Making a good place: How to invest in social infrastructure
Barking and Dagenham has been featured in a Community Links publication making the case for investment in social infrastructure.
The publication was designed for anyone who wants to take action to improve the places we live in, whether they be national or local politicians, public bodies or anchor institutions, voluntary sector umbrella bodies or community-based charities, charitable foundations or think tanks.
The main focus of the publication is on drawing out lesson on how to take local action to make a good place and includes a case study about Barking and Dagenham’s participatory grant-making, as well as references to the Borough Manifesto and the new Community Endowment Fund.
The ingredients of success
At a roundtable on 17 March 2021, the Early Action Task Force brought representatives from four areas that they described as “breaking new ground”. BD Giving’s CEO Geraud de Ville de Goyet attended a roundtable with other place-based changemakers from Bristol, Exeter and Feltham in London.
The resulting publication describes the five key elements for success in making a good place:
A collective and long-term vision, created with and regularly reviewed by local people to ensure local needs are met.
Shared leadership bringing together cross-sectoral resources in the areas, with investment in a ‘super-connecting’ function to help make this happen.
Community participation in decision-making ensures that investment genuinely serves those it aims to help.
Local government is an important player, but anchor institutions can play a pivotal leadership role.
The important role of charitable foundations and trusts.
Participatory grant making in Barking and Dagenham
by Geraud de Ville de Goyet
Publication launch
The publication was launched at an event titled “A Step Change In Investment In Early Action Including Social Infrastructure”. Speakers included Lord John Bird, founder and editor-in-chief of The Big Issue, Lord Gus O’Donnell, former Cabinet Secretary and Chair of the Family Law Commission on Civil Society, Sophie Howe, the Commissioner for Future Generations in Wales and the author of the publication, Caroline Slocock.
Read the full publication here.