Involving local people and growing assets

We now know that there are the five enablers that create system change.

Over the last few years we have been learning more about how to change systems, culture and behaviour to enable more people to be active. We have developed five enablers of change, these are actions we know need to be taken in order for change to happen.

We will continue to test and refine these enablers to develop our understanding of what needs to be in place to grow change and why. By paying attention to the five enablers of change we can better understand how change happens to enable active lives, but also use them as a framework to plan what to guide our work and shape it.

One of these enablers of change is involving local people and growing assets. 

Involving local people and growing assets

There is a need to engage and involve local people and organisations of all types and size, using asset-based approaches and co-production. This might involve the Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) sector and others in a range of ways.

This theme highlights the importance of localities identifying and building on local assets. Assets may be human, social, political, financial, cultural or natural assets.

Learning from the last four years shared in the latest evaluation and learning report (April 2023) suggests deepening the approach to facilitate community leadership (not just engagement) and for it to be meaningfully centred in strategy and governance is crucial.

Where consistent community connectors are in place, there is evidence of distributing power to the community through local participation for more appropriate and sustainable initiatives (see examples in below).

Involving local people and growing assets in action

Meaningfully engaging with local community groups through the Fit & Fed scheme and Play Streets initiative has helped Bury Council understand the success of activities to create sustainable opportunities that support active lives.

The Groundwork project was supported by the Bounce Back and Grow Fund from Rochdale Public Health for residents of Deeplish and Milkstone to newly renovate the local asset Stoneyfield Park.

Life Leisure have partnered with local residents of Brinnington to come up with new and innovative ways to get people moving, with this feedback helping to establish projects that will benefit the whole community. The creation of the That Counts in Brinnington Forum, which is made up of key partners and more importantly local residents, formed the initial idea of the Brinnington maps.

Focusing on moving beyond community involvement or engagement to really entrusting community leadership, so that initiatives are owned by the community and therefore more appropriate and sustainable, for example in Manchester through supporting residents to become community researchers in Woodhouse Park.

Learn more about what 'involving local people and growing assets' means

This short video (below) from Dr Katie Shearn, from the Local Pilot evaluation team, explains why it is important to work with local people to enable active lives in Greater Manchester.

We previously discussed how involving local people would increase local ownership and that would lead to more appropriate investment. As in the last video, due to the pandemic, and associated restrictions, local pilot leads are struggling to engage with local communities. This has required dedicated capacity to engage local people.