Neighbourhood and community empowerment can improve wellbeing, says new report

A new report from the Local Wellbeing Project shows how neighbourhood and community empowerment can improve wellbeing.

The Wellbeing Project is jointly led by:

• the Young Foundation
• the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA)
• Professor Lord Richard Layard, from the London School of Economic's (LSE’s) Centre for Economic Performance (CEP).

The report, 'Neighbourliness + Empowerment = Wellbeing: is there a formula for happy communities?, examines how active citizenship can contribute to wellbeing by investigating empowerment initiatives in three very different local authorities: Hertfordshire, Manchester and South Tyneside.

The report finds that neighbourhood and community empowerment has three effects which increase wellbeing. These are:

• providing greater opportunities for residents to influence decisions affecting their neighbourhoods
• facilitating regular contact between neighbours
• helping residents gain the confidence to exercise control.

Geoff Mulgan, director of the Young Foundation comments: 'Over the past 30 years, the UK’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has doubled, but we have seen no corresponding increase in people’s reported happiness. But, happiness – or wellbeing – is not just determined by income. It is influenced by a complex mix of factors, ranging from family relationships and job satisfaction, to the character of our neighbourhood.'

According to Lucy de Groot, Executive Director at the IDeA: 'Local government and other public bodies are often responsible for issues and services that affect quality of life for local residents. People feel very strongly about things like local crime, green spaces, and leisure facilities, but a lot of the time they are beyond their control. Councils need to work with local people to involve them in the community – and this report shows the effect of very practical initiatives on wellbeing. Relatively simple ideas – like street parties, suggestion and awards schemes, can have a surprising impact.'

The report represents one of several strands of work developed through the Local Wellbeing Project. Others include:

These issues will be explored at the Local Wellbeing Conference on 9 September at the QEII Centre in London. The Local Wellbeing Conference will take place on 9 September at the QEII Centre in London. This ground-breaking conference will showcase the work of the Local Wellbeing Project and will feature key speakers such as James Purnell MP, Sir Richard Layard, Geoff Mulgan, Lucy de Groot and Dr Martin Seligman.

Key findings of the report

• Building social networks and encouraging neighbourly contact are important outcomes of empowerment. Even though this is difficult to measure, they should be valued and resourced.
• Empowerment initiatives that are action focused and allow citizens to make a tangible difference to their neighbourhoods are often more rewarding than empowerment activities that involve attending public meetings or council meetings.
• For most residents, being empowered requires significant barriers to be broken between them and ‘distant’ decision makers, who can seem inaccessible and ‘out of touch’ with what is happening within neighbourhoods.
• Some of the most important skills for staff in public institutions revolve around building relationships with citizens. Often this role can be confined to community workers – it needs to be mainstreamed.

About the Local Wellbeing Project
The Local Wellbeing Project is an innovative three-year initiative jointly led by the Young Foundation, the Improvement and Development Agency, and Professor Lord Richard Layard from the LSE’s Centre for Economic Performance. The project is aimed at testing out practical ways of improving public wellbeing in three very different areas of the UK – Hertfordshire, Manchester and South Tyneside. This work remains the most comprehensive exercise to date on public policy from a wellbeing perspective.