community spaces

9.3m people benefited

“Managing Community Spaces for the Big Lottery Fund has been a hugely challenging but enormously rewarding experience. This programme has shown the power of the local environment to bring communities together to tackle the issues that affect them most. Our approach has been to empower and equip communities with the funding and expert support they need to play a leading role in local regeneration and the last five years have seen more than 900 local groups across England engaged in transforming the places that matter to them. “We must all rise to the challenge of sustaining this work over the next five years as communities cope with reduced budgets. Community Spaces provides us with valuable learning on how to do that.”

Graham DuxburyChief Executive of Groundwork UK

£46m allocated

94,000 volunteer days

84,575 trees planted

11,850 organisations involved

1,734 schools involved

932 projects

almost 8m m2 of land improved

1 programme

Support was provided to groups in a number of ways:

• ‘Development grants’ enabled groups to access professional advice and other costs to turn ideas into projects;

• ‘Small, medium, large and flagship’ grants provided a range of funding opportunities to match capacity and scale;

• ‘Sustainability grants’ helped groups maintain their projects;

• ‘Celebrate Your Space’ grants encouraged groups to hold community events to attract more users and volunteers;

• ‘Supporting Change and Impact’ grants enabled groups to plan ahead; and

• Groups were provided with free consultancy support, from an expert team of ‘Facilitators’.

93% of groupswill continueafter theprogramme

Community Spaces was managed by Groundwork as part of a wider consortium of partners.* Funded by the Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the programme formed part of BIG’s wider Changing Spaces programme, helping communities to ‘enjoy and improve their local environment.’

Community Spaces promoted community led development to achieve four programme outcomes:

1. create better local environments;2. increase people’s access to quality local

spaces for interaction, play and recreation;3. increase the number of people actively

involved in developing and running a practical environmental project that is visible in their community; and

4. improve partnerships between communities, support organisations and local authorities.

The programme launched in March 2008 and ran for six years to 31st March 2014. In this time, £46,000,000

was awarded to 932 projects, including parks, green spaces, play areas, skate parks, cycle tracks and many more.

in factour appoach to evaluation

Hall Aitken were appointed to work with Groundwork to deliver a six year formative evaluation. By using participatory qualitative tools such as Most Significant Change stories and focus groups with grant receipients, facilitators and staff, Hall Aitken helped us to prove progress toward outcomes and support our process of continuous improvement.

An end of programme evaluation was completed using:

• case studies;• site visits to engage communities;• interviews with stakeholders within the

programme;• interviews with local authorities and other

partners;• a survey of 433 groups supported by the

programme.

Hall Aitken’s programme evaluation demonstrated the full impact of Community Spaces. Their findings confirmed that programme outcomes had been achieved but the programme achieved much more besides. Core programme outcomes included:

• stronger individuals• stronger, more confident groups• stronger communities• better local partnerships

This brochure summarises the key findings of Hall Aitken’s report and sets out the lessons learned from delivering the Community Spaces programme. The full report is available on www.groundwork.org.uk/community-spaces

*The Wildlife Trusts, Natural England, Federation of City Farms & Community Gardens, The Conservation Volunteers, Green Space and Civic Trust.

75% of groups saidcommunities were now stronger

community spaces — the impact on groups:Community Spaces provided funding and support direct to community groups with the aim of bulding capacity to support further voluntary and social action.

93% of groups will continue after the programme

75% of groups think their communities are now stronger

84% of groups are now more confident

79% of groups gained new skills

71% of groups increased volunteer numbers

63% of groups found new partners

62% of groups have new ideas and plans

57% of groups work better with their local authority

in pictures“the wider community now has a place to go - a local play park.”

“the park project brought together young parents and older members of the community and really increased community cohesion.”

“the project has given the whole village a wonderful new resource that people respect and appreciate! it really does offer something for everyone.”

community spaces projects across the uk: 337 playgrounds207 recreational activities99 green spaces77 environment and heritage62 community gardens and allotments50 wildlife and biodiversity29 footpaths and bridleways26 exercise20 sustainable environments3 cycle tracks9 disabled access9 safer routes4 land management

“volunteering has made me feel i have achieved something really worthwhile for our community and for myself.”

in focusWith the help of Community Spaces Sue Amos and other local residents started a community food-growing project on a derelict site in Burgess Park, Peckham.

Sue says: “We have a small core team of committee members and we now have a much bigger pool of active volunteers willing to run sessions for local people to learn more about growing food and using the crops we produce. We have all developed our skills and people have increased in confidence. We have a much better insight into what a community garden needs.

“We are able to share our knowledge of things like planting, permaculture, forest gardening, foraging and pickling. We also supply local restaurants with fresh produce, which has been a good way of learning about commercial food production.

“Our challenge now is to operate as a much more professional team. We need to work out how to make the most of the resources we have. We have learned to pace ourselves and understand what is possible with a team of volunteers.

“We are not managers, we are gardeners, so we are looking to recruit someone to run the project while we act as a proper management board, providing more strategic planning at the site. Our project has become an informal hub for local people who are keen to learn more about gardening and in particular the principles behind permaculture.”

The Burgess Park Food Project received a £46,000 grant from Community Spaces. A facilitator helped them with the planning and initial management of the project, including negotiating with the local council, which owns the park.

“our impact is now global, with our blog and website being read all over the world.”

informwhat have we learned?

Environment and community

Vandalism, litter, graffiti and low level crime blight many communities. Given the opportunity and support, communities are willing and able to come together to tackle these issues. 41% of groups funded by Community Spaces became formally constituted as a result of the programme.

Communities can deliver

Community led regeneration is possible. Groups have led projects ranging from small local play areas through to parks and cycle tracks. They have successfully tackled many of the issues affecting quality of life (see figure 1).

Figure 1: Impact on the local environment

But they need support

Community groups often have limited capacity to find funds and manage projects. Simplified application processes and development grants offered some support. But it was the role of the Facilitators which had the greatest impact, working with groups to build capacity and navigate often difficult processes such as local authority planning procedures.

Capacity building works

Our survey found that 79% of groups acquired new skills, notably project management, community engagement and marketing. 84% of groups report increased confidence. Supported groups are going on to offer encouragement and assistance to other groups. This ‘ripple effect’ shows capacity building with one project can roll out to other groups and projects.

New connections make communities stronger

This ‘bonding capital’ (bringing people together) is a key feature of the programme, evident from site visits and many case studies. For example, The Croft project in Walsall has shown how schoolchildren and community groups came together to research and celebrate the area’s history.

“this project has brought the community together—they have taken ownership.”

“we could not have done this without the help of our facilitator.”

“the advice from facilitators means we have worked with chapeltown forum to help them hold new events.”

“we also benefited greatly from forging new friendships and partnerships within the community.”

The environment unlocks voluntary action

Tackling shared environmental issues has helped form new community groups and inspire volunteering. 71% of groups found new volunteers. Volunteers gained new skills including project management, fundraising, and community engagement which increased their willingness to volunteer more. The programme shows how shared action on the environment boosts social capital.

A new way of funding

Groundwork’s ‘whole project’ approach underpinned the programme’s success. Development and sustainability grants nurtured projects from inception to post-completion. Providing small, medium, large and flagship projects meant groups with limited capacity could participate, through to large partnership bids. ‘Supporting Change and Impact’ grants helped develop business plans. ‘Celebrate Your Space’ provided small grants to hold events, develop new ideas and reward volunteers.

Groups are stronger as a result

With new skills and confidence, 92% of groups plan to remain together after the end of the programme. These groups are much better placed to realise their ambitions. At the beginning of the programme, 44% of groups found developing their ideas fairly or very challenging. Looking ahead, only 23% still feel this way.

Stronger partnerships have been created

Positive relationships between community groups, local authorities and other partners have determined the success of many projects. Issues such as planning, land ownership, finance and engaging an Accountable Body have been obstacles to which generally require local authority input. At the beginning of their projects, 50% of groups in our survey found working with their Local Authority either very difficult or fairly difficult. This figure had fallen to 21% by the end of the project.

recommendations

Cuts

Some local authorities are already unwilling to provide Accountable Body support for further projects, citing cuts in staff and fear of new administration costs. Cuts in maintenance and youth provision mean groups face massive challenges to continue to maintain their projects. If we really want groups to step up we need to consider and mitigate the multiple impacts of service reductions in communities.

Volunteers

Volunteers are often seen as a free and limitless resource. However, volunteers need recruiting, managing and supporting. This needs significant resources especially as most grant programmes could not be delivered without them. Supporting the recruitment, training and development of volunteers should be a major priority for future programmes.

Planning

Communities need support to understand planning. Simple improvements such as using Plain English and closer working between local authorities and community groups could help significantly to bridge this gap.

Risk

Getting the balance right between managing public funds and promoting community led projects is difficult. Although Community Spaces was a simplified process with support on tap, 73% of groups found paperwork and grant conditions difficult. If we want communities to take more control of local services we need to continue to innovate on the ways they can be more involved.

“the project has raised our profile and new volunteers now share the load.”

“our development grant was used to bring in professional advice without which we could never have moved our plans from ideas to reality.”

“our group is now working with businesses and the council to improve other parts of paignton.”

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