Benedict Dellot's Posts - Citizen Power: Peterborough

ChangeMakers identified

2011-10-05T12:35:42.000Z

Hello all,

As some of you may be aware, we've recently been asking people in Peterborough to name those who they would consider to be 'ChangeMakers' (key people in the city who can help to address the social, economic and environmental challenges facing Peterborough). We used what we call a 'snowball sampling method' whereby we contacted all of those of were named as ChangeMakers and asked them for their own suggestions of ChangeMakers, and so on for a number of survey waves.

This is just a quick update to let you know that over 300 people were identified through this surveying. Our plan is to now send a more detailed follow-up survey to many of these ChangeMakers, asking them about their background, skills and knowledge as a ChangeMaker, and to ask them about their connections to all of the other people who were identified as being a ChangeMaker.

The idea is that once we have this information we can then form a 'ChangeMakers Network' which can work together and with the council and public services to improve outcomes in the City.

The surveying should finally be complete by the end of October. After that I can provide you with some initial results and let you know what the next steps are for the Network.

In the meantime, if you'd like to know a bit more about the research, feel free to email me on benedict.dellot@rsa.org.uk

Ben.

ChangeMakers research underway

2011-08-04T08:25:50.000Z

Hello all,

For those of you who may be unaware of the ChangMakers strand of Citizen Power, the aim of this particular project is to identify the people in Peterborough who are driving positive change and improving the city. More specifically, the idea is to help the council's new 'Single Delivery Plan' (a strategic plan to address particular challenges the city if facing) by locating the people who are already doing brilliant work in each of the areas that have been prioritised.

These people, who we can call 'changemakers', come from a range of different backgrounds and are not necessarily your typical 'leaders' who sit at the top of organisations. They are more often to be found working on the frontline at the heart of the action. Examples of changemakers might include businessmen who a catalysing regeneration in the city, JobCentre Plus staff who know what really gets people back into work, or long-standing members of neighbourhood associations who have a rich understanding about the challenges people in their communities face day-in day-out.

Rather than simply drawing up a list of names ourselves, we aim to use a certain type of research method called 'social network analysis'. This involves asking people through a survey for names of other people who they would consider to be 'changemakers'. Once we have this list of names, we then contact these people and ask them for their own suggestions of changemakers as well. The idea is that this creates a 'snowball effect' where a list of names gets bigger and bigger, and that is also generates a much more diverse list of people than we could have ever hoped to have come up with ourselves.

The first of these surveys were sent out just last week to the lead people working in the Single Delivery Plan programme. Once they have completed the surveys and provided us with names, we'll then be contacting these people in turn in a couple of weeks. We intend to do a number of rounds of surveying and will keep you informed of how it is going.

By the end of this research we hope to have a large 'network map' of changemakers (something that looks a bit like the below diagram) who can begin to work together to improve the city, it's communities and its public services.

Please stay tuned...

What makes you want to get involved in your community? And what prevents you from getting involved?

2011-01-24T18:27:50.000Z

For those of you who are often involved in community activities, from being a school governor to attending neighbourhood groups, have you ever considered the reasons why you got involved and what might prevent other people in similar situations from doing so? Is it all about time and willingness, or does people's ability to get stuck into improving their local area run much deeper than that?

These are some of the questions we're exploring in the civic health strand of the Citizen Power work. The aim of this project is to design a survey that can be used to measure people's capacity to participate in their community. We've still yet to decide everything that we should attempt to measure in the survey, but it's always going to come down to what really affects people's ability to get involved. This could be a strong sense of belonging, feelings of trust with neighbours, opportunities provided by the local authority to participate, a healthy level of emotional wellbeing or a good set of friends and neighbours.

If you have any thoughts at all on what helps or hinders this type of community involvement, or perhaps some of your own personal stories on the matter, please feel free to get in touch and let me know.

You can contact me at benedict.dellot@rsa.org.uk

Thanks,

Ben

Mass Observation

2010-08-17T15:08:36.000Z

Hi all,

I've just been forwarded this information on a project that Mass Observation are running. See below. Could be useful for anyone out there interested in sharing their memories and stories about life in Peterborough:

The MOCO project (www.mocoproject.org.uk) is inviting community groups to participate in an exciting nation-wide history-making initiative…

Mass Observation (www.massobs.org.uk)
has been recording everyday life in the UK since 1937 through diaries,
questionnaires and observations. Mass Observation Communities Online
(MOCO) is expanding upon this tradition by working with community
groups to inspire and assist people to record the life and history of
their own communities, using the research methods developed by Mass
Observation.

By inviting community groups to join the MOCO Project, we are aiming to
create a national archive of written and photographic accounts that
will reflect everyday life of communities throughout the UK. This will
result in a valuable record of your community or organisation that each
participating group will be able to keep. The submissions will also be
displayed on the MOCO online archive and donated to the historic Mass
Observation Archive at the University of Sussex.

The MOCO team does all of the work, and all costs are covered by us – the only thing your community group needs to do is contact us saying
you wish to join and we will provide you with all the tools and
information you need to engage your group in the MOCO tasks (diary
writing, questionnaires, photography or mass observation) via our
website.

This project runs until the end of September, 2010.

For more info please contact the MOCO team at:

T. 01273 877657
E. info@mocoproject.org.uk
www.mocoproject.org.uk

Citizen Power Initial Report Published

2010-04-12T09:49:53.000Z

Hi all,

Just an update to let you know that this week we're publishing the report covering the scoping research for the Citizen Power project. It's the first report from the RSA, PCC, Arts Council partnership and begins to lay out a strong vision for Peterborough and how the Citizen Power project will work towards building upon the city's achievements.

The first chapter looks at what a future model of active citizenship might look like while Chapter 2 covers some of the challenges preventing Peterborough from achieving this kind of citizenship. The final two chapters address how this gap can be closed with particular focus on participation, attachment and innovation. The report then finishes with a brief outline of our planned projects.

Overall, the report marks the end of the planning and research phase of the project and the start of the real work on the ground.

We'll be putting the report on the Ning for all to see so feel free to have a look and ask any questions or comment!

We'll also shortly be adding videos outlining the different project strands - the aims of these strands and the plan for the next year or so. Any thoughts, comments and questions on these would be great.

Just an update of this week for everybody. As you can see, we've added a quick video clip of the project and it's aims and aspirations. It would be great if you could comment and let us know what…

2010-03-12T17:00:00.000Z

Just an update of this week for everybody.

As you can see, we've added a quick video clip of the project and it's aims and aspirations. It would be great if you could comment and let us know what you think. Sam Mclean, director of the project, has also written a piece for Progress on what active citizenship might look like in light of financial pressures and likely cutbacks to public services. You can view this at the bottom of the main page.

Watch out for forum discussions on each of the project strands in the coming weeks...

The launch of Citizen Power: Peterborough

2010-03-08T15:30:00.000Z

The RSA today launches Citizen Power: Peterborough, a unique and exciting partnership that aims to create active citizenship within Peterborough through the development of new pathways for people to participate in their local area and shape their communities.

Working in collaboration with Peterborough City Council and the Arts Council East, the Citizen Power project will span two years and be made up of a number of programmes based around the arts and social change, an area-based learning curriculum, a sustainable citizenship campaign, user-centred drug services and the use of online social media. Together, these different programmes of work will aim to address Peterborough's challenges as well as work towards achieving the city's potential.

Tonight sees the launch event of the Citizen Power: Peterborough project at the RSA which will bring together a number of speakers including David Halpern, Irene Lucas, Bob and Roberta Smith, Marco Cereste and Andrea Stark who will all highlight the importance of this project and what this might mean for a place like Peterborough.

In the meantime, please feel free to join this site and add your thoughts, ideas and opinions!