As part of the delivery of a two year Leonardo Transfer of Innovation project, a team from West Midlands based housing association, the Accord Group, has been helping communities across Europe to have a say on everything from redesigning public squares to developing revitalisation strategies for towns and districts.
The Planning for Real Team travelled to Poland, France, Turkey and Italy to support their newly trained European partners to deliver pilot projects using Planning for Real® which has resulted in local communities being engaged and empowered to become more involved in their communities.
The Planning for Real® methodology is renowned in the UK as an effective community planning process which puts local people at the forefront enabling them to put their views forward and to get involved in the local decision making process. Based on a 3D model community members work alongside agencies to identify priorities and develop an action plan for change.
Margaret Wilkinson, Head of Planning for Real Unit, said: “We’ve been successfully rolling out this European funded Leonardo project for two years now, but to expand it outside the UK has been very significant for us. Participative working practices have not been the norm across Europe where traditionally communities have been less involved in local decision making.”
“We were very well received in the four countries in which we’ve been working. Particular highlights included our Italian partners who successfully brought together a group of local residents who transformed a public square in Rome that had gone into disrepair and was renowned for criminal activity.”
Throughout the project the targets for the numbers of people engaged in the project were exceeded. The wider impact of the project has been even more impressive, with examples of communities becoming mobilised and taking collective community action along with key regional and national stakeholders committing to the Planning for Real principles, as a future ‘best practice’ approach to community engagement.
