we can, you can

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RENEW Practice Paper

February 2007

We can, you canLessons from theRENEW NorthwestExemplar Learning

Programme 2007 Julian Dobsoneditorial director

New Start



The context

When asked about thehistorical impact of theFrench Revolution, former

Chinese premier Zhou Enlai isreported to have replied: ‘It’s too soonto tell.’ The contemporary approachto evaluation is often the opposite: towant to know the lessons before theevent has been completed.

RENEW Northwest’s ExemplarLearning Programme aims to avoid bothpitfalls by taking a considered approach,recognising the complexities and nuancesof creating sustainable communitieswhile seeking to distil learning that canbe shared and applied now.

The programme, now in its thirdyear, does this by encouraging peers topresent to each other what they havelearned in a wide variety of projects,from massive housing reconstructionschemes to small community-basedbasic skills programmes. By focusing ondifficulties overcome and knowledgegained, it has been possible to draw outthemes applicable in a variety of arenas.

In the 2007programme, 14schemes fromacross NorthwestEngland wereshortlistedas potentialexemplars andpresented theirachievementsat a series of three events inNovember andDecember 2006.Of these, five havebeen chosen formore detailed

follow-up over thecourse of 2007.The Exemplar

LearningProgramme

ties in closely with the work of theAcademy for Sustainable Communities,which seeks to promote the skillsneeded to build and nurture places thatare physically, economically and sociallysustainable.

Eight elements have been identifiedas vital in building sustainablecommunities. They are:Governance: a sustainablecommunity is well run.Transport and connectivity: it is wellconnected.Services: it is well served by public,voluntary and community services.Environment: it is environmentallysensitive.Equity: it is fair for everyone.Economy: it is thriving.Housing and the built environment: itis well designed and built.Social and cultural activity: it is active,inclusive and safe.

These elements are commonlyknown as the ‘Egan principles’, as theywere identified in the Egan review of skills1, published by the UK government in2004, and subsequent policy documents.They were given an internationaldimension in December 2005 throughthe Bristol Accord of EU ministers, whichagreed the benefits of creating sustainablecommunities and fostering place-makingskills across Europe.

This report seeks to identify keythemes that have emerged from all14 shortlisted projects that will helppractitioners and policymakers to applythe Egan principles in real-life situations.

The exemplars

The following five exemplarswere chosen in the 2007programme:

Castlefields Regeneration

Project, Runcorn

A comprehensive programme torevitalise an unpopular 1970s housing

Acknowledgement

In compiling this report on RENEW

Northwest’s 2007 Exemplar Learning

Programme, I am grateful for the help

and observations of all the participants

in the programme, and especially thestaff of RENEW Northwest and the

members of the programme’s judging

panel: Pauline Davis, Stephen Gleave,

Charles Green, Neil McInroy and

Barbara McLoughlin.

Julian Dobson

Editorial director, New Start

Cover picture: Kensington Community

Choir performing at Philharmonic

Hall, Liverpool.

Photographer: Leila Romaya

2



estate is beginning to nurture a newsense of confidence in the area, as morethan 1,400 deck access flats are replacedor improved, a new park is created andthe local centre is redeveloped.

CommIT – Community ICT

Solutions, Lancaster University

Volunteer students have helped a widerange of voluntary organisations andindividuals, including young offendersand people with mental healthproblems, improve their informationand communications technology skills.This has enabled voluntary groups tobecome more efficient and individualsto become more employable.

Music for Life, Liverpool

One of Britain’s top orchestras has joined forces with local schools anda regeneration agency to provide

musical opportunities in one of themost disadvantaged parts of Liverpool.The project is enriching the schoolcurriculum and proving that music canplay a genuine role in regenerating acommunity.

Stats and Maps, Rochdale

A groundbreaking internet-basedinformation system allows statutoryagencies, community groups and thepublic to get detailed data about theborough of Rochdale. Information thatwould previously have taken professionalresearchers hours to produce can beaccessed by anyone in minutes.

Stockport BME Children’s

Project

Seven different minority ethniccommunities have come together, withhelp from Stockport’s Children’s Fund,

Build on evidence but be ready to reinvent:the most successful projects learn from whathas gone before, but are sensitive to context.Knowledge and expertise must be adapted tomeet the unique challenges of places and people.

We learn by listening: the programmehighlighted the importance of thoroughpreparation, listening to those who have beeninvolved in similar projects and to the concernsand aspirations of local people.

We learn by doing: meeting and overcomingexpected and unexpected challenges enablespractitioners to learn what works and whatdoesn’t. Flexibility and pragmatism are vital tosuccess.

We learn by daring: the most effective

projects don’t stick to the obvious. They ventureinto the unknown and set themselves challengesthat are beyond the call of duty.

We learn by valuing: overcoming conflicts

and building relationships of trust and respectenables partnerships to work effectively.

We learn by reflecting: evaluation is anessential learning process, especially when usedto adjust priorities and practice during a project.

We learn by owning: when participants feel apersonal responsibility for a project, it generatesan energy and will to succeed that turnsobstacles into opportunities.

Sharing the learning is important: while someprojects put systems in place at an early stage toshare what has been learned, others appear toapproach this as an afterthought. Learning may belost unless specific provision is made.

The Egan principles need an underpinning

ethos: the most effective and convincing projectsdon’t just supply the elements of a sustainablecommunity. They reveal an ethos that marriesenergy and values to vital professional skills. Asuccessful project is more than just a job.

Key points from the Exemplar Learning Programme 2007

3



to provide classes and resources tohelp their children learn about theirheritage and culture.

Full details of these, and all shortlistedprojects, are on the RENEW Northwestwebsite at www.RENEW.co.uk – go toResource Library and click on ‘Goodpractice case studies’.

Building on evidence and

reinventing wheels

P

rofessions gather clichés andtruisms as they mature anddevelop. For the most part,

they are based on good sense. Butgenuine learning involves examining ourassumptions.

One such assumption is thenecessity of evidence-based practice.Its opposite could be described asreinventing the wheel: repeating work that has already been done hundredsof times.

It would be hard to argue againstlearning from the evidence. Animportant theme to emerge from

the Exemplar Learning Programme,however, is that learning from theevidence is part of the picture, not itsentirety: in itself, it does not createthe drive and passion to succeed, theinfectious enthusiasm that wins oversceptics, or the sense of value thatpersuades practitioners that a job isworth doing against the odds.

It would be hard, too, to arguethat wheels should be reinvented. Yetthe Exemplar Learning Programmeprovided some examples of exactlythat: instances where it was feltnecessary to start with a blank sheetin order to provide genuine localownership of a project. More often,it was a case of adapting the wheel:existing good practice was usedand valued, but it was consideredequally important to fit it to localcircumstances. Even those withmany years’ experience of multi-million pound regeneration schemesrecognised that whenever learning isapplied, it is within a unique contextof place and people. The wheel has tosuit the terrain.

Grove Village, on the edge of Manchester city centre, is a case inpoint. This is a £100m programmeto regenerate what used to be anunpopular and troubled housingestate in Ardwick, plagued by areputation for gun crime and emptyproperties. There have been manysuch housing programmes in thepast, and the lessons learned havebeen well documented. Structurally,Grove Village was different becauseit was one of the first privatefinance initiatives in housing, but thedifficulties faced and solutions appliedwere familiar.

Grove Village demonstrates how

successful regeneration combinesboth learning from evidence and anelement of reinventing the wheel.The team leading the project,which included Harvest Housing

It’s about us being the now

and not just the

future.

LKC awards“ ”



Group, Manchester City Counciland developers Gleeson, had vastexperience of housing redevelopment;yet they said one of the key lessonswas to listen to the community,support local residents and adapt thescheme to suit residents’ needs.

Ian Perry, chief executive of Harvest Housing Group, explainedwhat this meant in practice: ‘Weset out the big idea and we had thevision of what it needed to be, buthow to do that we didn’t really know.The detail of what we have doneactually came from the people wholive there.

‘We turned ideas into realitywith the residents. We can providethe building blocks but they have tobe put together differently in everycommunity. Every community willwant the shape to be different. Youcan’t take Grove Village as a solutionand plonk it somewhere else.’

One project did appear to have setout consciously to reinvent the wheel.This was the LKC Awards, a schemeto celebrate the achievements of young people in the Lower Kersal andCharlestown area of Salford, which ishome to a new deal for communitiesinitiative.

Here the award scheme wasfacilitated by a youth worker, buteffectively started with a blank sheetin order to give local young peoplea full sense of ownership. Whileit proved highly successful in thisrespect, it was clear that after theevent the young people involved hadsecond thoughts about some of theirdecisions.

Hannah Peake, the youth worker,said: ‘The group made a decisionnot to involve children under the

age of 11 and in some ways I feelthat this was a missed opportunityto recognise that children also getinvolved in the community. They alsochose not to invite parents or any

officials, and I think this meant theydid not receive the recognition thatthey deserved.’

Taking time to look at thesuccesses and lessons of otheryouth award schemes might haveencouraged a different approach. Onthe other hand, it might also havediluted local youngsters’ belief thatthey were genuinely in control.

What emerges from the assembledexperiences of the shortlistedprojects is the magnitude of context.Our exemplars cannot be cloned; buttheir experience can be applied andadapted in new situations.

The rest of this report examines in

more detail the types of learning thathave emerged from the programme,and may be applied in other contextsin the task of creating sustainablecommunities.

It’s nearly four years since we

started bidding for money.

Without the dedication from

us as individuals and resources

from our organisations the project

could easily have stalled.

East Manchester Home Front“ ”



Learning by listening: preparing

the ground

A

common characteristic of the shortlisted projects wasa willingness to learn right

from the start. Many stressed the valueof effective preparation, and somepointed to the pitfalls of acting withoutsufficient groundwork.

This learning took two principalforms: learning from outside, throughvisits to similar schemes or knowledgeof relevant work done elsewhere;and learning from inside, throughconversation and negotiation withproject partners and stakeholders.

By garnering this knowledge,projects built the ability and confidenceto set clear and realistic objectives andgained a clarity about the strategies andskills needed to achieve them.

Stats and Maps is a striking exampleof thorough preparation. Stats andMaps is an internet-based informationsystem that allows statutory agencies,

community groups and the public toget detailed data about the borough of Rochdale – crime statistics, educationalinformation, or details of local services.Users can tailor the information totheir own neighbourhood or areaof interest, and staff from RochdaleMetropolitan Borough Council traincommunity groups to use the system.

While the concept of Stats andMaps is simple, its execution wascomplex. Data had to be gathered froma wide range of agencies, which neededto be satisfied that the informationwould not be compromised. Atechnical solution had to be foundto enable users to view informationclearly in a format that suited theirrequirements. Data must be constantlyreviewed to ensure it is up to date.

Information specialists working forstatutory agencies took part in fivemonths of exploratory discussionsand fact-finding before the projectbecame a formal entity. Recognisingthat a high level of technical expertisewas required, tenders were invitedto set up and test the Stats and Mapswebsite. The site was established in2004, but tested further with users anddeveloped over the following two years.

Even with such extensivepreparation, Stats and Maps has notbeen glitch-free. In fact it was a victimof its success: usage was so high thatthe system became overloaded, andfurther work has been necessary toimprove the site’s stability and speed.

While Stats and Maps showsthe value of internal learning, therestoration of Castle Park Housein Frodsham, Cheshire, shows howexternal learning plays its part too. Adecaying former mansion house, givento the town of Frodsham in 1933,

has been revived as a communityhub, bringing together local services,business space and training facilities.

The scheme was led by FrodshamForward, a market town regeneration

One of our huge

hurdles was

showing that while

we are a very

large university, there was a genuine ethosof giving something back to the community.

CommIT ”“



project, in partnership with Vale RoyalBorough Council. What looks atfirst glance like a traditional buildingrestoration project proved remarkablyintricate, involving detailed negotiationswith service providers and the CharityCommission, and permission fromthe secretary of state to alter a listedstructure.

The project’s organisers didtwo things at the start: they held anextensive consultation to listen tolocal residents; and they visited similarschemes elsewhere to learn aboutwhat had worked and what hadn’t.

‘We learned lessons before settingout,’ said Anne Boyd, market townsproject manager at Vale Royal. ‘It wasn’tabout meeting the demands of thecommunity or anyone else, but lookingfor everybody round the table to gain.The community have had their assetrestored. The council can deliver servicesthat are appropriate to communityneeds, and partners are seeing increasedparticipation in services.’

Learning by doing: practicalities

and pragmatism

T

he ability to think and rethink on your feet without losing

sight of your objective is aprerequisite for successful projectmanagement. In the complex field of sustainable communities, that must bedone while satisfying partners, funding

agencies and the people the project isintended to benefit.

The shortlisted projectsdemonstrated this practical learning inabundance. Many of them learned theimportance of creating effective teams,having personnel with the requiredskills and seniority in place at an earlystage. Others learned how to juggledifferent funding streams, meetingdifferent deadlines and requirementswhile spending the money aseffectively as possible.

For others, the practical lessonswere to do with ensuring theengagement of local people, meetingtheir aspirations without creatingunrealistic expectations.

The Castlefields RegenerationProject in Runcorn is a good exampleof this learning by doing. The £63mproject to revive a run-down 1970shousing estate involved more than50 individual projects, replacing orimproving more than 1,400 deck-access flats, and the creation of anew community park on the site of aformer school.

The project began with a detailedmasterplan setting out how the estatewould look at the end of the process.But as the partner agencies listenedto local people, examined how each

element could be delivered andbalanced resources, it became clear thatthe masterplan had to be adapted asthe scheme progressed.

‘Local knowledge and understanding

All we ask is a slightly different way of working. All we ask is a little bit of a

change in mindset.Families Learning andEmploymentProgramme (FLEP) “”



of the area proved very useful, oftenhelping to foresee how some of theconceptual elements of the masterplanmight be difficult to implement on theground,’ said Derek Sutton, operationaldirector at Halton Borough Council,the lead organisation in the partnership.‘Through extensive consultationevents with both internal and externalpartners, the partnership was able toharness this knowledge and use it tohelp adapt the masterplan.’

Similarly, budgets and timescaleshad to be constantly reviewed,as changes in one element of thescheme had knock-on effects onanother. Throughout this process thepartnership learned to keep localpeople informed, and learned topromise only what could be delivered.

Salford Sports Village, similarly,demonstrates the need for flexibility.The aim was not just to provide a newsports centre in the Lower Kersal andCharlestown area, but to use sport as

a catalyst to improve residents’ skills,health and education. This demandedclose liaison with a wide range of partner agencies, detailed financialmanagement and a strong rapportwith the local community. ‘Applyingto eight organisations each withdifferent agendas, application processes,timescales and outputs was difficult tosay the least,’ the organisers admitted.

Working with police, sports, healthand education specialists has demandeda high degree of adaptability. A yearbefore building work was due to begin,plans had to be redrawn on the adviceof the police architect so that thesports village could meet ‘secured bydesign’ principles.

Because the project was a flagshipscheme for the Football Association,there was inevitably a strong emphasison football as the main sport on offer.The sports village is now beginning tooffer a wider range of sporting activitiesto cater for other interests.

Learning by daring: taking

risks, reaping rewards

The most effective andimpressive projects don’t stopat the obvious. They have an

energy and a desire to generate changethat leads them to take risks. The prizeof success counts for more than thefear of failure.

In setting themselves tough challenges,the shortlisted projects enteredunknown territory, seeking to stretchbeyond simply transferring best practicefrom elsewhere. A common theme wasthe ability to see outcomes rather thanoutputs: to focus on the bigger picturewithout putting fences around the

possibilities.While all showed some risk-taking,it was noteworthy that two of theschemes that were most preparedto take risks came from outside the

We make

sure students

are getting

a genuineexperience of a draughty church hall on a

Tuesday night. People are not getting last year’s

lesson plans out – it’s what’s happened today

in their life.

Compass Regeneration Academy

“”



traditional regeneration professions.Music for Life stemmed from

the desire of the Royal LiverpoolPhilharmonic Orchestra to make adifference on its doorstep. The contrastbetween an internationally-renownedorchestra and the level of musicalactivity in nearby Kensington wasstriking. To bridge the gap Music forLife was created, a five-year project tobring musical education to local schoolsand to involve the community in theorchestra’s programmes.

Kensington is a new deal forcommunities area, with all the problemsthat qualify a deprived area for newdeal funding. Poor housing, loweducational attainment and limited

job prospects all loomed higher onthe agenda than cultural activities. Touse music as a force for regenerationseemed to some irrelevant at best, self-indulgent at worst.

As Judith Agnew from thePhilharmonic explained: ‘We sufferedfrom an attitude that classical musicis elitist and this was just an audiencedevelopment exercise. By us saying wewould be working for at least five years,working every week with the children,we could use pester power from thechildren – “come and see me perform”.We were totally frank about howcommitted we were to being there.’

There are now some 60 children atfive primary schools learning musicalinstruments, and many have continuedtheir interest into secondary education.

While these might not be the resultsa regeneration agency normally looksfor, the ripple effects are significant.One head teacher, Charles Daniels atSacred Heart Catholic Primary School,reported that pupils’ behaviour hadbeen transformed since the start of Music for Life.

Two Ofsted inspection reportshave mentioned the impact of Musicfor Life; attendance at four of the fiveschools has improved; and key stage 2results in maths, science and English aremarkedly better. Adults, too, have got

People think going through the pouring rain night after night, is it

worth it? A lot of people fell by the wayside, but others came in.

As soon as we got financial

close and

contractual close a lot of

people started to see thelight at the end of the tunnel.

Grove Village“ ”

One of the first

things we did over

12 months was

to build honest

relationships and a bond of trust.West Cumbria Social Enterprise Hub”“



involved, with a growing number joininga community choir.

CommIT – the Community ICTSolutions project run by LancasterUniversity Volunteering Unit – isanother example of daring to reachbeyond the obvious. Again, this initiativecame from an organisation that is notpart of the usual matrix of sustainablecommunities professions and wasunder no statutory or contractualobligation to devote the time and effortneeded to make the idea work.

The idea behind CommIT is thatstudents at Lancaster Universityuse their computer skills to helpcommunity groups. This has involvedassessing the needs of voluntaryorganisations, brokering partnershipsbetween students and communitygroups, and working with mental healthservice users and young offenders.

Working through Blackpool Councilfor Voluntary Services, the universityteamed up with 20 communityorganisations to conduct a ‘healthcheck’of their ICT needs.

The scheme works because thereis a bedrock of mutual benefit. Thestudent volunteers learn about workingwith communities and applying theirknowledge in practical contexts,

which makes them more employable;community groups and their userslearn how to use technology and applyit to their needs, and reach a stagewhere they can take part in formalaccredited learning.

Learning by valuing: building

trust, resolving conflicts

The need to build relationshipsof respect and honesty, toovercome negative perceptions

and assumptions, and to resolveconflicts equitably was a strong themeof several shortlisted projects.

Participants learned how tovalue each others’ aspirations andcontributions, and as this mutual respectgrew, they learned much about workingtogether and resolving difficulties.

While much material exists on howto form partnerships – negotiationskills, ideal legal structures and so on

– it is clear that much of the learningabout effective partnership takes placein situ, as individuals and organisationsdiscover how to work together.Effective facilitation can help to breedempathy and understanding.

The Stockport BME Children’sProject demonstrates how suchrelationships can be built and howmembers of a partnership can learnhow to overcome difficulties.

The project was designed to tacklethe lack of culturally relevant educationfor black and minority ethnic children inStockport, a borough with a large whitemajority. It aimed to enable childrento learn about their own culture, withtutors from their own communities.Instead of working separately with eachcommunity, Stockport Metropolitan

Borough Council’s communitydevelopment team brought severalminority groups together to agreea consistent approach, and providedsupport where there was a lack of

We want to

be looking

into the future

and looking at

where change might be happening. People come

to us and want bits of data and

we try to challenge them to

think about what it means.

Stats and Maps

“”



community infrastructure: a Chinesegroup was established to enablechildren of Chinese background tobenefit from the programme.

The different community groupslearned to work together for thefirst time, and for many it was alsotheir first experience of a long-termpartnership with a statutory agency.But almost immediately the projectfaced a major challenge, when fundingwas reduced from £78,000 in 2005 to£45,000 in 2006.

‘Our greatest fear was the groupswould lose solidarity and start fightingover their share of the budget,’ saidPhoebe Spence, a member of thecommunity development team atStockport Metropolitan Borough Council.

‘That’s what happened at our firstmeeting. Each came in and startedpitching against each other. At thesecond meeting the groups presentedto each other the value of what theydid, and what would happen if they hadto cut. It then became very difficultwith the empathy that was there forgroups to be cruel to each other andtake a bigger share of funding.’

By learning to face this challenge ina mutually supportive way, groups builtrespect for each other and ensured theproject could survive and flourish.

Several of the other shortlistedprojects had to resolve conflicts orovercome scepticism to reach a stagewhere their ideas and proposals werevalued and acted on. Castle Park House in Frodsham had to deal withpolitical opposition; the LKC Awardsteam had to convince funding agenciesthat young people could be trusted tostage an event.

Relationships of trust have been vitalto the progress of the West Cumbria

Social Enterprise Hub. The hub providesadvice and support to fledgeling socialenterprises, many of which werestruggling to make the transition fromcharities to sustainable businesses.

The advice service was contractedout to a specialist company, Co-operative and Mutual Solutions (CMS),which then had to convince localenterprises that it was there to helpand not to steal their business. Similarly,CMS had to persuade individual socialenterprises that they could work together without threatening eachother’s livelihoods.

‘We have gone out of our way toestablish relationships between socialenterprises,’ CMS director GarethNash said. ‘I think that’s key because wewon’t be here for ever.’

Learning by reflecting: the

importance of evaluation

E

valuation is a formal elementof most larger regeneration

projects, and substantial budgetsare often set aside for it. Smallerinitiatives frequently take a moreinformal approach, with less rigorousgathering of information. In all cases,

The budget needed to

be bent quite

significantly, so

we did. Some

bean counter

said it didn’t say

anything about

buses in the

project budget, so the partners

creatively decided to ignore him.

Dig Manchester“”



however, the importance of steppingback and considering what has beenachieved cannot be underestimated.

The shortlisted projects in theExemplar Learning Programmeshowed a range of approaches, fromindependent monitoring and analysis torelatively brief post-event assessments.

The Families Learning forEmployment Programme (FLEP),a national pilot scheme based inWythenshawe, south Manchester,shows one such approach. This schemeaims to improve parents’ employabilityby involving them in their children’seducation, and links a wide range of agencies that share similar objectives.It is being monitored closely by theDepartment for Communities andLocal Government, via an evaluationteam from KPMG. Detailed statistics arebeing gathered about who is benefitingfrom the programme and how.

Perhaps more significant in terms of

learning transferable lessons is the waytwo of the shortlisted projects usedevaluation to rethink and refocus theirwork while it was still in progress.

East Manchester Home Front isa small-scale project that involvesresidents in the area’s regenerationthrough short ‘taster’ courseson practical DIY and gardening,encouraging them to develop literacyand numeracy skills and support localregeneration projects. Some residentshave progressed to more advancedconstruction skills training.

While the sessions were popular, aformal evaluation after the first round of courses showed that the training in basicskills could be improved. The steeringgroup took the decision to change thetrainer; while this was a tough choice,there was a clear improvement in qualityas a result.

Compass Regeneration Academyis a much larger project: housing

The most important

thing we learned was

to have the ability to

change the masterplan

and be more flexibleand adapt.

Castlefields“”

Our biggest failing

was not realising

how good the

scheme was – it

took a while for the penny to

drop. The project is so good we

would move

anything to makeroom for it.

Music for Life

“”



organisations across Merseyside have joined forces to train the ‘stars of tomorrow’ to plug skills gaps in theirworkforce. The academy has a strongemphasis on practical learning, butbecause the organisers were venturinginto new territory they arranged aformal evaluation of the first phase by ateam from the University of Manchester.

The evaluation resulted in severalsignificant changes. The course wasshortened; more emphasis was placedon practical work; and access wasextended to non-graduates. The coursenow leads to a formal qualificationthrough the City and Guilds Institute of Management and Leadership.

Learning by owning: a personal

passion to succeed

Ownership is a word that isoften used loosely: it cansuggest close involvement

without actually committing anybody toanything. Genuine ownership involvestaking responsibility, going the extramile, being unwilling to countenancefailure. Ownership says, in a nutshell,‘this is about me’.

Such ownership can occur inprojects created and led by statutoryorganisations, but seldom growswithout the close involvement of the local community or a project’sintended beneficiaries. Ownership issometimes learned, but is more often acatalyst for learning.

Most of the shortlisted projects, andespecially the five selected exemplars,displayed such ownership. Participantswere determined to make thingshappen because success or failuremattered to them personally.

Dig Manchester, a communityarchaeology project based inWythenshawe in the south of the city,showed that ownership is not thepreserve of a select few. Nearly 1,200

people took part in the excavationof Northenden Mill over four weeksin the summer of 2006, and theexcitement and involvement wasshared among children, older people,schools, university staff, artists andregeneration professionals.

The sense that ‘this is about us’ washeightened by the contrast betweenthe participants’ enthusiasm aboutdiscovering their heritage and the poorreputation of Wythenshawe amongthe wider public. Dig Manchesterchallenged that reputation and fosteredlocal pride. Now that the dig is over, anonline heritage trail has been createdfor Wythenshawe and links have beenforged with a local history group.

The local ownership of the projectwas also seen in a ‘can do’ approach tofunding: when the partners realised thebudget needed to be ‘bent significantly’to pay for transport from schools to theexcavation site, they just got on with it.

This ‘it’s about us’ dimension wasalso central to the impact of theStockport BME Children’s Project: thedifferent community groups involved feltso strongly about the need for children

There are no

magic solutions

to this work, but there are magic

ingredients,

and the first

is starting

from what

the community wants for itself.

Stockport BME Children’s

Project

“”



to discover their heritage that theydetermined the scheme would succeedeven when faced with funding cuts.

Ownership was also demonstratedthrough strong lines of accountability:the tutors were employed byStockport Metropolitan BoroughCouncil, but reported first of all tocommunity representatives.

Sharing the learning: how to

pool the knowledge

Some projects are better thanothers at identifying what theyhave learned and passing it on. In

time-limited schemes, sharing learningis often not a priority: evaluationsconcentrate on outputs achieved andtargets hit rather than pinpointing whatcan be replicated.

Three positive approaches can beseen in the projects shortlisted for theExemplar Learning Programme. Theseare integrated learning, where provisionis made at the start for lessons to beshared; continuity, where learning canbe built into future development; and

handover, where the achievements of one project are handed on to anotheragency to take forward.

Some of the shortlisted projectswere set up as pilots or exemplars

– FLEP, Grove Village and Salford SportsVillage – and here delegations fromoutside have been welcomed and thereis an assumption that achievementswill be shared. Support from nationalgovernment or institutions provides anopportunity for experience to feed intothe development of policy and practice.

Compass Regeneration Academyand Stats and Maps are examples of schemes where continuity is intended.What is learned is then applied to thefuture development of the project; thisalso gives outsiders a chance to learnfrom what has been achieved.

East Manchester Home Front andCommIT are schemes that aim totake people to a particular stage: theyprovide training in practical skills thatenable people to progress into moreformal education. In both cases theend is the beginning of something else.Here, though, the extent to whichlearning can be shared depends to agreat degree on the ability of the nextagency down the line to identify anduse what has been learned.

There is a final group of projectswhere there is no obvious strategyfor sharing the learning. This doesn’tmean learning is not passed on:the enthusiasm to take part in theExemplar Learning Programme itself reveals a desire to share experience.

But projects like the LKC Awardsand Castle Park House do not seemto have factored this sharing intotheir initial costs and programmes,so it appears to have happened as aresult of the schemes’ success. Sharinglessons can be low on the agendawhen the first priority is to makesomething happen. Often a project hasto achieve first in order to convinceothers that the work has been

worthwhile. Such learning is fragile andeasily lost.There is scope for improving the

way learning is shared by embedding itwithin time-limited projects. This calls

It wasn’t about

meeting the

demands of

the community

or anyone else,

but looking

for everybody

round the table

to gain.

Castle Park House “”



for a recognition of the value of sharedlearning by funding agencies and keystaff: recording and communicatinglearning needs to be built into budgetsand project management. That is notalways easy when funds are tight, staff are working flat out to get a projectgoing, and the benefits may not be feltby the project’s target clientele.

From Egan to ethos

The learning we have observedamong the 14 shortlistedprojects can be divided into

two broad categories.In the first basket are the

assessment and observation thattake place at the start of a project;the experience of undertaking it;and the evaluation as it proceedsand concludes. These processes helpidentify skills that are needed, testthem in practice and embed them infuture activity. They are the specialistand generic skills identified by Egan asbeing in short supply and in need of nurturing throughout the professionsworking for sustainable communities.

The second basket contains thequalities that are needed for the joband learned on it: ownership of theproject, valuing people and resolvingconflicts, taking risks in pursuit of a greater gain. These qualities areclosely associated with the genericskills of leadership, negotiation andcommunication.

Together they point to the ethos atthe heart of a successful project. Anethos is more than a set of skills: it is adriving force that embodies values andprinciples that give a project energyand the ability to surmount obstacles.

To put it another way, the ethos

is what binds the Egan principlestogether and generates thenecessary drive to create sustainablecommunities in challenging contexts.

The projects that most impressed

the judging panel for the ExemplarLearning Programme were those thatdemonstrated this energy. One of the panel referred to the ‘imaginationand creativity and risk’ of theapplicants; another commented on the‘commitment, enthusiasm and passionand goodwill from the community rightthrough to the professionals.’ Anotherpraised the problem-solving approach:‘People who are flexible and able toface the issue and find a solution arelike gold dust.’

The recurring theme of the fiveselected exemplars is that ‘we can’: wecan make music; we can create a placewe want to live in; we can celebrateour culture; we can teach and learnnew skills; we can use informationeffectively to improve our town. Thecentral lesson of the Exemplar LearningProgramme is that others can, too.

From day one our motto

was: it’s not just about bricks

and mortar. We have a shiny

new £5m building with lovely

wooden floors and art on the

walls, but that’s not what it’sabout. It’s about people.

Salford Sports Village“ ”

Reference

1 The EganReview: Skillsfor SustainableCommunitieshttp://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1502285



RENEW Northwest is the Regional Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Communities.We developdynamic and responsive learning opportunities toprovide practitioners with the skills and knowledgerequired to deliver sustainable communities.

One of our major aims is to gather goodpractice and help to make it accessible to all in away that promotes learning and helps others tobenefit from the experience gained.

The RENEW Northwest Exemplar LearningProgramme aims to do just that – identify andshowcase examples of good practice in sustainablecommunities throughout the Northwest.

The programme facilitates the sharing of knowledge and learning through celebratingexamples of projects where those involved haveworked together to: Learn from experience and change practice as aresult Find innovative ways of overcoming barriers Provide inclusive leadership to all who need to beinvolved Create inclusive partnerships or project teams Use evaluation or experience to modify practice Successfully ensure that the project is sustainable

This publication sets out the lessons derivedfrom the 2007 Programme.

Summaries of the individual projects andfurther information about the Exemplar LearningProgramme 2007 are available on the RENEWNorthwest website at www.RENEW.co.uk

We welcome feedback to [email protected]

RENEW Rooms

The Tea Factory, 82 Wood Street

Liverpool L1 4DQTel: +44 (0)151 703 0135 Fax: +44 (0)151 703 0136Email: [email protected] Web: www.RENEW.co.uk

This publication was researched and written by Julian Dobson and designed by Chris McCarthyfor NS+ Ltd, www.nsplus.co.uk, tel: 0114 229 5726.

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