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Ten Ideas for Change: the best of 2013

changesmallIt’s been a year of innovation and change for local economies and communities as they sought new ideas to create jobs, revitalise democracy and alleviate poverty. Here’s the best from our Ten Ideas for Change series:

1. COMMUNITY-SUPPORTED INDUSTRIES: The Schumacher Centre has published a white paper with steps towards the creation of community supported industry. It would work in a similar way to Community Supported Agriculture but for other types of local production, from furniture factories to renewable energy companies, community-supported bakeries or any small-scale local business. From Ten Ideas for Change: Local growth and resilience

2. LOCAL ENDOWMENT FUNDS Julian Dobson called for a Local Endowment Fund that could invest in people-centred approaches to regeneration. Focused on the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods, the fund would be available to community-led organisations and social landlords working at neighbourhood level to draw down when they need it, in order to fund local action that is innovative and that helps share learning. Read more here.

3. INVESTING IN LOCAL PEOPLE: Jim McMahon, the leader of Oldham Council, has created an investment framework for the town, including a job guarantee for young people, and is using the assets already in the town – its land banks and social capital – to co-create a brighter future. ‘Oldham belongs to its people. The primary responsibility comes from them. We all need to roll our sleeves up and do better’, he said. From Ten Ideas for Change in Local Government.

4. A NEIGHBOURHOOD MATCHING FUND: Set up by the local government in Seattle in the 1970s the fund is available to communities to use for local project, as long as they match the funds in voluntary labour and time. It has now funded more than 3000 projects and has helped create a deeper, more participative, democracy in the city. As Jim Diers says: ‘Amazing things come from communities that never would have come from a bureaucratic institution’, including a huge troll sculpture in a former run-down area which has since become a tourist attraction. Read more here.fremonttroll

5. GIFTING EMPTY SPACES TO THE COMMUNITY: What happened when a 14,000 square food warehouse in San Francisco was leased to the local community for one dollar? Or when a former tobacco factory in Madrid earmarked for development was handed over to the community in the meantime? There’s hundreds of projects using empty shops and buildings for creative change but these two show what can be achieved when the idea is taken to scale. From Ten Ideas for Change: The Sharing Economy

Solar Panels6. STANDING UP TO LOCAL CORPORATE MONOPOLIES: Enfield Council realised that its best hope for its local economy was to challenge local corporates – utilities and supermarkets – to do more to support and create local jobs. So, ‘we called in the six utilities and read them the riot act’, according to Enfield councillor Alan Sitkin. British Gas was one of the most responsive and has since signed a £10m contract for retrofit of insulation in the area and plans to hire 100 Enfield school leavers. The council’s next targets are the big banks, with plans for a speed-dating event to get small and medium–sized businesses connected with a bank that will loan to them. From Local Economic Experiments (subscribers only).

7. EVALUATING THE POTENTIAL OF RELOCALISING FOR GROWTH The Reconomy project from the Transition Town network has published economic blueprints of a number of areas, showing the true potential of a new local economy. In Totnes the evaluation found that diverting just 10% of away from food imports and towards local food would boost local businesses by £2m. From Ten Ideas for Change: Local Growth and Resilience

8. IMPROVING FOOD ACCESS: Food poverty is growing in many areas and good quality fruit and vegetables are no longer locally available at an affordable price. East London Food Access co-ordinates and supports eight fresh produce stalls located on estates and primary schools across Hackney. Volunteers help older people carry their bags home and the organisation is conducting research into the best ways to support those facing food poverty and developing collaborative buying groups. It is tackling head-on the stranglehold of supermarkets on food distribution. From Ten Ideas for Change: East London

9. DEVELOPING COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP IN SUNDERLAND: In Sunderland a Community Leadership model is at the heart of the city’s future plans. It is building a more collaborative local economics, that strengthens the connections between elected members and the communities they serve, and combines public service reform with local growth. Its new programme includes plans to prioritise support for SMEs in the area and to encourage entrepreneurialism among its population. From Local Economic Experiments (subscribers only).

10. MOVING FROM SCARCITY TO ABUNDANCE: elospic3The Oasis game starts with the premise that a community has an abundance of resources and capabilities and just needs to unleash a sense of play and the power to create. The idea has been uniting and transforming places across the world. ‘The attitude of scarcity is probably the starting point for multiple crises’, says the founder of Elos, Niels Koldewijn. ‘Abundance is the assumption that we already have what we need, we just need to meet together and create what we want.’ Read more here.

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