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Posted on 17 Feb 2022 Categories: Related Tags:

Demonstrate don’t dictate: Bournville 125 and a new settlement

As we lurch from one unprecedented crisis to another, it’s easy to conclude that the many problems we currently face can only be managed. The best we can hope... Read More

The Janette Kirton-Darling Memorial Prize on BBC Politics North

The Janette Kirton-Darling Memorial Prize was featured on the BBC Politics North programme, including winners Chopwell Regeneration Group. For more information on the night, you can download the event brochure here.... Read More

Chopwell Regeneration Group wins the Janette Kirton-Darling Memorial Prize

At a ceremony held at the Cathedral in Newcastle upon Tyne on 30 November 2022, the first prize of the Janette Kirton-Darling Memorial Prize was awarded to Chopwell Regeneration... Read More

Dwellbeing Shieldfield

The final applicant for the Janette Kirton-Darling Memorial Prize, Dwellbeing Shieldfield, is a community cooperative in the East of Newcastle. Members of the cooperative share life together, support one... Read More

Chopwell Regeneration Group (CRG)

The five applicants for the Janette Kirton-Darling Memorial Prize have so far focused on what local people can do to solve specific problems in our society – improving the... Read More

Citizens Advice Newcastle

The fifth applicant for the Janette Kirton-Darling Memorial Prize is Citizens Advice Newcastle. This is a small, independent charity providing free, confidential and independent advice to people who live,... Read More

International Community Organisation of Sunderland

The fourth application for the Janette Kirton-Darling Memorial Prize continues the focus on race and identity, this time with an emphasis on migration. The International Community Organisation of Sunderland... Read More

Racial Justice in Education Action Team

In the first two applications for the Janette Kirton-Darling Memorial Prize, we saw the power of local people to affect issues that affect them. In one case, the result... Read More

Even Better CIC Jarrow

Even Better, based in Jarrow, the second applicant for the Janette Kirton-Darling Memorial Prize, has a powerful way of addressing the problem of mental health. The approach harnesses the... Read More

Mums making a difference

Local people complain that they are ignored by politicians until election time. Then, they are wooed with all sorts of promises to improve their lives. Such behaviour causes much... Read More

Recognising the value of community organising

The past five years of working on the place-based funding programme, Empowering Places, has opened my eyes to the benefits of community organising. One of the themes that has... Read More

Local government at the heart of a just transition

As the energy price cap rises today, CLES Senior Researcher, Ellie Radcliffe, reflects on her recent visit to the Apse Big Energy Summit and considers the role of local authorities in balancing... Read More

The Democracy of Consumers is dying. Now we must build a Democracy of Citizens

This piece on a ‘Democracy of Citizens’ is #8 in the ‘Visions for the Future of Democracy’ series curated by Involve for its 15th anniversary. We have asked authors to... Read More

Citizen-led renovation: climate policy’s secret weapon?

Citizen-led retrofitting, long the poor relation of climate policy, could now be its secret weapon in accelerating rapid transition. Home renovation through the citizen-led model is making breakthroughs from... Read More

The 51%: Gender equality at the heart of a more inclusive economy

What if gender equality was at the heart of local plans for a more inclusive economy? Efforts to rebuild and recover economic prosperity in a time of crisis often... Read More

Climate action support for community business

Power to Change has been a major funder of community-led climate action over recent years, with as much as 25% of our funding supporting community business climate action, including our CORE and Next Generation energy programmes. Our mission... Read More

How can local people take action on things that matter to them?

How can local people build control and take action on things that matter to them? Our research shows that there are five main components of collective control: social connectedness;... Read More

Janette Kirton-Darling Memorial Prize

The Prize The Janette Kirton-Darling Memorial Prize will be awarded to an organisation that has demonstrated outstanding leadership, creativity and impact in developing a local community initiative developing effective... Read More

Realising a community-powered transition to net zero

IPPR North and partners Scottish Power this week launched their new report on Net zero places and developing a community-led response to the climate crisis. The report argues that... Read More

Shaping Our Future: a Wellbeing Framework for the North of Tyne

Earlier this week (Tuesday 25th January), the North of Tyne Cabinet endorsed the recommendations of a report by the Roundtable on Wellbeing in the North of Tyne and, in doing so, committed... Read More

Plymouth Octopus is a cosmolocal CAN in action

As we know from long experience, Plymouth is a world-class powerhouse of social and civic enterprise – and it’s richly demonstrated in the Plymouth Octopus latest newsletter. POP (as... Read More

The brave: delivering community wealth in Scotland

At the close of the 2021 Community Wealth Building Summit, we reflect on remarks by our opening keynote speaker Tom Arthur MSP and the work that CLES has undertaken... Read More

What can we do to ensure decent, affordable housing?

New Podcast: How can we ensure decent, affordable housing? This episode of the Anti-Apathy Aunt podcast hosted by Deborah Doane, welcomed Gill Hughes from #thehullwewant, alongside Osama Bhutta from Shelter, responding to... Read More

Lessons from a citizens’ jury on climate change

With COP 26 starting in Glasgow on 31st October 2021, we have brought together the recommendations from six citizens’ juries and assemblies run by Shared Future over the last... Read More

Community power campaign says We’re Right Here

The politics of localism is shifting and developing, at all levels. We hear about a new national campaign being launched in the last few days. The We’re Right Here campaign is... Read More

A community wealth building energy transition

On the eve of COP26, and with the challenges we face in tackling the climate crisis becoming ever more apparent, CLES and Carbon Co-op today release a major new toolkit for councils,  a... Read More

Glasgow and its appetite for green community business

While the COP focus is on Glasgow, and the Scottish central belt, we thought we’d share some vibrant local Glasgow initiatives and community business that address zero-waste shopping, and... Read More

The place of place – Carnegie UK and wellbeing

For over 100 years Carnegie UK has worked on place-making in different guises – as funder, as researcher and evaluator and as an advocate. In our new strategy –... Read More

How local authorities can help deliver climate justice

In recognition of today’s Global Climate Strike and Fridays for Future’s demand for intersectional climate justice, CLES’s Ellie Radcliffe explores the role of local authorities in the UK in... Read More

5 Routes to Community Power

Adam Lent and Jessica Studdert look at the practical ways to make community power an everyday practice, not just a long-term ambition. How can community power be embedded in... Read More

How Community Brain is transforming Tolworth

Tell us about Tolworth, and why it was important to work there? Robin Hutchinson (Community Brain founder): Tolworth is in Southwest London. It’s part of the borough of Kingston-upon-Thames. It’s... Read More

The IPCC report and beyond: Talking Points on the state of our planet

August is often dubbed the silly season, but this one has been packed with momentous events: the publication of the latest IPCC report, the chaotic exit from Afghanistan, and... Read More

Can community wealth building scale up?

Probably the key challenge for all those committed to progressive causes is how we scale up from the multitude of creative initiatives taking place locally. ‘At local level, we... Read More

Talking Points reflects on our post-pandemic future

What does the experience of Euro 2020 and its aftermath tell us about the state of England today, and about the outlook of the younger generation as we emerge,... Read More

Citizens Assemblies: fashionable focus groups or the great hopes of democracy?

Newham citizens assembly Newham, the East London borough: home to the 2012 Olympics, birthplace of Danny Dyer and the most ethnically diverse place in England and Wales. Soon Newham... Read More

Orwell Youth Prize Winners: Starting Small by Creating Norfolk Wetlands

A NEW DIRECTION: STARTING SMALL BY CREATING NORFOLK WETLANDS “A powerful and original interpretation of this years’ theme, drawing the link between the local environment and the climate and... Read More

Young people and inequalities: start from where they’re at

Even before the pandemic, young people in the UK faced many forms of inequality: a lack of jobs, a shortage of affordable housing, and cuts to public services –... Read More

Local elections 2021: Ideas for new administrations

Economic recovery from COVID-19 will be a long and painful process. When the pandemic struck, we at CLES argued for a new common-sense approach to economic development based on the... Read More

What does Covid-19 mean for the inclusive growth agenda?

What’s the role of inclusive growth in recovering from crisis? It’s easy to see as a ‘nice-to-have’, but can be at the centre of helping us build back better.... Read More

Talking Points reflects on the 2021 local elections

The results of May’s 2021 local elections will have dismayed those who care about progressive causes, as showcased in Rethinking Poverty. But can we learn anything from them about... Read More

Community food systems should be part of the new normal

With last year’s long queues and supply issues at supermarkets, the Covid pandemic has made us all re-examine how we get our groceries and where they come from. But... Read More

Vermont democracy conducted at a human scale

Other than being Bernie Sanders’ Congressional seat, we have picked up at A/UK on the singular qualities of the state of Vermont – as a “laboratory for democracy”, in... Read More

Talking Points looks at the future of work

As the UK takes further steps towards ending the restrictions of lockdown, April’s Talking Points looks at what the pandemic has meant for the future of work and what... Read More

Three lessons from Bogota on making cities safer for women

In the UK, Sarah Everard’s murder has prompted debate around women’s safety, with 80% of women of all ages having been sexually harassed in public spaces. In Bogota, work is being... Read More

Cities must cut their ‘consumption emissions’ – here’s how

Almost every city now has some form of climate target. For instance Manchester, in northern England, aims to be zero carbon by 2038. But such targets generally focus on emissions... Read More

Powering social value through recovery

On 11th March, we released our yearly analysis of the contribution that Manchester City Council’s procurement spend makes to the city’s economy and how it can support the achievement of wider... Read More

The repair café: what can we learn from it?

Covid-19 has brought about a renewed interest in the community – of which the repair café is increasingly a part. With few other places to go, our immediate surroundings... Read More

Glasgow locals demand an eco-housing and sustainable energy development

When we exalt the power of the local, sometimes we mean really local. We were alerted to this stirring Glasgow story this week. A patch of ground in the... Read More

Local innovations to solve the problems that matter

The COVID-19 pandemic, with its many challenges has tested our ability to innovate. Many of us associate the idea of innovation with bright, new objects or processes, and this... Read More

Talking Points: February 2021

February’s Talking Points is inevitably focused on the climate crisis and the crisis of poverty and equality. Following the Chancellor’s budget announcement, what can we hope for? In both... Read More

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