Community-led change created by people, not programmes

There is no community-led change without community, but what does it take to nurture a vibrant and involved one? In this blog, Georgie Burr, programme manager at Local Trust, reflects on practical lessons from the Big Local programme, drawing examples from Big Local areas to explore how investing in people and prioritising every voice, can create lasting change.

If there’s one thing I have learnt from Big Local, it’s this: no amount of funding can replace the key ingredient of community-led change – community leaders. These are the people who put the community into community-led change. And, without them, there would be very little change at all.

Genuine transformation happens when every resident has an opportunity to be heard and get involved.”

Bringing the whole community along

Since 2015, 4,900 volunteers have joined Big Local partnerships, helping to decide how £1m of funding should be used to create positive change in their communities. Importantly, at least half of each partnership had to be residents, bringing local insight and understanding of what needed to change.

But a handful of residents alone isn’t what drives change. Genuine transformation happens when every resident has an opportunity to be heard and get involved.

Prioritising everyone’s voice is a strategic position – and it isn’t the easy choice. It is not bricks and mortar. It requires consistent reflection on whose voices aren’t being heard and is hard to evaluate and quantify.

DY10 Big Local in Kidderminster is an area that took this strategic position. They focused on ‘growing people’ by investing in resident leaders, as they felt this was key to creating lasting change.  While some areas thrived by involving Councillors, DY10 consciously excluded counsellors to ensure their work was resident-led. They spent their £1m connecting people across three distinct neighbourhoods and supporting resident-led initiatives and events, and they prioritised having fun! By 2023, they had distributed over £114,000 through small grants, supporting new ideas and opportunities for collaboration. You can read more about their work on their Learning from Big Local area.

Black and white photos. Used in Democratic accountability David Boyle essay. DY10. Used in the Counterweight essay. Photo: Local Trust/Stephen Curry

Listening as a superpower

DY10 cite listening as a key factor in the change they led. This was also central to the focus of the People’s Alliance of Custom House (PEACH) in East London.

PEACH began their Big Local journey by running listening campaigns, before adopting a community organising approach. Residents were trained as organisers, and investment was made in workers to support the movement building.

This approach is not fast, but it is powerful. Through organising and sustained relationship-building, PEACH worked closely with the council to bring the management of 250 social housing properties back in-house. This reduced rents by 60 per cent and led to the refurbishment of 80 properties. And this is not all they achieved – you can read more about the focus and impact of PEACH here.

My learning from Big Local is that to enable more community-led change, we need to keep asking, will this action support people to step up and lead?”

Designing to support leadership

So how can funders and policymakers better support the skills and qualities of the people who are the keystone of community-led change?

Within the Big Local programme, enablers included the decision to centre resident decision-making from the outset, alongside long-term, unrestricted funding. This gave community leaders the freedom to lead – to follow their nose, fail and learn, and support other residents to get involved.

And there was also investment in people – supporting leaders in the same way we might support a corporate CEO – through initiatives such as the Community Leadership Academy.  

My learning from Big Local is that to enable more community-led change, we need to keep asking, will this action support people to step up and lead? And to hold in mind how we support the people who will repeatedly show up on evenings and weekends to make things happen in their community.

To find out more about Community Organising, visit Community Organisers and Citizens UK.