Community cohesion in a recession?

As the sad fallout of the current financial meltdown once again starts to affect the poorest, most vulnerable and most excluded communities, councils may be looking to past experience to see how best to use their increasingly tightly-guarded resources for best community impact.

ADEPT was active through the last recession, and has a fund of knowledge and expertise on combining employment help, practical training and community development on a shoestring.

Improving community cohesion brings its own rewards. It's also well aligned with the govenrment's drives towards local empowerment. And it may offer one of the few effective means of seeking to minimse the rise in crime that so often accompanies a downturn.

To talk through possible approaches that might suit your communities, contact ADEPT

Annual conference fireworks!

A change to the format ADEPT's Annual General Meeting this year included a debating conference made up of over 50 policy makers, elected Councillors and key members of the Voluntary and Community sectors from across the West Midlands region.

The event focused around a debate, with the theme: Empowerment - Spin or Substance? Two distinguished guests proposed some thoughts on the greater priority given to community empowerment through national and local governments.

Joy Warmington, Chief Executive of b:RAP (Birmingham Race Action Partnership) suggested that the recent government proposals fall short of giving people real power. And John Grayson from Sheffield Hallam University and AdED Knowledge Co outlined how independent research has demonstrated that involvement and engagement in terms of numbers of community groups has actually declined.

Use these links to read Joy's speech or John's speech
ADEPT's report of the debate is available too.

Watch a short video report on some of ADEPT's community cohesion work with Government Office for the West Midlands: