What does the Big Society mean for east London?

08Sep10

Back in July we held a Stronger Communities, Bigger Society meeting with the Chain Reaction network to discuss the opportunities and threats posed by the Big Society, and to share practical ideas on how we can create stronger, more collaborative communities.

At this meeting of around 50 people from the worlds of business, community and government, we also co-designed a paper outlining the values that we believe should underpin any work undertaken by Big Society. Since then, we have been busy waving this co-designed paper under as many noses in central government as possible – and while we have received a warm response to the ideas, to date there has been no ‘official response’ to the paper itself.

However, this comes as no real surprise.  There is still no clear agreement on what the Big Society actually is (see David Wilcox’s recent blog post ‘There is no Big Society Big Plan – and that’s no bad thing’), and there has been very little obvious ‘Big Society’ action forthcoming from central government, or indeed the Big Society Network.

As David says in his blog post ‘There is no plan. No one is in charge. You don’t have to ask permission. If you can, just do it’.  Basically, it is up to us as communities to decide for ourselves what Big Society means, and what we are going to do. (See Big Society in the North for an excellent example of a self-organised discussion and idea sharing network around Big Society).

As a community organisation that has worked for over 30 years in the Newham and Tower Hamlets, we at Community Links have been starting to engage with local businesses and community groups to think about what Big Society could mean for us in east London – a part of the country that will see huge regeneration over the coming few years, while at the same having such disparate levels of opportunity for the people living and working here.

Existing challenges in the area include high levels of poverty, high crime rates, and a large number of the population with no qualifications (see more) – challenges that run the risk of being exacerbated in coming years with added issues such as falling public services, rising taxes, and increasing unemployment. Yet at the same time we benefit from a young, diverse population brimming with creativity and enterprise.

What we want to explore is, in this age of austerity, is it possible to collaborate together as a community to create a practical plan of action that engages local community organisations, businesses, young people and local authorities in the delivery of healthier, more resilient, stronger communities in east London?

These thoughts and ideas will form the basis of the next Chain Reaction event –to be held in February 2011, and over the coming months, we will be investigating practical ideas and sharing thoughts and best practice from other communities around the UK.

To join the conversation keep an eye on this blog and the network, and please use the tag #cr11

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Tags: action plan, austerity, big society, Big Society Network, big society north, bsitnorth, chain reaction event, Collaborate, community links, creativity, david wilcox, east london, enterprise, newham, stronger communities, tower hamlets, values