Neighbourhood Workers Project

Below is a brief description of one of our current contracts;

Newmanfrancis is currently supporting the PEP Trust to roll out the â€˜Residents as Neighbourhood Workers programmeâ€™. Alicia Francis in her previous role as Director of the PEP Trust recently completed an exciting pilot programme, working with housing associations and local authorities to employ and train residents as community and tenant participation workers.

Residents employed as Neighbourhood Workers within their communities play an important role in empowering local people and enabling them to influence service delivery and neighbourhood regeneration.

With their unique understanding of their community and its concerns, and their ability to tap into local networks, residents as neighbourhood workers can provide an important â€˜bridgeâ€™ between landlords, service providers and residents, facilitating communication and engagement, building trust and acting as catalysts for sustainable community activity and service improvements.

The â€˜Residents as Neighbourhood Workersâ€™ programme was independently evaluated by Bristol University and was found to have:

improved community relations and resulted in greater social cohesion on the estates
resulted in greater engagement of BME residents in those areas where services were being delivered to BME residents
resulted in more residents involved in decision-making processes on their estates
resulted in a significant recorded drop in anti-social behaviour incidents two areas
developed stronger relationships between landlords and their communities
brought in additional resources to several of the communities
improved joint working between landlords, the community and other agencies
improved the reporting of housing management and anti social behaviour issues and enabled landlords to respond more quickly to emerging difficulties
resulted in better informed housing management and investment decisions

The pilot programmeâ€™s results clearly demonstrate the potential of Neighbourhood Workers to contribute to the current housing and regeneration agenda:

They provide a â€˜home grownâ€™ resource for empowering communities and creating a local voice which can influence local service provision and drive up standards.
They can be a resource to support community cohesion initiatives, building on their understanding of the dynamics of their local community and their ability to build intergenerational and cross cultural relationships based on trust, mutual respect and a common agenda.
They can provide a community development resource to support communities in transition on large scale regeneration and housing development projects
- They can provide a focal point for partnership working based on a resident-led agenda
- The programme is consistent with the concept of â€˜resident to resident learningâ€™ promoted by the Guide Neighbourhood Project and encapsulated in the revised tenant management arrangements.
As well as being a resource for local communities and neighbourhoods, Residents as Neighbourhood Workers also provides a clear route to employment for residents in social housing, creating local role models and fostering a working culture.

NewmanFrancis

98 Gibbins Road

Stratford

London

E15 2HU

Tel: 020 8536 1436
administrator@newmanfrancis.org