1. WHAT WAS NEIGHBOURHOOD CHALLENGE?
Neighbourhood Challenge was a year long Nesta and Big Lottery Fund programme. Launched in October 2010 with an open call to community organisations across England, it was based on the assumption that communities everywhere have untapped potential, and that given enabling support and finance they can become active sources of inspiration and activity, rather than passive beneficiaries. Seventeen diverse organisations across England, all working in areas of low social capital, were selected to explore how this could work on the ground for an intensive funding period over one year; followed by further mentoring support as requested.
The programme learning strategy was developed with learning lead Icarus; and the coaching and support offer with mentoring lead NCVO. Throughout the project we brought groups together to share what they learned, and asked them to keep open learning diaries through a series of blogs. We also carried out some informal interviewing and surveying to reach further into their communities.
We are now going back one year on to find out what happened to the projects after the intensive programme ended.
2. WHAT LOCAL INNOVATION LOOKED LIKE DURING THE NEIGHBOURHOOD CHALLENGE YEAR
The 17 projects were viewed and treated as sources of innovation and potential for their communities rather than delivery agencies for pre-determined or centrally-defined plans. They were empowered to adapt their approaches to engaging the community in an iterative way throughout the year. Through learning about them we wanted to find out more about how this potential could be tapped into by funders working at far greater scale than Neighbourhood Challenge. In particular, we were interested in the type of action that could be seen as catalytic - engaging a network beyond the core team, and unlocking other resources and contributions; occasionally even spreading into the fabric of the local area in other ways.
We explored this process in 'Neighbourhood Challenge - Learning from Innovative Communities' and showed how community led innovation can be mapped against the different stages of the social innovation spiral. We are not implying that communities are innovating 'on purpose' but what we are saying is that this is a useful way to look at and understand how we can fund and support more of the type of community action that is outward focused, engaging actively with the community, and developing new pockets of activity, sometimes even a wider sense of change and positivity in a local area.
Diagram: Stages of social innovation spiral
The diagram illustrates the six stages of social innovation in a spiral:
1. Prompts
2. Proposals
3. Prototypes
4. Sustaining
5. Scaling
6. Systematic change
Source: Adapted from Murray, R., Caulier-Grice, J. and Mulgan, G. (2010) 'The Open Book of Social Innovation'. London: The Young Foundation and Nesta
During the Neighbourhood Challenge year, we found many projects' activities mapped closely on to the first three stages of this spiral - promoting, developing and testing ideas. We learnt that rather than being linear and sequential, that these stages often overlap, may happen in tandem and can occur out of sequence.
| Stages of social innovation |
How this worked in Neighbourhood Challenge |
| Prompting ideas |
Local people were openly invited to have new kinds of conversations about their community. They were invited to share their ideas about what could happen, rather than what wasn’t happening and they were encouraged to think about the assets, skills and passions that they could bring before going on to address problems. These conversations didn't take place in formal meetings - they happened over the garden gate, in kitchens, on sofas in town centres, outside schools, in churches and mosques, or at local events and community celebrations and they were often led by people that were trusted locally. |
| Developing ideas |
There was space and opportunity for ideas to be developed, refined and blended. Support, in the form of informal mentoring or coaching was offered to people with good ideas. In many cases this support came from within communities; local ambassadors or community champions, with an ability to enthuse and inspire others. Large-scale events were also a feature of many of the projects because they enabled many people who would not normally get involved in community action to come together and play an active role in shaping and selecting the ideas that were taken forward. |
| Testing ideas (prototyping) |
New activities and new ways of approaching priorities were trialed. Open access to microfinance removed some of the barriers that stop people getting an idea off the ground and the attitude in many areas was one of ‘if you think it might work, let's give it a go.' Because of this approach multiple strands of activity were pursued within the Neighbourhood Challenge communities, by a range of people, with an emphasis on forming new community connections across different initiatives. |
One year after Neighbourhood Challenge, we were keen to discover whether there was evidence of other stages of the social innovation cycle. Did the methods and approaches that worked well become part of everyday practice? Were good practices emulated and scaled? Were there hints of systemic change?
We invited key people from the Neighbourhood Challenge communities to tell us what has been happening over the past 12 months. In most cases we were able to speak to the lead organisations and, where we could, we also spoke to some of the community members that have been actively involved in their local area. Our individual interviews are documented a set of learning papers available on the Nesta website at www.nesta.org.uk/neighbourhood_challenge.
In this paper we combine what we learnt from this follow-up interviewing with the key messages that emerged from the Neighbourhood Challenge year. This paper is structured in two parts.
Firstly, we map our observations about the later stages of community led innovation (sustaining, scaling and systemic change) and use examples to illustrate what happened in the Neighbourhood Challenge communities after the programme ended.
Secondly, we summarise the conditions that contributed to the process of community led innovation.
3. WHAT LOCAL INNOVATION LOOKED LIKE BEYOND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD CHALLENGE
When we contacted the projects one year on we looked for evidence that locally led innovation trialed during the Neighbourhood Challenge year had been sustained and scaled. We also looked for signs that these approaches had future potential to contribute to systemic change driven by local people themselves rather than led by agencies and top-down bodies alone.
We summarised what we propose as the indicators of community led sustainability, scaling and systemic change in the following way:
| Stage of innovation |
Proposed indicators |
| Sustaining |
The approaches that work well become everyday practice; to find operating models that work in an ongoing way – whether by combining resources, running with volunteer input, tapping other funding sources, non-financial assets and donations from the community. |
| Scaling and influencing others |
The ideas and practices that work are expanded, emulated and generalised; the models of sustaining work so well that they help the projects to grow; other people copy what they are doing; they get traction with local decision makers. |
| Systemic change |
There is a step change in the way resources are secured or deployed to promote the ideas and practices that work well; the group begin to engage with and influence a number of key bodies in their local ‘system’ or connect into national level systems in new ways that reach beyond their neighbourhood. |
When we went back to the communities we found that:
Chart showing outcomes of Neighbourhood Challenge communities one year on:
The spiral chart illustrates the following:
* All 17 showed some evidence of the first three stages of the innovation cycle as summarized in the first section.
* In 13 of the 17 Neighbourhood Challenge areas, innovative practices had been sustained.
* Of these, there are signs that 7 have scaled their approaches to community led innovation.
* Of these, 4 show signs of influencing systemic change.
Our assessment of the evidence has led us to identify common indicators of community led innovation. These are presented below in the form of a matrix to show how community led innovation looks at the later stages of the innovation cycle (sustaining, scaling and systemic change) and at different levels of analysis (people, activity, organisation and network). We then provide examples from Neighbourhood Challenge to illustrate what these indicators look like in practice. Examples of the earlier stages of the innovation cycle (prompting, developing and testing ideas) were given in our earlier paper (Learning from Innovative communities) which can be found at www.nesta.org.uk/neighbourhood_challenge.
We have begun the process of trying to capture these indiciators so that other funding and support organisations can further build upon and develop them when considering how to empower communities in future work. Further examples and details draw from Neighbourhood Challenge can be found below.
|
People |
Locally-led activities |
Organisations |
Networks and Connections |
| Sustaining |
Acts of local leadership continue |
Activities continue to motivate and inspire |
Community organisations are more confident social innovators |
Networks promote and celebrate the projects that have been developed |
| Scaling |
|
Ideas and practices have been emulated |
Organisations have generalised new approaches |
Local networks and forums are vibrant and productive |
|
|
|
Organisations have extended their influence |
|
| Influencing Systemic Change |
|
|
Commissioners have made some adjustments to the way resources are secured and deployed |
There are productive conversations between decision makers and local innovators |
Sustaining
In two thirds of the Neighbourhood Challenge areas, there are signs that innovative practices developed during the Neighbourhood Challenge year are being sustained in some way. We can see this in the people, the activities and the organisations that have been involved. Some specific examples are given below.
ACTS OF LEADERSHIP HAVE CONTINUED: More local people are confident and motivated to be agents of change, to be local innovators. They are showing acts of leadership by initiating projects, running local groups, putting forward solutions to address local concerns/issues or standing for local elections.
ACTIVITIES CONTINUE TO MOTIVATE AND INSPIRE: Local groups and activities are creating pockets of achievement and inspiration. Some activities that were initiated during the Neighbourhood Challenge year have gone from strength to strength and are now engaging more people and generating more spin-off activities.
COMMUNITY ORGANISATIONS ARE MORE CONFIDENT LOCAL INNOVATORS: Many of the community organisations that were the drivers behind Neighbourhood Challenge, are more confident about their ability to engage and motivate local people, and they are using and adapting the methods and approaches that they trialed during their Neighbourhood Challenge year.
NETWORKS PROMOTE AND CELEBRATE LOCAL INNOVATION: During the Neighbourhood Challenge year, some community organisations used blogs, websites, social media and newsletters to showcase examples of community led innovation and to motivate and inspire others. There are strong signs that these networks have been sustained one year on, and that they continue to make a valuable local contribution.
These indicators are best illustrated with some examples from the Neighbourhood Challenge areas.
| Category |
Sub-category |
Examples from the Neighbourhood Challenge communities one year on |
| People |
More 'new' people have taken leadership roles |
In Newark, the Holy Trinity Community and Partnership Centre has observed that more people are showing acts of leadership in the area. The Parents and Toddlers group which had folded prior to Neighbourhood Challenge is now run by a strong team of 10 local people: "This group is a major success because of the way it has managed to get people involved and build their confidence to the point where they are now taking over and running the group.” (Holy Trinity C & PC)
In Halifax, when the Council cuts meant the end of the lollipop service for the local school, two local women came forward and offered to run the service as volunteers, if the council would pay for training and equipment. "If this had happened before Neighbourhood Challenge, the cuts would have resulted in protests and confrontation.” (Halifax Central Initiative)
In Cambridgeshire Acre trialed the use of photography and film as engagement tools in four different villages. In one of these villages the Parish Council now strongly believes that the community is more willing to get involved in local initiatives. They recently had to recruit a new Councillor for the Parish Council and for the first time in many years they were not forced to co-opt; a few people wanted to stand and an election was required: "Neighbourhood Challenge has brought people out of the woodwork and into community life.”
In Lower Green, Surrey, some local activists are now more aware of the benefits of tapping into the interests and ideas of local people and feel more confident about using a listening approach: "It’s what people care about that is now leading us compared to the other way round. This has got to be a better way of working.” (Local volunteer and trustee of the Community Association) |
| Activities |
Activities that motivate and inspire are continuing |
In Manchester, an Allotments project which received funding from the Participatory Budgeting event, has gone from strength to strength, engaging local people and generating spin-off activities.
In Brixham, 17 of the 29 activities that won an award during their Neighbourhood Challenge year are still going strong.
In Peat Carr and Moorsley, the Community Association was awarded a Challenge Prize for a community hub. This has now become the focus of new activities – there is now a drop-in 3 mornings a week, a knitting club, a computer group and a mother and toddler group is starting soon. "Now residents have a visible sign that local people have achieved something for themselves, without relying on the Council. They needed to know that local people could be successful and of course they needed a facility where people could meet.” (Local activist) |
| Category |
Sub-category |
Examples from the Neighbourhood Challenge communities one year on |
| Organisations |
Community organisations are confident social innovators |
As a support provider to the community and voluntary sector, Cambridgeshire Acre always advised groups and organisations to use different engagement methods for different people in the community led planning process, but they didn’t have many examples of how to do this in practice. "Now we can talk with confidence about how film and photography work, and we know that both are great as engagement tools for all areas of our work." (Cambridgeshire Acre)
In Newark, the Holy Trinity Community and Partnership Centre now have a greater appreciation of the need to listen and not provide for people: "It has taught me that I need to do the footwork in people’s homes.” (Holy Trinity C&PC)
In Bradford, although the award giving ended with Neighbourhood Challenge, the approach of encouraging and supporting ideas from local people has continued. As a result people do now see the local community organisation, PASS, as a place where they can bring ideas, be listened to, encouraged and supported. "Neighbourhood Challenge finished as a project for us, but didn’t finish as a way of working with the community. So we still get people knocking on the door with ideas, which we can offer support with or signpost on the Local Authority or to UnLtd.” (PASS) |
| Networks |
Networks promote and celebrate community led innovation |
In Shiregreen, there was always a strong emphasis during their Neighbourhood Challenge Year on using different methods and techniques to connect residents on the estate together and showcase the good things that were happening. Many of these approaches are still going strong, such as The Shiregreen Neighbourhood Network, which was established by local residents to provide a website and regular newsletter to local residents, and the Annual Community Awards Night which awards people and groups nominated as 'local stars'.
In Coopers Edge, social networking has continued to play an important role in connecting people together. The local Facebook Page and Twitter feed were well used at the end of their Neighbourhood Challenge year but now they have even more followers and are credited for being one of the main routes for sharing ideas and information within the community. |
Scaling
In just under half of the Neighbourhood Challenge areas, there are signs that practices which promote community led innovation have spread both in formal ways, such as being tried in other locations; to more informal ways, such as through networks of practice. The indicators we looked at were:
IDEAS AND PRACTICES HAVE BEEN TAKEN UP: Some of the methods and approaches, trialed during the Neighbourhood Challenge year, have been replicated in other settings because people have been inspired by what they have seen, or because local leaders have migrated the approaches to other organisations.
NEW APPROACHES HAVE SPREAD WITHIN ORGANISATIONS: Some of the larger organisations involved in Neighbourhood Challenge have chosen to apply their learning from Neighbourhood Challenge across their whole organisation and made adjustments to their way of working in other settings and in other parts of the country.
ORGANISATIONS HAVE EXTENDED THEIR INFLUENCE: Some community organisations have expanded and extended their role over the past year and this has given them new opportunities to facilitate community led innovation.
LOCAL NETWORKS ARE VIBRANT AND PRODUCTIVE: Neighbourhood Challenge worked in areas of low social capital, and contributed to the development of local networks where people could link together and exchange ideas, skills and resources. These networks continue to be active in many of the Neighbourhood Challenge areas and provide a lively focal point for all types of community action.
| Category |
Sub-category |
Examples from the Neighbourhood Challenge communities one year on |
| Activities |
Ideas and practices have been taken up |
The Mill's approach to combining a community-run hub with informal mentoring and support is being replicated in other settings. One local resident who received seed funding to set up a sewing group at The Mill has now created a sewing hub in the area and credits the Mill as being her inspiration. The new sewing hub, which will be located elsewhere within the community, provides an incubation space to local people and operates a very flexible and welcoming open-door policy to encourage people to get involved.
In Bradford, one of the local mentors recruited for Neighbourhood Challenge now works for a social housing provider and is responsible for the management of local enterprise coaches. He has adopted the model developed during the Neighbourhood Challenge to identify and mentor local entrepreneurs. Also, Carlton Bolling College has been working with PASS to develop an enterprise culture amongst young students.
In Halifax, the lead volunteer at the Community Shop is visiting a group in Elland to support them to start a similar venture.
In North London, the model of using a school as a hub for community organising has flourished. There is much interest in Ark's approach and four schools are now working together to adopt it. Ark are also now developing a toolkit about how to embed organising in schools. |
| Organisations |
Organisations have adopted new approaches and are using them in other settings |
UnLtd saw their work with Bradford and Bolton as an opportunity to pilot a new approach, which involved promoting entrepreneurship by working through a local community-based partner. Because of this experience, they are now replicating this way of working in their role within the Big Local Programme, as well as in their work in other parts of the country.
Sanctuary Housing, the social housing provider in Shiregreen, has changed the way it works in neighbourhoods as a result of Neighbourhood Challenge. They are now committed to an asset-based way of working with communities and are providing management support to integrate this approach within Torbay and Hackney. |
| Organisations |
Organisations have extended their influence |
In Halifax, the Community Shop, which was initiated through Neighbourhood Challenge, is now open for most of the week and runs independently, generating income that is then used to support local activity. It has already built up a reserve to cover its rent for a year, and now has a van to make collections. The shop group have also put profits into: a trip to Poland for the local youth football team; the local Girls Brigade group; and road safety awareness and education activity following a fatal crash on Boothtown Road. A new Boothtown History group has also started as a spin off from the shop, and the shop is used as an informal meeting / drop in point by the local Police. |
| Category |
Sub-category |
Examples from the Neighbourhood Challenge communities one year on |
| Organisations |
Organisations have extended their influence |
In Brixham, YES has been approached by the churches and the Rotary Club to host a local Food Bank, as they are highly accessible to local people in need, and are also discussing becoming a Collection Point for a local Credit Union. The Job Centre now uses the Edge as a venue for drop ins to meet unemployed people.
In Bradford, PASS say that Neighbourhood Challenge has raised their profile and connections with public bodies, such as the Council, Police Service and Youth Service. "We are now seen as a valuable conduit for communicating with local people.” (PASS) |
| Networks |
Local networks and forums are vibrant and productive |
The Mill continues to be a hub for networks across individuals and groups. There is sense that there is now more co-operation across groups and organisations in the area because of the relationships facilitated by the Mill. They have modelled how to exchange skills/expertise, and draw on the assets that become available through networking. For example they had a child protection issue at The Mill which needed urgent attention so they contacted the local Children’s Centre for help.
The Brent Citizens Alliance, facilitated by Citizens UK, has expanded since Neighbourhood Challenge and now brings together faith organisations and the Ark Academy school. Many of the organisations had no communication with each other prior to Neigbourhood Challenge. Now they are working on campaigns related to community safety and poverty that extend beyond their organisational boundaries and have the potential to create significant impact locally.
In Shiregreen, the connections across the community were very weak before Neighbourhood Challenge. Now local people see the need and the value of churches, schools and community groups working together. To facilitate this, the Shiregreen Forum has now been established which brings local groups and organisations together four times a year to discuss one hot issue and agree some actions together.
In Halifax, Local Authority Members have seen more people engaged locally, and a better attended, more constructive Ward Forum. Decision-making and relationships have become more dialogue based and consensual, rather than confrontational and positional. One of the Ward Councillors, who was involved in the Neighbourhood Challenge work, has noticed a shift in both the volume and quality of engagement and involvement locally: "In the past, community consultation in Boothtown involved a few local people who would come to the Ward Forum for a row. Now people are talking to each other constructively, most of the time, and there are more having the conversations.” (Halifax Central Initiative) |
Influencing Systemic Change
The programme was an intensive burst of activity over the initial year of funding and support. Groups focused primarily on their activities in the first instance, however a number of them began to change the way they work, and to look outward and influence other local organisations or networks in a number of ways. As a result of this re-focusing, in just less than one third of the Neighbourhood Challenge areas, we have seen what we believe are some early stage indicators of wider system influence beginning to take place.
COMMISSIONERS ARE DOING THINGS DIFFERENTLY: Some Local Authorities and Health commissioners have made adjustments to the way resources are secured and deployed in response to what they observed during the Neighbourhood Challenge year.
THERE ARE PRODUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN DECISION-MAKERS AND LOCAL SOCIAL INNOVATORS: New conversations are now happening between some local innovators and those with the power to make decisions about how local resources are deployed.
| Category |
Sub-category |
Examples from the Neighbourhood Challenge communities one year on |
| Organisations |
Commissioners are adjusting the way resources are secured and deployed |
In Darwen, the NHS used the Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) approach in their Healthy Streets project and there is now a Lancashire wide network which promotes asset based approaches within the NHS.
Torbay Council has been successful in securing £1.5m from the Coastal Communities Fund for regeneration activity. £220,000 is included for an ABCD project which Brixham YES will lead. There will be 3 Community Organisers in 3 different locations - Brixham, Paignton and Torquay, using the same approach as that applied during Neighbourhood Challenge. The Co-ordinator for the work and the Brixham Community Organiser will be based at YES. The Local Authority approached YES to lead the work.
After a successful effort to build relationships with the Chief Executive of Waltham Forest Council, The Mill was offered a substantial rent reduction and a 10 year lease agreement. The Council now plan to change how they engage people during library closures. |
| Networks |
There are productive conversations between decision makers and local innovators |
In Brent, members of the Alliance established during the Neighbourhood Challenge year, have influenced Brent Council’s decision to become a Living Wage employer and lift approximately 500 families out of working poverty. There is a general sense that the Alliance has the potential to exercise considerable influence locally. "I think Brent Citizens has changed the face of Brent. Local Government, the police and various agencies now have a relationship with Brent Citizens and this has had a significant impact. They know who we are and they know they have to turn up to the Assemblies. I would say there definitely is a step change.” (Community Organiser, Citizens UK)
In Brixham, the Director of Public Health is gathering the new GP commissioners together and has asked YES to talk with them about their proposal of therapeutic volunteering on prescription. "If we had not been involved in Neighbourhood Challenge, we would not have got this invite or opportunity, and probably would not have had the confidence to feel as though our ideas had merit to such an audience.” (YES)
In Shiregreen, senior officers from Sheffield City Council and tenants groups have visited Sanctuary Housing to talk about how they can adopt an asset based approach to commissioning. |
4. THE CONDITIONS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO COMMUNITY LED INNOVATION
Our learning over the course of the Neighbourhood Challenge year, combined with our follow-up research one year later, has consolidated our understanding about the conditions that contribute to the social innovation process. The key messages for community organisations, funders and supporters providers are as follows.
A) SHIFT THE ROLE OF FUNDER FROM PROVIDER TO ENABLER.
Funders can play a critical role in enabling community led social innovation if they are committed to developing an enabling funding relationship that is not solely about providing money to community project, but is more focused on releasing resources within communities. This entails a shift in the funding relationship so that it is more closely aligned with social innovation thinking, as illustrated below.
| An enabling funder... |
Because social innovation thinking tells us... |
| Invests in people with a strong, locally held vision for change |
It is vision and passion that drives change forward |
| Support activities that unlock potential |
Communities have the ability to find solutions to local challenges |
| Co-defines the funding relationship |
People need the freedom to experiment, reflect and adapt |
| Fosters supportive relationships |
Support and challenge increases capacity to act, to take risks, and to innovate |
| Embeds a learning culture |
It is important to learn openly about what works and what doesn’t work – this way social innovation will have the greatest impact |
During the Neighbourhood Challenge year, we learnt a lot about the enabling practices that a funder can adopt and these are described in some detail in our final report which is available at www.nesta.org.uk/neighbourhood_challenge and provide further detail around how funders may want to think about pr. When we re-visited the Neighbourhood Challenge communities after one year, we discovered that there are certain features that could be incorporated into the design of a programme that would help to ensure that the process of social innovation continues when the funding ends. These 'enabling' features are:
- Making links between funding programmes so that one can add value to the other. It is logical that community assets that are harnessed in one programme, are further utilised and developed in subsequent funding programmes. There are signs that this has happened to some degree in some of the Neigbourhood Challenge communities, with the advent of other place-based funding initiatives. However, this is not the case everywhere where it would appear that opportunities to build on the achievements of Neighbourhood Challenge have not been taken up.
- Tapering the close of the programme to avoid an abrupt end and a sudden reduction in resources and external support. Neighbourhood Challenge was an intense programme, which stimulated a lot of new activity within communities and prompted many new experiences and opportunities for the people and organisations that were involved. Not only did organisations receive financial support from Nesta, but they also had access to bespoke support and training and were part of a network that shared their experiences of working in new ways. The close of a programme like this inevitably leaves a gap, which some community organisations say they had little time to prepare for given the intensity of their Neighbourhood Challenge year although support offered by NCVO and other funding support was taken up sporadically to bridge the gap. A more deliberately tapered approach to the withdrawal of funding and support would perhaps be a more enabling model.
- Ensuring that the programme timescale allows for social innovation conditions to be sufficiently embedded. In some areas the 12 month timescale of Neighbourhood Challenge was not long enough to develop the people, organisations and networks that were needed to ensure that approaches were sustained and scaled.
B) FUND ACTIVITIES THAT ENABLE MANY NEW LOCAL RELATIONSHIPS TO BE MADE.
This helps to create the dynamic around which new, active networks grow up organically.
In practice, we have discovered that this means:
- ENCOURAGING DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP: The drivers of community led social innovation are not single organisations or single figureheads - they are people with ideas and a passion to make things happen. We have seen that community innovation is most likely to be sustained if lots of people believe that they have the potential to make a difference and if these people are supported and encouraged to do things in their local area.
- EMBEDDING TRUST: Trust lies at the heart of the community led social innovation process: local leaders need to be trusted to take some risks and try out their ideas and they need to work in a way that engenders the trust of others. We have seen that the social innovation processes continued to evolve after Neighbourhood Challenge in areas where people and organisations who were trusted in the local area, continued to have a strong presence.
- HARNESSING EXPERTISE: The Neighbourhood Challenge areas made the most of expertise that existed locally whilst also making good decisions about when outside help was needed. The ability to source and harness expertise was important for the long-term process of social innovation and we have seen that where this was most successful, local leaders gained new knowledge, skills and confidence that they have been able to embed locally and further afield.
- FOSTERING SUPPORT: Support has been an important feature of the community led innovation process. During the Neighbourhood Challenge year we saw that supportive relationships were affirming, encouraging and motivating and that they relied on the sensitive and well-timed input of the funder (Nesta), the delivery partner (NCVO) and community organisations. At the end of the Neighbourhood Challenge year, the role of supporting community led innovation has rested, primarily, with community organisations. This has been most effective where organisations have had the capacity to encourage and motivate others.
C) ACTIVELY ENCOURAGE ORGANISATIONS TO WORK IN A WAY THAT UNCOVERS THE POTENTIAL OF LOCAL PEOPLE.
developing their ideas and inspiring them to take action. The characteristics of these types of activities are:
- OUTWARD because they go to where people are at
- COLLABORATIVE because they connect people together
- EMPOWERING because they enable people to have influence
- OPEN because they are welcoming to all
- ENJOYABLE because they ensure the experience is positive and affirming
- BOLD because they encourage people to take risks
- VISIBLE because they make sure that people know what's happening
The community organisations involved in Neighbourhood Challenge employed, developed, adapted and created a wide range of tools and techniques that fostered locally led social innovation, we provide a list of these in the final report.
IN CONCLUSION
In re-visiting Neighbourhood Challenge one year on, we have been able to explore the extent to which the process of community led innovation evolved after the programme ended. This has allowed to us to develop a richer understanding of how the methods and approaches, tested out through Neighbourhood Challenge, can be sustained and scaled, and it has highlighted some of the influencers of systemic change.
While not every Neighbourhood Challenge community has been able to capitalise on the investment it received to create long lasting impacts, most have continued on their social innovation journey in some way. We have been generally encouraged to see that there are green shoots of change in the majority of areas, and given the networked nature of Neighbourhood Challenge activities, there is cause for some optimism that these shoots will continue to grow, supported by new connections.
Our findings reinforce our learning from the Neighbourhood Challenge year about the synergy that is needed between the approach the funder adopts and favourable local conditions in order to facilitate social innovation. Our follow-up work has also highlighted some of the ways in which funders can manage the closure of a programme like this to maximise the potential for long term change.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks go to Icarus for gathering and compiling all of the information used to produce this paper. Thanks also to Nesta colleagues Halima Khan and Philip Colligan for guiding and supporting the programme vision and to the NCVO mentoring team for providing supportive challenge to the projects.
A special thank you to all of the projects for sharing their ground breaking work with us throughout the course of the programme and beyond. If you have any questions about the Neighbourhood Challenge programme please contact the programme lead Alice Casey who edited this paper [email protected]
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