The Health Empowerment Leverage Project

HELP is an independent project funded by the Department of Health and hosted by the NHS Alliance. The link to PACES is through the participation of Gabriel Chanan and Colin Miller, and there is regular exchange of information.

The aim of HELP is to explore the business case for the application of community development in health. Distinguishing five levels of involvement on a spectrum from community engagement to empowerment, HELP argues that a more intensive and systematic use of community development by health professionals and agencies will produce significant additional improvements in the health of the local population and consequent savings to the public budget.

Findings and insights from the HELP project will be flagged up by PACES as well as on HELP’s own website. www.healthempowermentgroup.org.uk

New Communities in Tower Hamlets, Needs & Potential impact on Services 

Commissioned by  PRAXIS  & London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

Research project involving over 500 people from ‘new migrant communities’ along with service providers in Tower Hamlets interviewed re needs, potential impact services and relevant empowerment strategies.

Evaluation of Work of Crewe & Nantwich Community Development Unit

Commissioned by Crewe & Nantwich Council

Comprehensive evaluation of work of the CD Unit:

1. practice
   

2. management
   

3. training
   

4. neighbourhood management teams
   

Also production of strategy for taking community empowerment forward in new Cheshire East Unitary Authority

Evaluation of Work of Stockport Community Development Unit

Commissioned by Stockport Council

The Big Society: How it Could Work?

a PACES project

The idea of ‘the big society’ became part of national political debate in the course of the 2010 national election campaign. This is an important development irrespective of the rest of the political package. Any government should be implementing these kinds of participative measure – but selectively.

Whilst it usefully puts a fresh slant on the issue, the big society idea has continuity with existing long term developments, both in the UK and elsewhere, in the rebalancing of responsibilities and control between government and people – a vital issue for our times, whatever label it is given.

PACES will therefore monitor and seek to influence the evolution of the big society concept and policy (whatever it ends up being called) and starts with this analysis.

Practical Standards for Community Development and Empowerment

a PACES project

New National Occupational Standards for community development published in 2009 are overcomplicated, hard to use and liable to reinforce a widespread impression that this occupation is hard to understand and engage with. PACES is producing a  set of standards which are easier to understand and use. The standards show that the practice can be understood and applied more widely through a shorter and more tightly worded set of actions in a transparent structure which progresses by natural steps from working with single community groups to working across a locality both with groups and public agencies.

Available May 2010