News
Sharing Power with Residents — Barking and Dagenham’s Resident’s Panel
John Burgoyne from the Centre for Public Impact, talks about the value of working with residents who are making decisions about how to distribute a Neighbourhood Fund for local projects.
The panel, brought together through this opportunity, debates serious topics, such as what type of support women who have experienced violence need. While the conversations can become quite intense, the panel is remarkably empathetic — relating to the community group, those they seek to help, and each other.
This process really works to give residents a voice in their own neighbourhood. I’ve recently been involved in setting up something similar in Newton Ayecliffe, with Livin Housing providing the funding via the Reaching Committees fund and with the local police acting as fundholder.
There are numerous other examples like this around the country, but more often than not they are supported by housing associations. It is much less common for a Council to take this approach, giving residents actual, rather than cursory decision making powers.