It wasn’t my enjoyment of wine-gums that took me to the Rowntree Foundation, in York, when I was on a recent trip to the UK. It was their reputation as a highly effective and influential researcher, doer and grantmaker that led me to ask CEO Julia Unwin for a discussion.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation is committed to reducing poverty, empowerment and the development of strong communities, and is able to contruibute substantial sums towards these aims each year.

As New Zealand’s Te Radar says:
We cannot have Sustainability without Community.

In this commonality of focus, The Foundation has a strong connection with Inspiring Communities, although the roles of the two organisations are very different.

In a report entitled "People make places: the social value of of public spaces in urban regeneration", The Foundation has made some key findings including:

• Successful public spaces rely on people using them: "People make places, more than places make people".

• There is clear evidence of the importance of public spaces in successful regeneration policies and for creating sustainable communities.

• Spaces that successfully attract social activity are often banal in design, or untidy in their activities - such as street markets and allotments. Designers need to be responsive to the use of public spaces, not just aesthetics.

• Strategies to solve anti-social behaviour by moving it elsewhere are likely to be ineffective and risk worsening local tensions.

• Public spaces should be inclusive, provide opportunities for exchange and give users the ability to shape what happens there.

• It is important that local people are consulted about what they want from the public spaces in their communities if these places are to deliver their full promise.

Today the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has three inter-connected aims:

• to examine the root causes of poverty and disadvantage and identify solutions.
• to find ways in which people and communities can have control of their own lives.
• to contribute to the building and development of strong, cohesive and sustainable communities.

In addition to making grants of £6-7 million annually, the Foundation allocates £3-4 million to research on reducing poverty, empowerment and building strong cohesive communities.

Building and operating accommodation and villages remains important, with the Foundation currently leading a 540 household development in York. The Foundation is aiming to build a genuinely mixed community through good design and involving the existing community, and will bring a carbon-neutral sustainability focus including solar as a major source of electricity and heating.

In terms of place, Julia Unwin and the Foundation are particularly interested in:

• Asset-based community development – working with the strengths of communities
• Incorporating the learning from their own housing interests
• Exploring and understanding the connection between ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ approaches, and how to make real connections between policy, regulation and community decision-making processes
• Deepening understanding and knowledge about community resilience.

The Foundation’s research on the social value of public places and their Neighbourhood Programme initiative are relevant to New Zealand (more information can be found on the Foundations’website)

The Rowntree Foundation has also operated a Neighbourhood Programme testing out a 'light touch' approach to supporting 20 very different organisations working in a range of neighbourhoods. The programme evaluation found that:

• Sustainable neighbourhood-based organisations are vital to effective community engagement.
• A low level of continuous 'light touch' support can make a real difference to neighbourhood groups.

The 'light touch' support provided through the Rowntree Foundation programme illustrates the value of giving neighbourhood organisations access to:

• A facilitator: someone who is 'on their side' and to whom they can turn for ideas, support and when things go wrong
• Credit: small amounts of un-tagged money can make a big difference, particularly to smaller community groups and those just starting out
• Networking opportunities: there is a confidence and status that comes from finding out your experience is shared by others
• Help with action planning: even the smallest of community groups benefited from support to review local needs and opportunities, map out their future and reflect on past achievements and difficulties
• A broker who can mediate with other organisations and agencies if necessary and unblock and help to build relationships with power-holders.

More intensive community development support is needed where there is a long history of disadvantage, where there is a fragmented community and where there is a major change at community level, for example, resulting from urban regeneration programmes. It will also be needed where there are pockets of disadvantage in more affluent areas, which are often hidden from view, and in areas where there has been little previous investment.

Mary-Jane Rivers