Win Win Project
Filed under: Community Action & Campaigns
Win Win provided support to 12 community groups over a year. LSE wanted to know what sort of problems they met, what sort of help they needed and how an outside organisation could help.
The Groups
The 12 groups were spread around the UK, covering transport, food, green space, estate improvement, energy efficiency and community buildings.
Awel Aman Tawe, a wind power project in Wales, wanted to develop a new energy efficiency advice project.
Bankside Open Spaces Trust wanted to find a way to relieve their gardening worker's admin burden so he could devote more time to developing new community gardening groups.
South Penge Park Residents Association wanted to tackle problems of poorly maintained grass areas on their estate.
Support Provided
Hands-on support
Small grants fund
Coming together to share experiences and troubleshoot
Advice - working through problems, addressing conflict, identifying partnerships, action planning skills, identifying training, identifying potential funders, helping write applications
Progress
Three groups made good progress. Awel Aman Tawe raised funding to employ two full time workers, and developed a new energy efficiency advice service for local people.
Five made slow progress. South Penge Park Residents Association developed plans for community gardens and grass areas on their estate.
Four groups made little progress or hit significant problems. St Anne's Residents Association wanted to find a new base to carry on running a fresh food stall but the key people involved in the group resigned.
Lessons Learned
Community development is key for local sustainability action - issues and problems faced by community groups require community development support. This means help with funding, learning to work effectively and dealing with other organisations.
Community groups trying to develop local sustainability projects face serious problems and barriers - support helps, but must go further than info and networking.
Local community groups seem keen to make their action more sustainable, as long as this is practical and realistic - Upton and North Elmsall Forum wanted to develop a complex of eco-buildings in their town centre. They felt that the environmentally friendly aspect of the development would make it stand out as a flagship, attract more people, and make it more economical to run in the long term.
What Next?
A guide for practitioners supporting community sustainability action
A paper outlining findings for policy makers
To download this article as a Word Document, click here.
Written by Jake Elster, London School of Economics