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Embedding justice in Scottish communities through decision-making

An empirical review of three approaches to resourcing communities

Gordon McLean

Emily Wallace

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Overview

We will:

provide an empirical review of three different ways of developing decision-making in communities through the work Corra Foundation undertakes, set in the wider policy landscape.
Consider the learning from three strands.
share insights from this work and discuss where we hope to focus our action-based research next.

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Be best grant maker we can be

Get alongside communities

Work in partnership

Share expertise

10 year strategy – launched early March 2020 – even more relevant now
Our place work is integral to this alongside funding role.

Elevator pitch

Corra is a charity that is about strengthening and amplifying people’s voices and their power to make change. Often people are trying to support each other, or tackle challenges, or make their communities better places to live.
We try and help in lots of different ways. For example, we work alongside communities where people are coming together to find their own solutions to things like loneliness, poverty and health issues. We see incredible things happen with just a little bit of support.
We also give grants to charities and grassroots groups that make a day-to-day difference to lots of people’s lives. Some of that is through funding we manage for others, e.g. Scottish Government.
And a lot of what we do is about trying to help bring about longer-term change in issues like inequality, poverty, loneliness, drugs and alcohol and children’s rights.
We want to work in partnership and we’re always keen to talk if there’s something we might be able to do together.

The power to create change rests with people themselves
People with ideas for radical change are supported, skilled, connected and confident
People are working together to respond to the big challenges facing Scotland

Social Action Inquiry – Corra is a partner –

learning from communities what helps and hinders their social action.
Communities sharing their stories to highlight enablers and the barriers they face

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Scotland’s National Performance Framework�

Scotland’s policy landscape aims to provide an enabling state for community participation but there are gaps between policy and practice.

�

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Policy landscape �in Scotland

Policy landscape

UK wide

Place Principle

Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007

Shared approaches

Policy context in Scotland and wider UK

Community Empowerment Act – Community Asset Transfer, Participation Requests, locality planning. Local Authorities are still developing processes. Community involvement in locality planning varies across the country as does the amount CATs and Participation Requests
National Planning Framework – National spatial strategy - inclusive planning system. Local Place Plans. Not many LPPs created by communities. NPF4 recently consulted on.
Local governance review - Scotland’s diverse communities and different places have greater control and influence over decisions that affect them most - has been ongoing for several years - stalled due to Coronavirus
Place Principle – adopted by Scot Gov and COSLA – better collaboration – public, private, third sectors and communities – unlock National Performance Network. Big potential but not a lot of awareness with limited buy-in
Community Wealth Building – several Local Authorities have adopted this – most at an early stage – with a focus on procurement first.
Wellbeing Economy – commitment by Scottish Government to build a fairer, healthier and greener economy.

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Getting Alongside Communities

To December 2022:

Worked alongside 9 communities (in 8 local authorities)
Reached over 15,225 people
Supported 206 community ideas into action
Benefitted from 5689 hours of volunteer support
Supported community access to, or control of, 16 local assets
Supported 5 communities to develop action plans
Directed £1m funding to communities (including £600k towards pandemic response)

Getting Alongside Communities - began working alongside communities from 2016/17. Funded by Corra and funder collaborative – currently Tudor Trust and Lankelly Chase.

Identified communities where funding was not reaching - - facing multiple deprivation- magnified by Coronavirus and current cost of living crisis
10 year commitment
Dedicated community co-ordinator for each area – no preset outcomes – trust, relationships, support ideas
Ultimately resulting in locally-led actions being taken, through..

Facilitating capacity building
Widening community participation
Seeking out voices seldom heard

Participation increasing opportunities for people to take part in local activities and action, supporting time to build relationships and fostering connections.
Space creating and supporting access to agenda-free space in communities.
Voice communities are confident their priorities are heard and actioned by those in power.
Investment as ideas flourish communities can secure investment to build on local work.
Learning & Development the continual need to listen and learn with communities.

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Getting Alongside Communities: Learning Approach

Shapes conversations

Cluster meetings

Team meetings

Local conversations

Shapes questions

and actions

Community of learning

Bi-Annual reflections

Evidence and Data

Reflection Logs

Ideas Evaluated

Community Stories

Informs

What we do

how we change

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Getting Alongside Communities: How we use learning�

Process

Practice

Policy

Impact

Accountability

Reporting to the Board

Reporting to investment partners

Annual Place Report

Shaping how we work with communities
Contribute to development of new programmes
How Corra works

Shaping other funder practices
Influencing other Place based work

Communities see change
Investment in communities
Learning for Corra

Informs consultations
Influence government and other public partners

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Getting Alongside Communities: Logic model

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Getting Alongside Communities: The three ‘P’s

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Getting Alongside Communities: Learning so far…

Case study - Carbrain (Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire)

To help highlight our work and what we have learned;

Prior to March 2020

Corra supported the development of a local women’s group. They were also involved in community-led grant making process facilitated by Corra�

Coronavirus

Development and delivery of a food initiative throughout and after the pandemic that saw over 23,000 hot meals and 2,300 food parcels distributed locally

Carbrain Community Hub

In June 2021 the Women's group established a community hub in Carbrain to support community aspirations and provide a swap shop.

Corra supported the Community Council and local Community Health organisation to develop the hub as a charitable enterprise in 2022 and move into town centre premises. The Hub now provides a holistic approach to supporting local communities and works to tackle inequality and poverty through the delivery of services such as a food pantry, community fridge, health and wellbeing support groups and direct IT support.

In March 2023 Cumbernauld and Carbrain Community Hub secured Investing in Communities funding from Scottish Government which, over the next three years, will help to increase the capacity of the organisation along with the range of support and opportunities available to the local community.

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Participatory Grant-making

‘Participatory grant-making is the practice of ceding grant-making power to affected community members and constituencies. In practice, it means placing affected communities at the center of grant-making by giving them the power to decide who and what to fund.’

The Fund for Global Human Rights’

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Community-led & Participatory Grant-Making

Henry Duncan Grants – the grant-making Corra Foundation undertakes with its own money - where we have most control as a funder.
Comic Relief – Shift the Power – participatory grant-making on behalf of another funder, working directly with communities to decide where funding goes.
Equity Programme – grant-making on behalf of Stewart Investors, for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Using our own insight and experience of grant-making, but led by communities’ own experience of what works for them.

Emily: Three recent approaches we’ve taken to PG/CLM are through:

Henry Duncan Grants – this is Corra’s small grants fund which focuses on grassroots charities in Scotland. Henry Duncan disburses funds based on yearly themes and uses lived experience panels to support decision making, and we hope to further increase the influence and impact of these panels in upcoming funding rounds.

Comic Relief- Shift the Power – In this fund we disbursed money on behalf of Comic Relief. Corra worked directly with specific communities and a dedicated funding pot for each, with the community being in the lead of deciding what to do with the money.

Equity Programme: A community-led grant-making process where we used tailored approaches with 7 groups from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities.

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Community–led & Participatory grant-making: Learning so far

Time

‘Although I haven’t set up my business yet, I will be soon. I have done some food delivery for friends and family.

Another highlight for me is that I am also doing weekly English classes through Mohila Ogrojatra and this is giving me the confidence to speak over the phone and with my children’s school and other necessary places.

I was in the dark and Mohila Ogrojatra showed me the light in my life. I think now I have the strength, confidence, and skills to manage my everyday life. ’

Trust

‘It finally feels like a funder is listening to us, like they trust us to make the right decisions for us. We've never had that before.’

Process and Resourcing

The grants are administered by Corra, and they are supporting the Doon the Dam group to run the fund.

Doon the Dam is a group made up of local people who are each involved in community groups in the local area. The group came together to encourage community engagement around the River Leven project.

Emily: The learning from these processes has taught us about three critical things.

Time: We’re two and a half years into a 12 month piece of work with a small unconstituted women’s group. When they started very few had any English, none of them knew anyone in Scotland but the group leader, and none were in employment. Now, 18 more women have joined the group, all report friendships. They’ve done REHIS training, explored Edinburgh, and report feeling at home there. They’ve taken chair based yoga classes, English classes and IT classes. 6 are in full time employment, one has started her own business. None of these were outcomes we could have planned for – but time has been worth it for the outcomes they’ve designed themselves.

Trust: The Let’s talk Men’s mental Health group responded to the process by commenting on how the trust placed in them had affected how they felt, both about the funding, and themselves.

Process and Resourcing: It’s important to ensure enough capacity building support is put in place, and that the right process is developed for each kind of approach. The Small Fish Fund was designed and carried out by the ‘Doon the Dam’ group in Leven, both by and for the local community.

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Participatory Scotland: ‘Every One, Every Day’

Emily: The ‘Every One Every Day’ approach was developed by Participatory City Foundation in Barking and Dagenham. It’s founder Tessy Britton, did 10 years of research into what makes community participation work worldwide.

It’s place-based but at scale. It develops an infrastructure for community participation. This is a network of community shops which are hubs of ideas and activity, staffed by Project Designers whose job it is to work with people to develop their ideas into projects as quickly as possible. The network is also supported by a larger central free-to-access maker space with machines and tools for specific kinds of making, from cooking to ceramics, woodwork, to fabric work depending on the needs and aspirations of the community.

All ideas that emerge through the approach come from residents themselves. Insurances, trainings, health and safety and resources can be provided as needed. The whole thing is based on peer-to-peer activity and built on inclusivity principles to ensure that there is a way in for people regardless of their experience, background or skills.

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Participatory Scotland: Learning so far

Across the two areas 89% of people we spoke to wanted to be more involved in their communities.

'There are pockets of wonderful stuff (around Kirkcaldy) but it needs something cohesive to pull it all together’

Yvonne

‘Just having somewhere to come and meet people, be able to chat and share ideas – not because you’re old, or poor, but because you’re a person.’

John

‘I’d love to share my skills in a project like this. I might consider moving back after Uni if this happens.’

Luci

‘I have social anxiety but would love to do more locally. Being able to bring my children would make all the difference.’

Janine

Worked in-depth with 616 people (332/284) and 45 (24/21) organisations in Kirkcaldy, Fife and across Renfrewshire.

‘I’ve tried to do things on my own before but it’s been difficult. It would be priceless to have folk support you along the way and discuss how to adjust when things don’t go right.’

Kelley

'I know there’s places out there that do things already but I don’t think they’re for me. I’m not sure how to go about joining in. Stuff costs a lot.’

Malcolm

Emily - We’ve been working with 6 local authority areas on the approach, but last year took the idea into a co-design and research phase in the Fife town of Kirkcaldy and across Renfrewshire.

We worked with 616 people, and 45 organisations in-depth mapping the places and organisations they thought were important, and the kinds of things they were already involved with. We spoke to people about their aspirations for their community and gathered new ideas for community projects.

89% of people we spoke to wanted to be more involved in their communities. People identified availability of space, both in terms of feeling welcome, an cost as barriers to them getting involved. They also spoke about some targeted support generating stigma – like the man who told me he just wanted to be with other people because he was a person, not because he was labelled as ‘old’ or ‘poor’.

Others saw a way to share skills, or build connections. People liked the family friendly approach and the way you could contribute in ways that worked for your circumstances.

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Participatory Scotland: Ambitions

To deliver in Kirkcaldy and Renfrewshire for a period of at least five and up to ten+ years.
To build the capacity and the correct organisational form in each place for the infrastructure to eventually be held in community ownership.
To ensure each place has a clear plan to support sustainability of the programme in the long term.
To work with stakeholders and partners to ensure the on-going learning helps support the best allocation of resources in communities.

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Emily: In terms of what we’ve learned so far, here is a worst and best case scenario.

We’ve noticed that when communities are defined from the outside, when their issues are identified by external actors, and decisions are made for them, the road leads to distrust and disengagement, with communities refusing to get involved in consultations or action in the future.

In contrast when communities can define themselves, identify their own priorities and challenges and make decisions on what happens to them and their area, they develop a sense of agency.

The act of making that decision builds buy in, ownership and understanding and the resulting impacts are much deeper and long-lasing. Although we show this as a linear process, you can make a change at any of these points and immediately encourage better outcomes.

I’ll hand back over to Gordon for a fuller summary of our learning and our emerging theory of change.

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Shared Learning

What we’re learning	Shared opportunities in policy
Community Voice – connecting people to their aspirations and a shared vision for their communities.
Community Power – connecting people to their own skills, knowledge and building the capacity for action.
Community Change – connecting people to their ability to be change-makers, or to influence the kinds of change needed in each community.

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Issue

Steps to change

Measurable effects

Wider benefits

Long-term change

The power to affect change rests with institutions

Share power more equitably

People in communities develop increased agency

Well informed decisions are made at the most effective level

Less paternalism, more collaboration

People work in silos or feel disconnected from the ability to affect change

Build good relationships

Trust increases between communities and agencies

Conversations about difficult issues are easier, collective action is quicker

Policy and practice are shaped by communities rather than the opposite

People with ideas feel unsupported, lack confidence, skills or connection

Move decision-making closer to those affected

Increase in confidence and engagement

Shared sense of priorities and better resource allocation

Communities become drivers of change

Emergent Theory of change – a tool for understanding

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Key messages

It’s a journey

Funding differently

Knowledge is power

Bridging the gap

Future opportunities

Supporting participation in decision making takes time – greater time invested = bigger impact. Need to go at pace of community - not other’s deadlines e.g. CPP Board
Funding – trust communities, provide multi-year funding where possible, reach community groups – constituted and even unconstituted, cover core costs to give groups and organisations the room to think and plan
Communities have the answers – support the skills and confidence and work with partners to ensure communities at the centre to design, lead and make decisions
Policy and practice - still a gap - need for bridging and linking role - broker relationships
Opportunities – wider reach e.g. Health sector. Connect communities with academic research - collaborative research - connect community knowledge, experience and desire with research expertise.

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Thank you

Further information

Gordon McLean (National Programme Manager –

Getting Alongside Communities)

gordon@corra.scot

Emily Wallace (National Programme Manager –

Appetite for Change)

emily@corra.scot