Back in 2016 after the closure of the UK’s national institute for community development, the Community Development Foundation, some legacy funding was made available to commission a research study on the future for communities and community development in the UK. After 18 months and 800 conversations, plus numerous blogs, films and social media conversations the Empowered Communities in the 2020s research project has come to an end. The final report was launched in July and is linked below.
This is an incisive study, but with a huge gap. There is barely a mention of the role of professional community development practitioners. This is ironic as over the period of this study, indeed since 2010, England and Wales (less so Scotland and Northern Ireland) have witnessed the collapse in employment of community development practitioners, whether by local government or the voluntary sector. The closure of CDF followed the demise of the UK Association of Community Workers and the UK Community Development Exchange (not to be confused with the Global Community Development Exchange).
When austerity cuts were imposed by the Conservative/Liberal coalition government it was community development posts which went first. This is not to say that there are not some teams hanging on, but our profession in England and Wales has taken a huge hit, indeed could be said to have collapsed as with the loss of employment opportunities, the universities and other bodies training graduates to work in this career have also closed their course.
In September the Local Trust, which oversaw the research, hosted a small group of policy makers, community members and academics for 24 hours of discussion about the future for communities. These discussions will be published as a report in late November and we look forward to sharing it with you. We fear that again that this this report will fail to address the massive cuts in community development posts and how we can rebuild the field. Rather we suspect that in not addressing the cuts in CD posts, this research and the policy influence it seeks to have, have just accepted the rhetoric that what disadvantaged communities need is tiny amounts of handout money and facilities, but not the expert support of CD practitioners. When IACD was interviewed by the researchers we urged that they address the issue of the impact of the loss of professional community development posts and how investment might once more be identified to rebuild the profession.
Final report: The future for communities
The research, carried out by IVAR, explores the question identified at the start research project: ‘What needs to happen for communities to feel and be more powerful in the future?’. Read the report.
Film: This is ours
Communities in Brinnington, Keighley and Kingswood and Hazel Leys share in their own words how they are tackling issues in their areas to change the lives of residents for the better. Watch the film.
Report launch: “Power is collective.”
Lead researchers on the Future for Communities project, Leila Baker and Marilyn Taylor, shared their key findings at a launch event on 10 July 2018. Watch the presentation. Watch the film.
