Reactivating Regeneration

Article from Sustain’ magazine – Vol. 5 Issue 1
www.sustainmagazine.com

Robert Deanwood, Entec UK, examines how the need for the establishment of an environmental dimension to Area Based Initiatives has prompted the establishment of a series of pilot projects that seek to use an approach to environmental enhancement, economic development, community engagement and partnership building, developed through experience in community forestry.

Area Based Initiatives (ABIs) have been established as a prime means of delivering the renewal of deprived neighbourhoods throughout England and vary widely in their character and focus. The opportunity to enhance the delivery of the environmental aspects of ABIs, and to help address issues raised on the Modernising Government agenda, has recently been taken forward through a programme of seven initiatives. Termed REACT (Regeneration through Environmental ACTion), the aim of the initiative is to integrate community forestry and its approach into existing ABIs, helping to deliver a more rounded programme of action which meets the needs of local people and business and creates an improved environment and accessible green space. This is founded on an intention detailed in the Rural White Paper (2000) where "the Government would like to see the (Community Forests) approach adopted more widely and will consider how it can be used to assist with the implementation of other regeneration, forestry and community-based initiatives."

Area based initiatives and the react project

ABIs are publicly funded initiatives targeted on areas of social or economic disadvantage, which aim to improve the quality of life of residents and/or their future life chances and those of their children. They have one or more of the following features:

• Geographically discrete, or intended to have a greater impact in some areas or regions than others;
• Partnership-based management at regional, sub-regional or local level;
• Support a number of objectives locally which are the responsibility of more than one Department;
• Established as pilot or pathfinder programmes that might ultimately be rolled out nationally.

There are 48 types of ABI. Examples include:

• SureStart – Aims to work with parents-to-be and children to promote the physical, emotional, intellectual and social development of babies and young children – particularly those who are disadvantaged – so they can flourish at home and when they get to school, and thereby break the cycle of disadvantage for the current generation of young children;
• New Deal for Communities – Aims to tackle multiple-deprivation in the poorest areas, taking forwards the Government's commitment to combat social exclusion;
• Health Action Zones – Aims to target a special effort on a number of areas where the health of local people can be improved by better integrated arrangements for treatment and care;
• Coalfields – Aims to bring about the physical, social, economic and environmental regeneration of Coalfields.

The rationale underpinning the REACT approach is that most of the existing community-based ABIs attempt to incorporate environmental regeneration alongside their specific target of health, sport etc… However, their objectives, funding and focus sometimes inhibit them from developing these links fully. Making available expertise and funding for environmentally-led regeneration is seen to have the potential to unlock this aspect and be much more cost-effective than developing a parallel project in the area to cover environmental matters.

The development of a monitoring and evaluation framework

Approximately one year into the programme, a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework has been established which seeks to track progress in each initiative and identify lessons which might be translated into practice in the future, perhaps in a more widely applied programme. The specific objectives set by the Countryside Agency for the evaluation of the REACT Programme are:

• The application of the Community Forest approach to environmental enhancement, community engagement and economic development within selected Area Based Initiatives;
• The identification of innovative ways of integrating environmental, community and economic objectives centred on the community forestry approach;
• A demonstration of the added value which REACT brings to ABIs over and above that which might have occurred;
• A demonstration of specific environmental, community and economic outputs and outcomes for REACT and how these might be carried forward into future Countryside Agency programmes;
• The identification of how the REACT approach might become self-sustaining.

As part of the M&E framework, quantitative and qualitative indicators of progress have been devised, centred on four themes of:

• Protecting and enhancing the environment;
• Meeting social needs;
• Securing economic development;
• Establishing partnerships and disseminating information.

Each of these has been connected, as shown below, to a series of project-specific indicators. Here, the relationship between high-level objectives for the programme and project-specific indicators is established, with the intention that a means by which the detail of project activity can be traced back to the objectives of the REACT programme. In doing so, the approach seeks to compile audit reports which can be used in the ready evaluation of the programme as a whole.

• High level objectives – eg: The application of the Community Forest approach to environmental enhancement, community engagement and economic development within selected Area Based Initiatives;
• Generic Evaluation Themes – eg: Protecting and enhancing the environment;
• Generic Evaluation Questions – eg: How has environmental improvement in the target area been achieved?
• Generic Indicators – eg: Greenspaces created/access improved;
• Project-Specific Indicators – eg: Increase in use of local green space/outdoors by parents and children.

REACT projects have been established with a wide variety of objectives, developed according to local priorities, and have been running for approximately a year. A number of initial conclusions of the M&E exercise can be drawn which illustrate the way in which REACT projects have been operating. Indicators of activity, such as tree planting, community engagement and the preparation of funding bids, reveal burgeoning activity across all seven REACT projects. Whilst these tangible changes are not used as measures of success per se, they represent demonstrable progress in securing a more liveable environment for residents of the seven project areas.

The establishment of partnership working, bringing together a diverse range of interests under the aspirations for environmental enhancement, represents a more profound and potentially more enduring legacy. In a number of cases, REACT projects have sought and are delivering multiple outputs, combining community planting with job-training opportunities, and strategic planting with regeneration, for example.

REACT project officers are acting as a source of advice and guidance to local community groups, helping to engender community ownership of project aspirations and practice. Whilst REACT projects have been established with modest initial budgets, they seek additional funding to implement or enhance particular programmes of work, and here there has been demonstrable success, despite challenges remaining in securing funding beyond their three-year pilot phase

For further info, contact: Gary Charlton or Simon Murray, Countryside Around Towns Team, The Countryside Agency: 01242 521381

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