Community ResponsesLondon Civic Forum

Working for the London Civic Forum, we piloted a new approach to addressing persistent community issues, placing residents at the centre of the approach. Every community has at least one problem which time and again, no matter what statutory services have done or how much money is spent, refuses to go away. Anti-social behaviour is a good example of this, but the list is both long and varied.

“Community responses” is an alternative approach to failing or unsustainable service based responses. It is a form of co-production where residents are encouraged to take the lead in defining their issues, designing solutions and, with help from service providers, implementing action plans and responses. By placing residents at the centre of the process we are better able to get to the heart of the issues, identifying and addressing causes, not symptoms, and enabling residents to engender sustainable change.