civil Renewal
The Active Citizenship Centre section will build up
a database of searchable case studies in different areas
of public service and geography. We welcome contact
with organisations that want to submit their own evidence;
wherever possible we want to know what the case studies
achieved and what the outcomes were.
The Home Office adds the disclaimer that putting these
case studies down does not constitute our endorsement
of the projects. At present case studies are provided
for example. However, in future we would like to improve
research methods and will work with specific organisations
to properly evaluate their impact.
Families in Focus, Ampthill Square, Camden
Project: an estate-based initiative founded in 2002,
centred on neighbouring estates in the Somers Town Area
of the London Borough of Camden. The estates were extremely
poor and hostile, with high levels of crime and drug
abuse. Local residents and Camden council collaborated
to set up a new project, Families in Focus, which concentrated
on improving conditions for children and young people.
The thinking was that children were both the source
of anti-social behaviour, but also that parents would
come to trust authorities that helped their children.
A wide range of services have been gradually developed
and provided, including holiday programmes, guidance
and advice about bullying, drugs, etc, and children’s
and young people’s forums.
The day to day running of the project was undertaken
by the Play Service, which already held a Chartermark
for its high quality, community-based work with children
and families. Although managed by the council, the project
is very much bottom up and community led. The Families
in Focus steering group was drawn from the local community.
Young people, their parents and residents more generally
have been consulted and involved.
Outcomes: Researchers from the community were trained
to undertake the survey and achieved a massive 75% response
rate from local residents – considerably higher
than anything that would have been achieved by professional
researchers. Children and young people carried out their
own surveys. Black and Multi Ethnic groups have been
successfully involved and in the first year 35 local
people have been volunteers for Families in Focus.
External evaluation has been commissioned. Measuring
progress was hampered, due to difficulties in data comparison
(there were no estate specific evidence) and the fact
that the programme is so new. But her evaluation was
very positive. Anti-social behaviour is lower than on
estates with similar profile. Caretakers estimate that
problems of vandalism, graffiti and litter have been
cut by 70%.
Sources: Camden Document ‘Families in Focus ‘.
Contact None
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Neighbourhood
Renewal in Babergh, Suffolk
Project: regeneration of a small estate in a rural
area. Started 2000; finishing 2004, one year ahead of
schedule.
Key features: Council and tenants worked together –
though led by council – to rejuvenate very run
down estate, which the Health Authority had identified
as ‘an area with the highest adult and infant
mortality rates’. Crime and unemployment were
also exceptionally high. Council appointed a Tenant’s
Liaison Officer and placed residents at the centre of
the renewal process, paying for tenant representatives
to attend courses on ‘working with youths’
and ‘getting involved’. Teenagers living
on the estate were shown teen zone initiatives in other
areas. Substantial funds, £900,000, were invested
in a 5-year comprehensive estate environmental improvement
plan, that is due to finish next year. This did not
include cost of housing renovation.
Outcomes: The transfer list has more than halved since
the beginning of the process and the waiting-list more
than quadrupled. ‘In the past’ according
to Chris Foti, head of housing, ‘if kids were
destroying the estate, residents said, I don’t
mind, I want to get out of here. Now they interfere,
saying, ‘hey, I live here’. We could not
have done this without consulting residents. They knew
where the crime was taking place; the police did not
because no one reported crime’. We got the kids
to help design the play area – and in three years
there has not been any vandalism, which is remarkable
for an estate notorious for vandalism’.
Babergh Awarded Beacon Council Status as result of
the initiative.
Sources: IdeA Knowledge;
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Slade
Green Community Safety Action Zone, Bexley
The Project: Council-Community partnership to combat
crime. Running since September 2002:
- Slade Green was a hotspot for burglary, car crime, disorder,
domestic violence and race crime;
- One third of clients accessing drugs services lived
in Slade Green;
- One quarter of violent offenders and one third of burglars
lived in Slade Green; and
- One third of all recorded crime in Bexley took place
in Slade Green
A local Forum meeting was organised to inform local
residents of these Audit findings and to discuss the
way forward. Over 150 local people attended, and an
outline project plan was drafted. Subsequently, 6,500
local residents received a survey and two ‘Have
a Say’ days were held. These informal, ‘drop-in’
events held in June 2002 allowed local residents to
meet the agencies involved and to voice their opinions.
The community was re-consulted six months into the initiative.
CSAZ focused mainly on Community Safety issues, especially:
- Tackling Enviro-Crime: Local communities were provided
with environmentally friendly graffiti removal kits
free of charge
- Young People: the Council founded the Slade Green Forum
to provide facilities for young people. It contributed
to a skateboard facility and provided a youth shelter,
while Charlton Athletic delivered a Football in the
Community programme, attracting 200 young people weekly.
The Council developed youth recreation facilities at
its Howbury Centre, running activities such as ‘midnight
basketball’, giving young people something to
do and mixing sporting activities with a range of workshops
on health and social issues. We targeted younger children
(eight years upwards) to prevent crime through early
intervention and also victimisation by older children.
- Drugs and Alcohol: a tenancy outreach and sustainment
team was established. The CSAZ also funded innovative
ways of delivering drug education to the community –
in exchange for new toys for a Slade Green toddlers
group, mothers took part in drugs education.
- Preventing crime and re-victimisation: 10 Neighbourhood
watches established. The Council facilitated Victim
Support’s ‘Bobby Van’ to proactively
"target-harden" by securing homes in those
streets with the highest burglary rates.
Outcomes:
- In the six months from the initiation of the CSAZ in
September 2002 there were 275 recorded offences in the
North End Ward, some 30% down on the equivalent period
of the previous year.
- From September 2001 (a year before the initiation of
the CSAZ) to June 2003:
- Burglary declined 25%;
- Car crime (theft and damage) declined 11%
- Vehicle fires declined 25%; and
- Robbery declined 39%.
- Prior to the CSAZ, only 22% of residents said that they
felt safe after dark in Slade Green – that figure
is now 93%;
- There were encouraging indications that residents were
aware, and approved, of council initiatives –
71% of respondents thought that removing fly tipping
had been effective, and 55% for greater security on
open spaces.
Source: IdeA
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Downland
Court Residents’ Association, Hove
Project: Tenant-led rejuvenation of small, neglected
1960s estate of eighty flats.
Key Features:
By 1991 there were 147 children on the estate but still
no play facilities. Crime was high. Rejuvenation was
led by one women, Tina Urquhart, who set up a residents
association in 1993-4, after an assault on a young resident
delivering newspapers. At first the council did not
play a very active role, but the work of the residents
association, funded by the Scarman Trust, let to a fall
in crime and an improvement in community spirits. This
encouraged the council, who agreed to fund a community
hall. Further investment in the estate followed. The
residents association has also put a lot of effort into
building a sense of community, through a newsletter
and promoting summer fund days, barbecues and similar
activities.
Outcomes:
‘From being somewhat of a no-go area,
the estate became a 0.1% crime area after 18 months
of the DCRA’s work’. Reported boost in community
and social interaction.
Source: Scarman Trust
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The Goodwin Centre, Hull
The Project:
Goodwin Association, a registered not for
profit charity, run by local people to improve quality
of life in their community. In 2000 undertook an extensive
participatory appraisal which identified crime and disorder
as many problem afflicting this poor ward. This led
to a £1m integrated community safety project to
combat crime. Members of the community helpd to draw
this up. Main initiatives included an innovative close
circuit television scheme and an extensive ‘on
street’ presence of community wardens’.
Source: It Takes Two to Tango; a Survey of Community
Enterprise Involvement in Public Service Delivery, NEF
and DTA, 2002.
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Eldonian Village, Vauxhall Liverpool
The Project:
One of the oldest community based housing
associations, Eldon Village, has involved residents
in its development from its inception in 1979. In what
has become known as phase one of the project the Eldonian
Housing Co-operative developed plans to build a community
on the site of an old Tate and Lyle sugar refinery.
Residents had the opportunity to be involved in the
design of the development and were also involved in
shaping tenancy agreements. A mixture of 145 family
houses and bungalows for elderly residents were built
in the initial stage.
A second phase of the development, which began in 1993,
was the construction of 150 new homes. This part of
the development was structured around the Liverpool-Leeds
canal that is routed through the area. Around this time
the co-operative structure was developed into the Eldonian
Community Based Housing Association Limited. More details
of the history of Eldon can be found at the Eldonian
website.
The results of the efforts of Eldon’s community
cannot be understood as solely a consequence of physical
regeneration. As well as new houses the community in
Eldon developed ways of addressing other issues that
make communities sustainable.
In 1987 alongside the housing co-operative the Eldonian
Group Ltd was established to address the economic and
physical renewal of the area. The objectives of the
group are:
- Enterprise and Job Creation: supporting and developing
community businesses, generating jobs and providing
a socially useful and viable service to the local
and wider Liverpool community, and developing partnership
initiatives to assist and promote enterprise.
- Enhancing Access to Employment: developing Intermediate
Labour Market initiatives to assist the long-term
unemployed back into the labour market, providing
a working wage and vocational training for a fixed
period. Identifying potential vocational training
programmes, providing access to employment.
- Sustainability: identifying and developing additional
income streams, to achieve self-sustained financial
independence. Promoting the Group within the community,
voluntary, public and private sectors both locally
and city-wide.
Outcomes:
Eldon village, though in a poor area, has
attracted private housing development around its edges
and works in partnership with private developers on
further developments.
As of 2002 the organisation held assets valued at £25
million, had created over 250 permanent jobs, and developed
seven community based businesses. In a recent strategic
review a major theme for the Eldonians was ‘beyond
the boundaries’. In 2002 a joint venture agreement
was signed with a property development company to identify
development sites across Liverpool. The venture is partly
intended to bypass the European Union’s ban of
Partnership Investment Programme (PIP)
Sources:
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