Involve was commissioned by NESTA to provide community engagement support to councils participating in the Creative Councils programme.
Creative Councils was a programme of NESTA, working with the Local Government Group, to support local authorities to develop and implement radical innovations that meet the challenges of tomorrow.
We provided support to three Creative Councils projects:
- Cambridgeshire County Council, in the context of reduced funding and increasing demand, was looking at alternative models of rural transport provision. We supported Cambridgeshire to begin to engage its rural communities to identify and develop new solutions to meet their transport needs. We provided training on community engagement and facilitation, advised on the development of an engagement strategy and facilitated the first in a series of community meetings.
- Derbyshire County Council was developing ‘Uni-fi’, a bespoke package of support aimed at developing aspiration amongst young people in care. We supported the county council to develop and run an interactive event to launch the scheme and engage decision-makers, service providers, foster carers and young people in developing the ideas further.
- Leicester City Council and De Montfort University were working in partnership to demonstrate how the skills and knowledge of a University can be partnered with a Local Authority to assist and sustain the development of a community and improve the wellbeing and prospects for its’ residents. We advised the partners on models of community governance, provided community engagement training and ran a series of workshops with local residents to explore their role in their community.