Strengthening Communities

Poverty and social exclusion remain significant challenges in our most deprived communities, with particular population groups facing significant barriers to prosperity. What drives us is doing work that helps individuals and communities enjoy equality of opportunity and social and economic justice.

It is often the communities which are most in need that are least likely to have the capacity to influence, or take responsibility for, the services, activities, and changes that take place in their areas. We work with national and local public sector agencies, community and voluntary organisations, and local residents – in both urban and rural contexts – to help understand the difference that projects and programmes are making on the ground to help bring about lasting change.

Community Planning and Evaluation

We understand the changing environment that Community Planning Partnerships operate in, including: their drive towards joint service development; their focus on delivering on outcomes; and the need for effective use of public sector and other resources. We have vast experience of policy development work, baseline studies, appraisal and review of community planning structures, and evaluations of projects and programmes.

Community Engagement and Capacity Building

We believe that local residents and groups are often best placed to develop and deliver local solutions. We have many years of experience in working alongside urban and rural communities, including supporting: participatory action research, community profiling, community visioning and consultation, and capacity building work to help local people lead the process of change.

Community Assets

We understand that the current economic climate, including greatly reduced public sector budgets, means difficult decisions on how best to sustain local assets (land and buildings) and service provision. We work closely with our Regeneration team to secure place-based development. This includes feasibility studies, sustainable business plans, and neighbourhood renewal plans, often to support funding bids.

Funding Programmes

We have considerable experience of working with public sector agencies and independent grant-makers to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of funding programmes, including those that have a particular focus on communities. Recent examples include: the Coalfields Regeneration Trust funding programmes, the Women’s Fund for Scotland, Community Food and Health (Scotland) funding, and the Stronger Communities Programme for the Big Lottery.

Thematic Experience

We have a wealth of thematic experience in the evaluation and review of projects, programmes and research studies. This includes health improvement (e.g. the relationship between food and health, and physical activity); children and young people (e.g. reviews of young carers’ projects, and projects that provide learning, health, and social opportunities for children and young people); black and minority ethnic communities (e.g. capacity building support and research to inform service development); and social enterprise development (e.g. national research studies, review of partnerships and intermediaries, strategy development, and third sector support programmes).

Developing Community Benefits

We have experience of working with both public and private sector clients in developing approaches to generating community benefits which can flow from a wide range of development activity. Our experience includes working with local community organisations on behalf of major private contractors to develop community benefits clauses, and implementation of monitoring frameworks to assess future outcomes.

Social Return on Investment (SROI)

SROI is a method of capturing the social and environmental impacts of projects, programmes and services and putting a monetary value on them. SROI helps clients to understand and manage the impacts of an activity and measure the value it creates. The process involves engaging with main stakeholders to assess and attribute financial values to impacts that do not normally have a market value.

 

Examples of our recent work in this area

To find out more please e-mail or call 0141 353 8328