Our campaign is driven by eight remarkable community leaders. They’re making a huge difference to their places and neighbours, but in the face of obstacles that simply should not exist. They share what they do, what keeps them going, and why they’re part of We’re Right Here.
Rashid Iqbal, CEO of the Winch, questions what kind of relationships the state should have with communities in a blog based on a speech he delivered at a We’re Right Here workshop.
Creative Voices co-creates community spaces to tackle isolation among older LGBTQ+ people in Leeds. Despite creating a safe, creative, trusted space for its members, the group’s future remains uncertain. Like many other community groups, it needs both long-term belief and long-term funding to survive.
After months of debate, the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill has passed finally into law. This is a moment of real progress. It shows that community power is no longer an idea on the fringes of our politics, and is firmly on the national agenda. But while this legislation moves us forward, it doesn’t yet give communities all the powers they need to truly shape their places and futures.
Communities across Greater Manchester are achieving extraordinary change despite the odds stacked against them. The Museum of Community Futures, presented by We’re Right Here and the GM Live Well as part of the Live Well Spring Festival, opens at Factory International from Thursday, 12 March.
A guest blog by Localis argues for community-powered neighbourhood governance arrangements to be intentionally designed in from day one of local government reorganisation. Otherwise, there’s a risk that newly reorganised councils will inherit a sense of powerlessness and lack of trust.
Public services work best when the people who rely on them have a real say in how they’re designed and delivered. Yet most people don’t feel that they have any influence over decisions on how they are run. The story of Recover Bolton, a grassroots charity offering addiction support, helps illustrate both the cost of that exclusion and what becomes possible when lived experience and cultural understanding shape services.
What would it take to reshape the UK’s health system so it’s focused on prevention, rooted in neighbourhoods, and led by communities? A guest blog by Locality argues that new neighbourhood governance arrangements should be shaped to enable local people and community organisations to have a real say in local healthcare decisions.
In the fifth blog in our series, Shaun Roberts from Unlock Democracy warns that the Government’s plans to replace some local councils with large ‘mega-authorities’ could leave power even more concentrated than before. But, he writes, there is one chink of light in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill: the potential of new neighbourhood governance arrangements to bring power closer to local people.
How can community-powered neighbourhood governance help rebuild trust in one of the most contested areas of local decision-making: planning and development? In the fourth blog in our series, Tom Chance, Chief Executive of the Community Land Trust Network, makes the case that new neighbourhood governance arrangements could give local people a meaningful role in shaping the planning policies that affect their places – provided they’re genuinely steered by communities.
Local Trust reflects on 15 years of the Big Local programme and shares insights that can help shape the future of community-powered change across the country. This blog is part of our series on neighbourhood governance arrangements.
