Community involvement UK

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"Building trust with active citizens is not a froth on the top of your cappuccino moment, its about the whole cup of coffee."

Community involvement is used here as a term similar to Participatory democracy^W, and more recent terms such as Open source governance^W.

Community involvement is about people and communities being able to play a full part in decision-making, for example local decision-making, and so influence the decisions which affect their lives. It is also about community empowerment, for example through access to appropriate information and adivce.

Proper community involvement is not tokenistic. Instead it is on-going, valued, meaningful, provides extensive opportunity and is genuinely and extensively influential.

Proper community involvement is not about allowing mere comment on decisions that have already largely been taken. Instead it begins at the design stage, the very beginning of any project or programme.

Proper community involvement does not include measures of success being foisted upon the community, or worse still simply being ignored. Instead it gives a primary role to the community in judging how successful a project or programme has been.

Contents 1 Action Ideas 1.1 Collaborate 1.2 Petition 1.3 New Ideas 1.4 New technology focus 2 Campaigns UK 3 Consultations 4 Village cinema 5 Random facts 6 Local links UK 7 Related Topics 8 Related Wikipedia content 9 External links

[edit] Action Ideas

• Participatory carbon budgeting
• Participatory budgeting
• we20
• Local referendum UK
• Participatory journalism
• Street parties
• Local quality of life conferences
• Community involvement weeks
• Youth Forum

[edit] Collaborate

• Open source conference design
• Open involvement

[edit] Petition

• created by Feargal Hogan and reads: 'We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to ensure that ALL government websites make their information available free of charge to all users in ways that others can easily use.' Sign the petition, deadline to sign up by: 04 May 2008

[edit] New Ideas

• Places, projects and networks pages in this wiki
  • Sustainable (Your town) pages in this wiki
  • Local sustainability directories in this wiki
  • Local sustainabiity picture libraries (online); share your pictures in this wiki (you need to be logged in to upload files - see Community Portal)

[edit] New technology focus

• BarcampUKGovweb
• E-Petitions to the Prime Minister. BETA TEST. E-Petitions in the "Environment" category
• Podnosh grassroots channel Podcast for active citizens. Birmingham Community Empowerment Network (Grassroots Channel)
• WriteToThem.com
• PledgeBank Helping people get things done

[edit] Campaigns UK

• Mash the State Grassroots campaign to encourage UK government and public sector organisations to make their data available to the general public. Challenge 1: Councils: Give us an RSS news feed by Christmas 2009. Only 15% of UK local councils have RSS feeds.

[edit] Consultations

• 2008-04-10 online discussion forum closes, 'Unlocking the talent of our communities', Communities and Local Government ^[1] topic

• 2008-01-19 (Closing date for comments) Community Empowerment Action Plan, Communities and Local Government ^[2] Comment on the action plan

• National inquiry to explore the opportunities and challenges for rural councillors and what stands in the way of them doing more to help rural people have greater influence over local decisions. Launched 6 February 2007. The deadline for sending in views is Friday 18 May 2007. Commission for Rural Communities / Rural issues

[edit] Village cinema

[edit] Random facts

• Only 39 per cent of people feel they can influence decisions affecting their local area. 22 per cent feel they could influence decisions affecting Great Britain, January 29 ^[3] Both measures remain unchanged since 2007/08 but both have fallen since 2001. These findings come from the Citizenship Survey: April - September 2008 (covering the first two quarters of data from the 2008-09 survey).

• Just 38 per cent of respondents to the Citizenship Survey (April 2007 - March 2008) felt able to influence decisions in their local area whilst only 39 per cent of people were involved in some kind of civic participation such as attending a public meeting, signing a local petition or contacting a local councillor. The findings tally closely with data from this year's local elections which showed average voter turnout at around 40 per cent or less. Source: Communities and Local Government June 26

• six in ten people do not feel they are given an adequate say on how local council services are run;
• more than 9 in 10 people believe accountability of councils could be improved;
• nearly four in 10 people do not feel councillors are representative of their communities and six in 10 do not believe they adequately reflect their views.

Source: Communities and Local Government, March 5 2008

[edit] Related Topics

• Forum:Governance of Britain, Current Engagement
• Local needs met locally
• Sustainability networks
• Sustainability indicators UK
• Department of FUN!
• Environmental justice
• Global connections
• Communities online
• Community resources
• Networks and Networking
• Regeneration
• Sport, Arts & Culture
• Community & voluntary action
• Us Now

[edit] Related Wikipedia content

• Statements of Community Involvement

[edit] External links

• Street Party.org.uk, promoting street parties, which are a chance for people to enjoy their street without traffic for a day, and encouraging neighbourliness across the UK.
• Local e-Democracy National Project
• Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health
• New Politics Network
• Adviceguide Up-to-date independent advice published by Citizens Advice
• Joseph Rowntree Foundation Independent social policy research and development
• Environmental Law Foundation
• EarthRights Solicitors Public interest law firm & environmental rights charity
• Involve Aiming to bring about institutional change focusing on public participation
• www.participatorybudgeting.org.uk - information on participatory budgeting in the UK
• The Scottish Parliament - e-Petitioner
• Designing for Civil Society, David Wilcox's blog on technology, engagement and governance
• Neighbourhoods, Kevin Harris's blog on neighbourhood relations, citizenship, social capital, etc.
• Unlock Democracy
• Together We Can
• Campaign for Direct Democracy GB

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References

1. ↑ Communities and Local Government, March 19
2. ↑ Communities and Local Government, October 19
3. ↑ Communities and Local Government, January 29