citizen power peterborough report

8/6/2019 Citizen Power Peterborough Report

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Citizen Powerin Peterborough:one year on

Rachel OBrienJuly 2011


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Citizen Power in Peterborough: one year on

Contents

The Citizen Power partnership 3

Acknowledgements 4

Foreword 5

Citizen Power 6

Arts and Social Change 8

Sustainable Citizenship 12

Recovery Capital 14

Peterborough Curriculum 17

Civic Commons 20

ChangeMakers 23

Changing Peterboroughs culture 25


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2

The RSA in

partnership with


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The Citizen Power partnership

According to the National Oce oStatistics, Peterboroughs populationin mid 009 stood at ,00 people.Peterborough has an ethnically diverse

population and this continues to changedisproportionately compared to thepicture nationally.1

Peterborough City Council is aunitary authority providing all localgovernment services or the city andsurrounding areas. Working throughthe local strategic partnership theGreater Peterborough Partnership (GPP)

its vision is o Peterborough as theurban centre o a thriving sub-regionalcommunity o villages and markettowns and as a healthy, sae and exciting

place to live, work and visit, amous asthe Environmental Capital o the UK.GPP is developing a Single DeliveryPlan: a ve year plan to transormpublic services, within which the CitizenPower programme will be embeddedas a vehicle or delivering changewith residents.

The RSA is an enlightenmentorganisation committed to nding

innovative practical solutions totodays social challenges. Throughits ideas, research and ,000-strongFellowship it seeks to understand and

enhance human capability so we canclose the gap between todays realityand peoples hopes or a better world.Citizen Power is one o the RSAs mostambitious programmes, all o which putenlightened thinking to work in practicalways. By researching, designing andtesting new social models, RSA projectsaim to encourage a more inventive,resourceul and ullled society.

The Arts Council England aimsto deliver great art or everyone. Itworks to support talent and develop

creative skills, build world-class artsacilities and raise the prole o thearts. It believes by enabling artists, artsorganisations and investment partnersin the region to work together, it canhelp the region to oer excellent artsopportunities that engage more peopleand enhance economic growth.

Citizen Power Peterborough waslaunched in 00 and is a partnership

between a pioneering think tank(RSA), an ambitious local authority(Peterborough City Council) and aninfuential arts body (Arts Council

England). It represents a new approacto exploring how the renewal o civicactivism and community action mighimprove attachment and networksbetween people, build local participaand cultivate public service innovatio

. Quoted in Saer Peterborough Partneship Adult Drug Needs Assessment 2010/11

Saer Peterborough 0.

Policymakers should read this report and learn rom RSAs Citizen Power work in Peterborough:

its ocus on mobilising people to work together and support themselves is bold and impressive

David Halpern, Head o Behaviour Insight Team, Number 10 Policy Unit


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4

Special thanks to Peterborough CityCouncil and Arts Council England,whose investment in local citizen-ledchange and social innovation has made

the Citizen Power programme possible.Thanks also to those organisations

who have provided valuable support orthe programme, including the EsmeeFairbairn Foundation, the Tudor Trust,the Department or Communitiesand Local Government, and CrossKeys Homes.

Thanks to the Citizen Power team andRSA sta and Fellows, whose initiativeand commitment underpin the CitizenPower programme.

Most importantly, thanks to those

individuals, groups and organisationswho are leading the citizen power trans-ormation on the ground in Peterborough.

Acknowledgements


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As well as being a great place to live,work or visit, Peterborough aces sometough choices in the coming years.

Peterborough City Council must

rise to the challenge o reduced publicspending, while continuing to providea wide range o well regarded services tothose that live in the Peterborough area.In common with other cities, we musttackle many entrenched problems, romanti-social behaviour to increasing levelso obesity, at the same time as risingto newer challenges such as climatechange and the increased pressureson social care.

But we do have options. We couldprovide limited services, become inward

looking and risk losing condence inour ideals while we wait or business toreturn to normal again. Or, we couldtry to do things very dierently; bringnew thinking and sources o undingto the city as we look to work moreclosely with our communities and theindividuals living within them.

We have decided to play to ourstrengths and chosen the latter. We have

developed a ve-year strategy theSingle Delivery Plan to help us respondto the challenges ahead. This will haveclear priorities or action, embrace

innovation and tackle the root causeso some o our main issues. Working inpartnership will give us a much strongerchance o success.

Citizen Power speaks to all o theseelements. It brings new thinking andways o working and is ocused onpermanent culture change. By buildingstronger partnerships with local people,the aim is to help them solve the issuesthat they care about in their ownneighbourhoods.

As a local authority we must change

too. I we are to help people to useCitizen Power to successully tackle theissues that aect them, then we need tothink and act dierently too.

This was the challenge the RSAset us. How do we enable people todo more, giving them the skills andresources to act? A year in and we arenot just beginning to answer someo these questions, but we are also

placing Citizen Power at the hearto how we carry out the business olocal government.

We welcome the opportunity this

report provides to look at our succesand share our long-term aims morewidely. For us personally however,this is about long-term change in theculture o our city and about civic prWe believe that even though times arehard or many people, we were rightto embrace new thinking and seek neways o engaging local people. We hothat in a short space o time, other ciwill look to Peterborough as a shininexample o how ordinary people werable to embrace citizen power and

have a much bigger say in the runningo their city. A very bold ambition orany local authority.

Gillian Beasley, Chie Executive,Peterborough City Council

Marco Cereste, Leader o theCouncil, Peterborough City Council

Foreword


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6

Publics help needed to stop street boozer

Police are urging Peterborough residents

to help them tackle a chronic street

boozer they have branded a persistent

public menace.

[A local PC] said: We have done

all we can to get him away rom this

damaging behaviour. We have tried to put

him onto alcohol treatment programmes,

we have ound him somewhere to live and

worked with Peterborough Streets to nd

a solution but nothing has worked.

We need the public to let us know

what he is doing. I we could get read-

ers opinions on how he should be dealt

with we would be happy to hear rommembers o the public as to how they

eel he should be treated.

Peterborough Evening Telegraph,

June 0

This extract is rom a news story thatappeared in Peterboroughs EveningTelegraph in late June 0. The local

police and other agencies, having run

out o options, turned to Peterboroughresidents or local intelligence about themans movements and their views onwhat should be done. Interventions involving health, housing and criminaljustice services have not worked. The litre bottles o cider do not help.The cost o responding to the stringo complaints to police, the callsor ambulances that have been made inthe last year by concerned members othe public, the ailed accommodationand treatment must run into thousands

o pounds.So the -year-old man a ather,

homeless person and public nuisance,who appears to suer rom chronic alco-hol addiction and mental health prob-lems has his name and picture carriedon the ront page o his local paper. Thisapproach to public engagement raisesserious ethical concerns; not least owhich is the potential additional risks

that this young man could now ace.

His story also throws into sharp reliesome o the broader issues that inormthe Citizen Power programme; it rais-es important and dicult questionsabout the limits o public services andcitizens role in responding to the moreintractable and major challenges acingour communities.

The online discussion that ollowedthe article ranged rom the cruel to thecompassionate, interspersed with ideasor practical action. There was outragethat taxpayers money was being spent

on services to respond to this youngmans needs, and outrage that the polichave asked local people or help when,as one person put it, It is not the jobo the public to get involved.

The Citizen Power programmeaims to instigate a change in cultureand behaviour so that Peterboroughresidents see it as their job to getinvolved, understand that the local

Citizen Power

Citizen Power is one o the best projects on civic renewal to have emerged in recent years. Unlike

a lot o think tank work, Citizen Power is creating change rather than only talking about it

Peter John, Proessor o Governance and Co-Director o Institute or Political and Economic Governance,University o Manchester


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state and services cannot go it alone,and take an active part in civic lie.Whether tackling anti-social behaviouror substance abuse, encouraging greenerhabits or participation in schools, orstrengthening the citys cultural lie,Citizen Power is working to increasethe capacity o Peterborough residentsto play a bigger part in shaping the

uture o their services, city andneighbourhoods.

Mid-project, this report takes stocko progress to date; it is not intended tobe a ormal review. It aims to summarisethe activity that has taken place, high-light some o the challenges that theprogramme has encountered andoutline its next steps. It is based on theprogrammes written outputs to dateand a series o discussions with someo the key people involved.

Since 00 Citizen Power hasbeen a working partnership betweena pioneering think tank (RSA), an am-

bitious local authority (PeterboroughCity Council) and an infuentialnational arts body (Arts Council).It represents one o the most ambitiousand complex projects in the RSAs-year history, aiming not just to betransormative or Peterborough but todevelop evidence and models that canbe replicated elsewhere.

The RSA is committed to ndinginnovative practical solutions to todayssocial challenges with an emphasis onunderstanding and enhancing human

capability, in order to close the gapbetween todays reality and peopleshopes or a better world. The CitizenPower programme provides an excitingopportunity to take some o the RSAsbest ideas and projects and apply themall in one city.

There is a range o dierent waysor local government to respond to thediculties o meeting the immediate

needs o people and tackling longer-term threats such as climate change ata time o austerity. Peterborough CityCouncil has opted or a strategy that setsclear priorities, emphasises innovation,seeks to tackle the root causes othe citys problems and acilitatespartnership working.

Underpinning all o this is a comm-

itment to using the citys resources moreeciently and eectively. In ocusingon the responsibility o the citizensto play their part and the states rolein enabling them to do so, the CitizenPower programme seeks to unlock thehidden wealth o citizens capabilitiesand commitment to help create abetter city. The programme includes sixstrands o work; all addressing prioritiesidentied by the local authority andPeterborough residents: Arts and Social Change ChangeMakers Civic Commons Peterborough Curriculum Sustainable Citizenship Recovery Capital

These strands represent a work inprogress. One year into the programme,much o the ocus has been on buildingtrust and partnerships in dicult socialand economic conditions. As well asthe practical action set out here, oneo its aims has been to generate debateand discussion, leveraging in new unds

and acting as a catalyst or changeon the ground.

The programme which continuesto the summer o 0 will have costPeterborough City Council and the ArtsCouncil 0,000. Citizen Power has: Leveraged in over 00,000 to

Peterborough; Involved over 00 people; Generated over 000 web hits between

January and June 0; and Published nine major outputs

(including this one).

This report summarises each o theprogrammes separate strands. It thenoutlines overall progress, highlightingwork that is taking place to embedCitizen Power in Peterboroughsstructures and culture and someo the challenges and action ahead.

Citizen Power hasleveraged in nearly

700,000to Peterborough


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8

The RSAs Arts and Society work seeks

to develop a stronger account o the rolethe arts can play in improving socialoutcomes. A fourishing arts communityis good or people giving us accessto creative experiences and stretchingour imaginations and good or localeconomies. The arts can also play animportant role in shaping the identityand eel o a place, in bringing peopletogether and in strengthening commu-nity participation.

Although improved by the creationo Vivacity in 00 a charity which

manages the citys most popular cultureand leisure acilities Peterboroughsarts inrastructure is weak. Levels oarts participation are below the nationalaverage and numbers o unding appli-cations are low. As Peterborough seeksto strengthen its sense o identity andpeoples pride in the city, as it works toenable people to play a more active rolein civic lie and in meeting the challenges

it aces, it needs to urther develop its

arts and cultural community.Vivacity has already made a positive

impact; not least through its engagemewith local artists, some o whom havebeen involved in planning this yearsPeterborough Festival. Since 00Citizen Power has been working witharts organisations including Vivacity

practitioners, local services andcitizens, increasing peoples sense obelonging and civic pride and bringingnew creative solutions to old problems.It is helping to build social and cultura

capital, strengthening Peterboroughsarts communities and enhancing whatthey can oer to residents, visitors andthe local economy.

Creative GatheringsSince mid-00 Citizen Power has hosteve Creative Gatherings attended by9 people in total and acilitated byThe Map Consortium. Each Creative

Arts and Social

Change

Im pleased to have shared

my story and delighted tohave learned rom otherpeoples stories. It would beso good i more people couldshare their Peterborough.Its been so reassuring tomeet people who want tolisten and nd out abouteach others lives. I takeaway eelings o optimismand support. The uture willbe better than I thought

Take Me To partic ipant


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Gathering is co-acilitated by a local organisation, providing opportunitieor local artists to work together withocus on how the arts can shape the wpeople think about where they live antheir role in their community. Diversevenues have opened spaces to local arists; the ourth Creative Gathering whwas hosted at the City College (adultlearning) has resulted in a room beinoered ree o charge to local artists.

The Creative Gathering in May0 was held at University CentrePeterborough. It was co-acilitatedby ormer Peterborough Poet LaureatKeely Mills and Jumped Up TheatreKate Hall and was attended by people. Each Gathering has drawnadditional people who have not attennetwork events previously.

Gatherings have created new links

between artists, the community and twider Citizen Power programme; a cogroup o about people regularly atend including a representative rom tYouth Parliament who subsequentlylinked up with a local school involvedin the Peterborough Curriculum. Theevents have been used to acilitate arttic experiments in the city ocused onplace making and working with publsector proessionals on how they engthe public in their work.

The ultimate aim is or the Creativ

Gatherings to become an establishedsel-organised and sel-unded eaturo the local arts community and theris every sign this is happening. At thesame time, a network o artists livingand working in Peterborough have seup Creative Peterborough to champiothe arts and local creative practition-ers in the city. The network aims to binclusive: a genuine representation o

Experiments inPlace MakingLocal artists have been working withneighbourhood managers on experi-ments in place making, conductingarts based workshops with eight younwomen who had been banned romthe local shopping centre. They wereasked to undertake interviews with

shoppers about how they elt aboutwhere they lived and have since beenasked to become ambassadors orthe centre.


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The next year or so isgoing to be an exciting andenjoyable time, with theplacement o our residencyartist here at MorlandCourt I believe that artspractice has the power to

challenge established rolesand behaviours because othe permission it aordsto think and see thingsdierently

Paul Spence, Morland Court ResidentsAssociation


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those working in the arts in the city. Itwill provide a way or people to work to-gether to address some o the challengesthat artists ace in the city includingbuilding skills or securing unding andprole. The network was kick started bya steering group that includes Alex Aireyand Stuart Payn (Blok Collective), KateHall (Jumped Up Theatre) and local art-

ists Ann Bellamy, Anita Bruce and SueShields.

Context MattersThis will include two artists residencieshosted by locally based voluntary groupsin Peterborough or one year romsummer 0. These will be managedby Donna Lynas and Christina Green oWysing Arts Centre and will be the rstresidencies o their kind in the UK.The artists appointed are Grennan andSperandio, and Joshua Soaer. The hostswill be the Morland Court ResidentsAssociation and the Peterboroughbranch o Street Pastors.

Made in PeterboroughCitizen Power is working on two highquality arts commissions, which high-light the engagement o local citizens.The rst commission Take Me To took place in autumn 00. The secondcommission will be timed to coincidewith the Peterborough Festival in 0.

Talking Arts

Citizen Power is organising dynamic,interdisciplinary events, which willcombine art and debate. These willbring together renowned artists andspeakers including local people toocus on specic issues relevant to theprogramme and city. The rst o these

Cross Pollination: the Birds, the Beesand Us in autumn 0 will explorethe interdependent relationship betweenhumans and the natural environment.The nal event will coincide with thePeterborough Festival in 0.

The challengesIn times o austerity it can be dicultto communicate the role and value othe arts. Citizen Power has sought todemonstrate the added value o thearts, not just to the creative community,but to the city and public services.

The Citizen Power programme contin-ues to run skills workshops through the

Creative Gatherings including work withopen space technology and on develop-ing social enterprises. Every strand hasinvolved mentoring opportunities. Theprogramme is identiying an RSA Fellowto work with the Creative Peterboroughgroup. The challenge or the project isto embed these skills within the comm-unity. In particular there is a need to

continue to increase peoples condence,knowledge and skills around participa-tory methods, building audiences andsecuring unding.

Despite eorts in the last year theCitizen Power programme has not beenable to sustain engagement rom asmany artists rom the diverse range ocommunities that live in Peterborough asit would have wished to. Project sta areexploring ways to address this, includ-ing using oral histories and alternativelanguages. Solutions such as the ContextMatters artists residencies workingwithin diverse communities will alsoaddress this.

The legacy for local peopleCitizen Power aims to leave behinda stronger, condent and inclusive artscommunity, which is applying or andsecuring unding or excellent work andis capable o attracting larger audiencesin and beyond the city, creating jobs andboosting the economy. Peterboroughcitizens will be consuming and produc-ing more art.

Creative Gatherings will continue todevelop as a source o creative and civicaction and will have demonstrated theadvantages o wider engagement in thecommunity and public services. CreativePeterborough will become a permanentlocal champion and source o networksand skills.

Peterborough City Council,through working with Vivacity,Creative Peterborough and others,will see a marked change in artisticactivity and have the condence to

take bigger risks when it comes tocommissioning arts or the city andengaging the artistic community in itsservice delivery priorities. The CitizenPower programme will inorm thedevelopment o a new arts and culturalcentre, which is currently being explored.

Take Me ToIn the autumn o 2010, the CitizenPower programme asked the artsorganisation Encounters to cometo Peterborough to work with localpeople on what they elt about the cityEncounters created Take Me To, anarts project with workshops that led tove bus tours where 50 local resident

hosted tours o their own neighbour-hoods. Participants came rom acrossthe city and included two police ser-vice community ocers, an elder romthe Traveller community, a musician,a Conservative councillor and an elderom the Muslim community. Ratherthan looking at the city as dened bygeographical or community bound-aries, the project enabled connectionto be made between individuals romdisparate communities: including thelocal Polish centre and Travellerscommunity. The project culminated

in a winter east where people sharedtheir avourite dishes and madepledges about how to urther developthe new relationships they had made.

Other groups have since expresseinterest in developing their own tours.Some participants protested togetheragainst the local English DeenceLeague march in December 2010and others have become involved indierent strands o the programme.Peterboroughs Childrens ServicesTeam is keen to apply this approachwith schools.


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Meeting the challenges presented by

climate change requires eective local,national and international policy andgreen innovations. Critically, it alsorequires people to change their habits.The RSAs work on behaviour changeexplores what the best evidence tells usabout what tends to change the way weact; the skills, attitudes and knowledgethat are most likely to encouragesustainable citizenship. This thinkingis being applied in this strand o theCitizen Power programme.

Peterborough has an environmen-

tal record to be proud o; designatedone o our Environment Cities in theearly 990s, the citys public, privateand charitable sectors aspire to build onthis, becoming known as the Home oEnvironment Capital. The city is hometo over 0 eco-businesses, a ground-breaking tool to visualise environmentalperormance, and a popular website thathelps people to learn green skills.

Sustainable

Citizenship

The Citizen Power

programme has supportedus in developing ourCommunity garden, helpingus to enhance the experienceor our local amilies, whichwill create a lot morecommunity involvement

Pauline Moorhouse, Honeyhill Communityand Childrens Centre

Open Space innovationworkshopOne o the winning projects is alreadyunder way; to develop a communitygarden attached to a childrens centrein the Paston area o the city. The staand parents plan a number o smallcampaigns to encourage local resi-dents to recycle their cardboard waste(providing supplies or the centrescrat activities) and grow their ownvegetables.

Another project will use peoplepower to identiy unused plots o

land across the city, with the aim oproviding a map that enables eachcommunity to use these plots moresustainably, using the knowledge thisgroup has o growing a wide variety oplants and vegetables. The group hasidentied three plots o land, and isplanning a media campaign to crowd-source more.


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Citizen Power is complementingthis activity by seeding a numbero projects, led by local people, toencourage green liestyles and improvetheir local environment. Working inpartnership with the PeterboroughEnvironment City Trust (PECT), theproject aims to develop a long-termnetwork o people in Peterborough who

could support environmental initiatives.Since July 00, Citizen Power hasengaged over 80 people, including localresidents as well as national experts oninnovation and environmental liestyles.In October 00, local residents att-ended an intense two-day environmen-tal innovation workshop. They mappedlocal environmental problems and thebehaviours that cause them and devel-oped ideas that could encourage moreenvironmentally riendly behaviour. Thisincluded an Open Space session, in whichpeople suggested ideas and voted onpriority projects. Project plans were de-veloped in teams, and pitched to a panelo three judges (rom Eco InnovationCentre, Peterborough City Council andthe RSA) who awarded winners withsmall grants (,00) and other support.

As Citizen Power has developed, staworking on its environmental strandhave made contact with other commu-nity organisations and inormal groups.This included a stall at the Green Festival,which presented an opportunity to meetand work alongside several Peterborough

organisations. One o these, the Glintonand Peakirk Green Group, is trying toreduce energy use in the two villages.Assistance was given to them to betterunderstand how behaviour change couldbe designed into their projects and und-ing applications.

Future plans include working witha housing association Cross KeysHomes to deliver another innovationworkshop in September to spin o morecommunity-led projects. Citizen Power isalso developing a website, to be launched

in December 0, that allows localenvironmental innovators to collaborateon new projects more eectively.

The challengesCitizen Power has encouraged localinitiatives created and led by citizens.As well as evaluating what has workedto enable people to be more green, theultimate aim is to leave a legacy. One

challenge is to maintain momentumand unding or local projects. To thiend, the project is developing an innovation network, which will draw in loexpertise to continue to support locainitiatives and make them sustainablePECT is taking a signicant role indeveloping this. The website will continue to acilitate communications

among the network. A orthcominginnovation workshop will be co-undone long-term ambition would be togrow the prole o these events and tprojects they encourage, so that theybecome sponsorship opportunitiesor local businesses.

The legacy for local peopleCitizen Power will leave behind anetwork o environmental innovatorsand an online platorm or this netwoto share ideas and best practice. Inmeeting its aspiration o becomingthe UKs Home o EnvironmentCapital, Peterborough will be able todemonstrate innovative approaches thhave increased the number o peopleengaged in sustainability projects.

As well as acres o redundant land ing bought back into use through CitiPowers work with local people, thelegacy o the project will be an increain peoples capacity or sel-governmeso that they can continue to innovate,creating green projects and developinenvironmental awareness and skills. In

addition, a map o unused land will bavailable to local community groups alocal agencies; this will provide a newresource so that local people and agencan better target their work.


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14

We opened this report with a depressing

case study that highlights some o thechallenges agencies and individuals havein turning lives around. The RSAs workin this area is underpinned by a beliethat citizens even those deemed to bea problem who are excluded and seem-ingly reviled can be incredible assets totheir community. In delivering this work,Citizen Power is drawing on the RSAswork in West Sussex and its ndingson the important role that citizen-ledapproaches and social networks canplay in building peoples resilience.

Substance misuse can have a deva-stating impact on peoples health andwellbeing and can drive alcohol anddrug related crime in the community.

According to Saer Peterboroughthere were ,00 people in drug treat-ment in 00 and the use o opiates andcrack cocaine is on the increase despitea reduction in the treatment populationbetween 009 and 00. Amongst those

in treatment, there is also evidence o

a year-on-year increase in the numbero alcohol misusers between 00and 00.2

According to recent Home Ocestatistics, crime is at its lowest levelin Peterborough or almost a decade.Recorded crime in the city has droppedby 0. percent rom the period betweeApril 009 and March 00 to the com-parable period in 00/. However, thesame period saw a rise in the numbero drug oences o . percent duringthe same period.3 The Cambridgeshire

Alcohol Strategy (008-0) aims to reduce the number o health problems thcauses and the police authority is prioritising the reduction o violent crimesin the city particularly those that areuelled by alcohol.4

Citizen Power is working with peoplwho have direct experience o usingdrugs and alcohol problematically andlocal agencies to develop a new approac

Recovery

Capital

Citizen Power Peterborough has taken o. Its social action approach to tackling big issues, like an

social behaviour and drug dependency, is exciting and something other places should be adopting

Ben Rogers, Director o the Centre or London, a new think tank based at Demos

[Citizen Power] should

help join up services to geta holistic picture with theclient at the centre. It isclient led not proessionalled and based on communitydevelopment principles

Denise Lewis, Project Coordinator, STORM


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to recovery. It will give those who haveproblems with addiction a bigger rolein designing services and will set up peerled recovery networks to complementcurrent practice. Put simply, recoverycapital is the combination o actorsthat individuals need to be in place toget well and stay well: rom treatment tohaving somewhere to live, rom support

rom peers, amily and riends, to routesback into mainstream society.

Citizen Power has interviewedaround 0 people with current or pastexperience o problems with drug andalcohol in the city, including peoplerom HMP Peterborough. This processprovides an overview o how serviceusers view local agencies, identiythe dierent groups and networks

they engage with and begin to assesswhat resources they have or recovery.The project is also working with arange o local agencies as well as thesurrounding towns. Citizen Powerhas brought together 0 practitionersrom the city and surrounding regionto develop a greater understanding ohow to identiy and work with recoverycapital or the benet o individualsand their communities.

The challenges

However, the project can only be de-veloped through detailed work withinPeterborough with local people andthis takes time: to this end the CitizenPower programme will have set up aRecovery Champion Network includingservice users, citizens, practitioners romlocal services and business in August0. It will bring together key localstakeholders to steer the project and

ensure that the learning and develop-ments o the project reach into a rango networks across the city includingproblem drug and alcohol networks,treatment services, the wider commuand proessional networks. The Recoery Champion Network will co-acil

Eastern RecoveryChampion ExpertSymposiumCitizen Power and the NationalTreatment Agency (NTA) East helda joint Recovery Champion ExpertSymposium on 26 May 2011. It hadour key aims: to understand how recovery capita

and gaps in existing services canbe identied, in order to determinewhere resources should be tar-geted in specic contexts;

to understand how a range ostakeholders can work with existinrecovery capital;

to understand how to strengthenor build new recovery capital inspecic contexts; and

to generate a series o innovativeand practical ideas that have beenpiloted by participants duringRecovery Week in June 2011and beyond.

The symposium brought together80 participants identied as strategictherapeutic or community recoverychampions within the East o Eng-land region. Several leading guresin the recovery eld participated,including Mark Gilman, the StrategicRecovery Champion or the NTA,Michaela Jones, Community Directoror WiredIn (a national online recoverypeer support network), and communit

recovery champions rom around thecountry.The symposium generated a

wealth o practical interventions andpilots that were taken orward by theparticipants. These included a rangeo events held in June to raise theprole o the recovery agenda, thedevelopment o plans to introducea peer-to-peer recovery network inHertordshire and a one-stop shopinormation service or drug servicesin Essex.

www.citizenpower.co.uk/video/east-o-

england-recovery-1

Citizen Power hasinterviewed around

150people

with current or past experience

o problems with drug andalcohol in the city


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16

workshops with local service users; thesewill design interventions to help peoplespark and sustain recovery, and will bepiloted rom the autumn.

The legacy for local peopleThe recovery model is increasinglybecoming the way o thinking aboutdrug and alcohol services in Peterbor-

ough. By spring 0 Citizen Power willhave established the oundations o aRecovery Community with the RecoveryChampion Network at its heart. Thiswill continue to develop an understand-ing o the importance o social networksand role models in peoples recovery. Aswell as providing a cost eective modelor interventions elsewhere, the RecoveryChampion Network will have becomea critical point o contact and sourceo expertise or local services.

By placing people at the heart o thedesign and decisions about their ownrecovery, Citizen Power will provide agrowing source o inormed and empow-ered service users. This will enable otheragencies to become more user centredand involve hard-to-reach groups indeveloping more eective solutions todrug and alcohol problems. In the longterm, Citizen Power will result in highernumbers o drug and alcohol misusersmoving into recovery. This should helpto reduce drug related crime in the city.

. Saer Peterborough Partnership AdultDrug Needs Assessment 2010/11, Saer Peter-borough 0.

. National Crime Statistics, Home OceJune 0.

. Cambridgeshire Alcohol Strategy0080.


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Children spend most o their lives

outside the school gates. A actorinfuencing educational attainment isparental engagement. The RSAs workon an area based curriculum is basedon the assumption that schools are onlyone site where learning takes place andseeks to expand the numbers o peopleand organisations that are engaged incurriculum development.

The Citizen Power educationstrand builds on an RSA pilot projectin Manchester. The idea is that schoolsbecome a hub or learning and engage-

ment or the wider community and thatchildren learn to value and understandparticipation. An evaluation o the pilotconcluded there were signicant posi-tive outcomes including improved sta/student relationships, greater motivationamongst pupils and bridge building withpeople and organisations in the city.

The perormance o Peterboroughsstate schools is mixed. Nursery schools

are doing well and an above average

proportion o primary schools aregood, or better, when compared tosimilar councils and the national average. Secondary education provision ivariable; only our o the 0 second-ary schools were judged to be goodby Osted in 009. This is below averor similar areas and across the natio

Peterborough

Curriculum

We see the possibilities

o this being beyond theobvious links o road saetywith the police and washinghands with the school nurse!We see this as an opportunityto develop a values andethics curriculum aroundcitizenship where the bigquestions can be askedand discussed

Nikki Cherry, Headteacher,West Town Primary School,

Citizen Poweris working with

5 schoolsand a range o local

organisations to designparts o their ownschool curriculum


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We need to build the socialcapital o the children butalso equip them or thechallenges o the uture.Peterborough will continueto change and children willbe able to be part o it

Simon Martin, West Town Primary School


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Peterborough has experienced rapidchanges in its ethnic mix over the lastdecade and in 009, only percento residents elt they belonged in theirneighbourhood.6 Dialogue between di-erent groups is poor compared to othersimilar areas even though levels o civicparticipation are about average.

Schools can play a vital role inbringing communities together andgiving young people a sense o belongingand civic responsibility. Citizen Poweris working with the local community,business and teachers in continuing toimprove the quality o learning in thecity with a ocus on urther embed-ding schools within their local area. Itis working with ve schools and a rangeo local organisations to design partso their own school curriculum: it willprovide young people with a curriculum

that refects local priorities and values,and connects local people with educa-tion. It will encourage civic participationand activity across all generations.

Since September 00, the Peter-borough Curriculum has been in devel-opment with ve schools across the city: Dogsthorpe Junior School:

Year , 90 students West Town Primary School:

Year , students Bishop Creighton Primary School:

Year , 0 students

Ken Stimpson Community School:Year , 00 students

Thomas Deacon Academy:Year , 0 students (with someinvolvement or all students in theschool which is around ,00 people).

Citizen Power has run eight trainingsessions with individuals drawn romschools and local partner organisations.

Two major events have bought together0 local people in developing ideas ora locally driven curriculum. CitizenPower will work with each schoolon a pecic project, which they willcreate and own (to be delivered duringthe 0 academic year), as wellas working together as a networkto share learning and resources.

The challengesThe need to ensure local relevanceand create new partnerships has takensome time but work has now startedwith three schools. Teachers involvedin the development o PeterboroughCurriculum have reported that theyare now aware o and in touch witha range o organisations across thecity; organisations have oeredlearning opportunities to schools onthe Peterborough Curriculum Portalhosted on the council website.

The legacy for local peoplePeterborough Curriculum aims to shapethe way in which young people learn andalter the relationship between schoolsand their communities. It will increaseschools links with business, heritageand the arts and public services, andincrease civic participation amongstpupils, parents and the wider commu-nity, while strengthening young peoplescapacity to thrive at work and in lie.

The project is ocusing on selected

schools at this stage. The possibilitiesor expanding this approach are beingdiscussed and could include rolling themodel out across the city. Ultimately,the aim is or the model o locally basedlearning and participation to shapePeterborough as a Learning City, capableo maximising its use o local assetsto drive social and economic success.

. Osted 009.

. Place Survey 009.

Dogsthorpe JuniorSchoolThe school is developing a projectaround transport (a signicant actorin Peterboroughs historical growthand its current context as a commutertown). The partnership betweenDogsthorpe a mixed school in anarea o deprivation with locally

based heritage charity Railworld hasalready included input on history anddesign. The school aims to developthis relationship urther.


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At the heart o much o the RSAs work

is the belie that institutions includingcentral and local government need toget better at enabling people to do moreto create the societies and communitiesthey want to live in.

Civic Commons is working withlocal citizens to create new opportuni-ties or local activism. Participants arebuilding their knowledge and condenceon a range o issues, better equippingthemselves to shape responses to someo the challenges their communities aceincluding anti-social behaviour, isolation

amongst older people and the rising costo social care. Civic Commons will havea ripple eect, as people inspire othersto become more active in their commu-nities, and will strengthen the ability othe council to identiy, understand andrespond to peoples concerns.

At the end o 00 the Citizen Powerprogramme ran a series o events aimedat identiying a group o residents willing

to take part in the Civic Commons.

Since then the programme has workedwith 0 people, hosted an initial designworkshop at the RSA and arranged twourther workshops one with House oCommons sta on advocacy skills andthe other on community organising which sought to increase peoples skillsand condence as the project progressedrom discussion towards action.

Members o the Civic Commonsthen identied the problem o anti-social behaviour in some parts oPeterborough as a possible ocus or

their work. The RSA hosted two sessioaround the theme. In May this year CivCommons participants were boughttogether with Peterborough agencies

including representatives rom thepolice, the voluntary sector, businessand local councillors to decide onthe approaches they would take.

Members o the commons will nowtrial three dierent models. The rst

Civic

Commons

The single most important

dierence that the RSA hasmade is ensuring CitizenPower is city-wide andpushed by PeterboroughCity Council. It has allowedus to look at the city as awhole and then target areaso hardship, getting allagencies there

Christopher Harper, Member o Civic Commons

The research shows how dicult it is to create a big society o active citizens in the UK.

It demands innovative and experimental approaches to public participation like the RSAs

Citizen Power work in Peterborough

Bobby Duy, Managing Director, Ipsos MORI Social Research Institute


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is Community Guardians, wheremembers o the public volunteer tobecome a positive and visible presencin a problem area. The second is an

event or series o events, which willbring together police and young peopto meet and work together. The thirdapproach is to trial the Woolwichmodel, a proposal made in a recentRSA publication, which aims to equiplocal residents with skills or mediatidisputes and saely responding to antsocial behaviour. All three projects wdraw rom each other and build onexisting work (such as Streetwatch).

These approaches will be testedin and around Century Square in the

Milleld area which has been identi-ed by Peterborough City Council anlocal police as experiencing high leveo anti-social behaviour including strdrinking, drug dealing, littering and timidation. Previous attempts have bmade to tackle the problem and thesethree approaches will seek to engagewith the local community, includingthose who are perpetrators.

Tackling anti-socialbehaviourAter a series o capacity andknowledge-building workshops,a group o 25 citizens met withpolice, NHS sta, youth workers andlocal charities to develop innovativesolutions to tackling social problemson a particular estate in Peterborough

Century Square.Ater hearing representations

rom the local residents association,workshop participants developed threnew schemes that citizens will takeresponsibility or instigating. Theseinclude an initiative called CommunityGuardians in which local gures havea regular and riendly presence on theestate, countering the atmosphere otension. Citizens are also developing atrial o the Woolwich Model in whichlocal leaders and residents are givenbasic training in confict resolution.

Many participants commented thatthis was the rst time such a diversegroup o local people, agencies andorganisations had come together totackle a problem they all have dierenperspectives on, but a commoninterest in solving.


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22

Six people rom the groups arecurrently developing these ideas ur-ther and practical work on the groundis expected to begin in October 0.Meanwhile the Citizen Power pro-gramme is arranging urther eventson housing, community inclusionand health with the aim o expandingpractical work in these areas. The aim

is to continue to strengthen the CivicCommons as a group, expanding itsmembers and strengthening their skillsand condence to identiy local prob-lems and design solutions.

This will include bringing the ex-perience o the rst Civic Commonsto other areas o work within theCitizen Power programme, in particularPeterborough Curriculum, whichseeks to embed local schools in theircommunities; the Recovery Capitalproject, which aims to help problematicdrug and alcohol misusers develop newnetworks and sel-directed services; andthe Sustainable Citizenship model, whichuses some o the same methods as theCivic Commons to enable Peterboroughcitizens to make positive environmentalchanges in their area. Longer term,the Citizen Power programme willseek to apply its learning to work withvulnerable amilies in Peterborough.

The challengesThe Civic Commons strand initiallytook a air amount o time to get o the

ground. A lot o eort has been put intoinvolving participants in training and de-velopment and in providing local peoplewith the chance to meet representativeso local services. The involvement o thelatter has been critical in keeping peopleengaged and in strengthening the beliethat they can achieve change by workingin partnership with the local council andother agencies.

The Civic Commons approachhas tried to ensure that it representsPeterborough in all its diversity. The

programme has been relatively success-ul in this respect, although a continuingchallenge is to get a wider spread o agesinvolved, particularly young people.

The challenge is to keep peopleengaged between events and to scaleup Civic Commons activity, whilemaintaining agencies involvement.The potential is signicant: this earlyinvestment in citizens willing to play

their part not only increases theirability to make change happen in theirneighbourhoods and get others to dothe same, but also increases the overallreach and capacity o Peterborough CityCouncil and its local agencies.

In response to these challengesPeterborough City Council is lookingat embedding Civic Commons withinits wider strategy and structures orneighbourhood management, includingits Citizens Panel. In practical terms thiswill mean setting up and training groupso ordinary people around the city sothat they can identiy problems and thenwork with local agencies and the widercommunity in designing and deliveringsolutions.

The legacy for local peopleThe aim is or Civic Commons tobecome an established part o Peterbor-oughs democratic culture, working inand around Peterborough on a range oissues that are o concern to the commu-nity. The council will be able to devolvegreater responsibility to the hyper locallevel through Civic Commons whichwill work with local NeighbourhoodCouncils and the Citizens Panel, whichis used to gauge perceptions about Peter-borough and its services. In turn, those

involved in Civic Commons are muchmore likely than the council to be ableto recruit citizens to get involved andwill be able to bring a dierent perspec-tive to the table.

Civic Commons is changing theculture o participation in PeterboroughCity Council and is being rolled outacross the city over the next year. Inaddition to Neighbourhood Councils,

new Health and Well-Being LocalityBoards will establish their own CivicCommons to embed the perspectiveand voice o citizens at the heart olocal decision-making, and mobiliselocal people to problem-solve long-standing issues public agencies havestruggled to impact on.

The RSA is also working with the

Greater Peterborough Partnership tore-design the citys public services overthe next ve years. The Civic Commonapproach will orm an important part othat strategy in two specic ways. First,ve Civic Commons members are beingincluded as part o a network o socialand public service innovators work-ing together to tackle the most press-ing and intractable challenges acingPeterborough.

Second, the Civic Commons approaand the lessons it provides about how tobuild and mobilise social capacity willbe used and applied by public agenciesto address some o the specic socialchallenges they are acing. The nextstage o the programme will include anassessment o how peoples skills andcondence has changed.

The ultimate aim is or Peterboroughto become a model or other cities:where it can show that being part o thCivic Commons is an experience sharedby many and benecial or both individuals and the wider community.

I learnt a lot, particularlyabout issues around streetdrinking and all associatedproblems [CivicCommons] is good orcommunity networks

Kate Young, member o Civic Commons

5civic commonsmembers

are being included as parto a network o social andpublic service innovators


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The RSA depends upon its Fellowship

o ,000 people. Much o its work seeksto identiy the hidden networks andconnections that exist within communi-ties, which can play a critical part inengaging local citizens in making changehappen on the ground. Citizen Power istaking this work to Peterborough, withan emphasis on identiying and bringingtogether the local changemakers thepeople inside and outside public serviceswho make change happen.

Peterborough is a city o hidden assetsand talents. The condence o its council

leadership is not matched by citizenssense that they can make a dierence.The ChangeMakers approach is beingused to develop a public service and socialinnovators network that encompassesthe people with key responsibilityrom across the city or deliveringPeterboroughs Single Delivery Plan.

While the dierent projects arepresented here as distinct strands,

there is a great deal o potential cross

over. The Arts and Social Change pro-ject has much to add to PeterboroughCurriculum and in engaging residentsin environmental issues.

Civic Commons which has cho-

sen to ocus at this stage on anti-socibehaviour will be working to tackledrug and alcohol misuse alongsidethe Recovery Capital project. Bothseek to understand the role that net-works negative or positive can plain changing behaviour. Signicantprogress has been made in relation tothese areas. The sixth strand o workChangeMakers will build on this anbe cross cutting: identiying the keyplayers working across the city.

ChangeMakers will map and mob

individuals who can help address thesocial, economic and environmentalchallenges acing Peterborough. Theswill span service practitioners andelected ocers already working withthe public sector; as well as inormalgatekeepers and community activistswho are well-known among their peeand neighbours, yet who may lie undthe radar.

ChangeMakers

Places change or the better when you give people the power to do things dierently. That takes

courage and genuine commitment to new thinking and ways o working on the ground. Citizen

Power is an excellent example o this

Irene Lucas, Former Director General, Depar tment or Communities and Local Government

ChangeMakerswill map and

mobilise individualswho can

helpaddress the

social, economic andenvironmental challenges

acing Peterborough


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Citizen Power Peterborough is a long-

term partnership between the RSA,Peterborough City Council and ArtsCouncil to deliver transormative changein a single place. The shared missionis to support local people to create orthemselves the relationships, ideas andpractical interventions they need tomeet the challenges that are importantto them. But also, more positively, tocreate the places they want to live inand the services they need.

This would be an ambitious pro-gramme at any time: in the context o

austerity, it becomes both more press-ing and challenging. On average, localgovernment is cutting its budgets bya third. Peterborough is no dierent:indeed the Neighbourhoods divisiono Peterborough City Council has beencut by 0 percent.

Like many communities, Peterboroughcitizens are acing tough times: home tosome deprived areas and ast changing

demographics, the city needs to respond

to drug related crime, problem amiliesand looming gaps in health and socialcare provision. The city also aces itsshare o longer-term challenges, includ-ing environmental threats, an ageingpopulation and public pressures or morelocally responsive services.

The recent Commission on 00Public Services at the RSA whichhas inormed much o the thinkingbehind Citizen Power concluded thatin meeting these challenges there is aneed or: a complete reconguring o

public services around the needs andcapabilities o citizens, based on theprinciple o social productivity.7 Theevidence shows that communities andpublic services that eectively engagewith users are better: they are moreecient, more popular and promotewell-being more eectively.

Building social capacity (and the bigsociety) requires strong public services

that support, acilitate and mobilise

social action and the capacity o peoto solve their own problems. This memaking the most o and developingthe citys physical and human assets.It requires new ways o measuringsocial values and citzenship, encouraholistic approaches to long-term chalenges and boosts the important roleo civic leadership. The Citizen Poweprogramme and each individual stranseek to meet these needs.

Up to this point, the programmehas ocused on building the condition

needed or citizen power to fourish:new networks o citizens and serviceworking together to rethink how thecity can thrive in the uture.

In the next stage, we will bringeach project to ruition and will applCitizen Power thinking to public servreorm more broadly. The RSA is nowworking very closely with the localstrategic partnership the Greater

ChangingPeterboroughs

culture

Big cuts to local government mean councils having to fnd new ways o plugging the gaps let

behind. Citizen Power shows how this should be done with local people at the heart o everyt

Peterborough should be praised or embarking on such a orward-thinking programme o inquir

David Lammy, MP or Tottenham


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Peterborough Partnership to re-thinkpublic services and develop a ve yearstrategy the Single Delivery Plan ortheir transormation. This includes sevenkey priority areas: Creating jobs through growth and

improved skills and education Supporting the most vulnerable am-

ilies and tackling causes o poverty

Saeguarding adults and children Helping people and organisations live

more healthy and sustainable livesand reducing energy consumption

Empowering people and creatingcohesive communities

Reducing crime and tackling anti-social behaviour

Using our resources more ecientlyand eectively

The key programme, and theone that underpins the public servicereorm agenda in Peterborough, is theseventh and nal one: using resourcesmore eciently and eectively. CitizenPower is integral to this and will seek tocultivate a undamental culture changewithin public services and increase thecitys capacity or strategic problemsolving.

The Citizen Power team is nowhelping to develop and acilitate, orthe rst time, a new network o publicservice innovators in the city drawnrom across the public, business andcommunity sectors to work together to

tackle the long-term, systemic challengesacing the city. The seventh programmewill implement a new type o settle-ment or public services, which rejectsthe existing top-down, service delivery-ocused model and builds instead romthe citizen up.

Improving the modelThe Citizen Power programme was con-ceived as a two-year experimental part-nership. It has made very good progressbut, inevitably with an initiative o this

scale and complexity, it is in the doingthat its real potential reveals itsel. Oneo the challenges acing a programmelike Citizen Power is how to shit romtheory to practice, scale up the projectsthat we are undertaking, and apply thelearning gained across the city and toother social challenges and areas opublic service beyond the currentscope o the programme.

Peterborough City Council and part-ners like the Arts Council have shownthat they are willing to innovate and ex-periment with new and challenging wayo working, and draw on ideas rom outside to do so. At a time o scal restrainand public service cuts, it is essential thathe councils investment in Citizen Powe

which has not always been welcomed b

some local elected ocials rewards thiinnovation by delivering value or moneand real change on the ground.

By embedding the programme in thedelivery plans we hope to ensure that thhappens: that Peterborough City Counccan make the leap rom thought leadership to undamentally changing the wait works with citizens and improving thlives o its residents in the process. Thismeans ensuring that as well as the lega-cies committed to in the separate projecstrands outlined earlier, Citizen Powerneeds to be more than the sum o itsparts and outlast its liespan. That is whCitizen Power is being embedded at theheart o the citys public service reormstrategy the Single Delivery Plan.

Citizen-PoweredPublic Services

Active citizens at the centre

of everything

Treat citizens like adults. Commissionthem to problem solve long-term social

challenges and co-create services.

Facilitate, rather than prescribe

Dont tell people what to do. Supportthem to help themselves and others.

Mobilise hidden wealth and

social resources

Identity and map what local resourcesyou have to meet local needs. Thenmobilise that social capacity to over-come social challenges.

Build long-term culture and

behaviour changeTackle root causes o social problemsby taking a whole person approach.Focus on long-term outcomes.

Create value together

Break down institutional barriers. Takea whole place approach to problemsolving and public service design.


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Recent discussions includingthose that inormed this report showan appetite or securing continuedunding to extend the partnership.In the course o producing this repora number o suggestions have been mby a range o dierent people involvein the project at dierent levels.

Innovations The RSA is working with specialisin social investment and enterpriseto set up the Peterborough CatalyFund. This will be launched in 0and made available to und local pjects and support those strugglingrespond to cuts in public spending

The aim is that the Catalyst undwill orm the basis o a SocialEntrepreneurs Network or Hubincluding people with links toPeterborough. Several people raisethe issue o utilising the RSAs exptise in enterprise and social busineto increase the capacity o projectin Peterborough.

Longer term, in order to secure continuity once the RSA is no longercoordinating Citizen Power, the prois looking at the role that timebanking could play. A time bank is a wayor people to come together to helpothers and help themselves at the satime. Participants deposit their timin the bank by giving practical helpand support to others and are able

withdraw their time when they nesomething done themselves. Manyo the activities generated by CitizePower require citizens to connect anvolunteer their time. Timebankingcould enable this time to be recogniexchanged and measured longer ter

The Citizen Power programme wilbe applied to issues o inequality asocial justice in Peterborough. Somo the discussions that took placehave raised questions about the exto which the project was reaching

those who were most excluded: inparticular people within newly arrEastern European communities anthe Zimbabwean community. Onesuggestion was to use the councilsemerging model o vulnerability looking at key moments, liestyles,settings and groups as a startingpoint or exploring how citizenscan become more resilient.


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Focusing on Milleld, an area o highdeprivation and population churn.The Civic Commons and RecoveryCapital projects will both ocus theirwork on Milleld, an area o highdeprivation and population churn.In terms o joining up the dierentstrands o the project, one option wasto ocus on the hyper-local and what

impact could be made by undertakingsustained engagement in an area ohigh churn, deprivation and diversity.Participants stressed the need to ocuson arts and culture (including ood) inthese areas and to engage the comm-unity in positive participation.

Citizen Power is a journey that is notyet complete. While some o these ideasmay take hold, the last year has taughtus one thing: the project will continue todevelop in unpredictable ways as citizensget involved and begin to innovate. In thenext year the RSA, Peterborough CityCouncil, Arts Council, local agenciesand citizens will be working togetherto develop ideas like these and more toensure that the legacy o Citizen Powerincludes: Schools that are embedded in their

local communities and serve as cata-lysts or peoples engagement in theirneighbourhoods.

Civic Commons through which localpeople will be enabled to play a big-ger part in tackling the issues they

care about, working alongside andadding capacity to local services.

A condent well-unded arts commu-nity able to play a role in acilitatingsocial change and strengthening thearts and cultural oer o the city.

A greener city driven by Peterboroughsdesire to become the Home o Envi-ronment Capital and underpinned byordinary citizens equipped to takeaction in their own neighbourhoods.

A holistic model o intervention thatis able to tackle multiple needs by en-

gaging some o the citys most vulner-able and challenging citizens.

These changes will be underpinnedby a growing and capable armyo networked and visible ChangeMakers.

Added together these changeswill begin to impact upon the way inwhich the city thinks about itsel, how

Peterborough is perceived externally,and the way local people respond tochallenges in their area.

Peterborough will be a step closertowards becoming a place wherediversity is celebrated within a strongcity identity based on pride in its artsand cultural lie, levels o participationand environmental status.

Peterborough City Council will beviewed as a local authority which leadsthinking but ollows through to delivery,and seen as the HMP Peterboroughproject is now as a centre or inno-vation in community participation,education, recovery services, the artsand social enterprise. Most importantlyPeterborough will be a city where citi-zens routinely describe themselves asactive partners o local services, wherethey see meeting the challenges o thecity as their job.

. From Social Security To Social Productiv-ity: a vision or 2020 Public Service. 00 PublicServices Trust 00.

Public services must be more closely shaped

around citizens and the places they live. This

is what the Citizen Power programme is doing

The early results published in this report are

very promising

Ben Lucas, Director 2020 Public Services Hubat the RSA


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The Royal Society for the encouragementof Arts, Manufactures and Commerce

8 John Adam StreetLondon WC2N 6EZ+44 (0)20 7930 5115

Registered as a charity in Englandand Wales no. 212424

The Big Society is about transormingthe way that the state and services unctioso that ordinary people are enabled to plaa bigger part in meeting the challengeswe all ace. In its work with the RSA onCitizen Power, Peterborough City Counciis leading the way in developing practicalmodels or how this can be done

Gareth Davies, Head of the Prime Ministers

Strategy Unit

Places change or the better whenyou give people the power to do thingsdiferently. That takes courage and genuincommitment to new thinking and wayso working on the ground. Citizen Poweris an excellent example o this

Irene Lucas, Former Director General, Department fo

Communities and Local Government

Citizen Power is one o the best projectson civic renewal to have emerged in recen

years. Unlike a lot o think tank work,

Citizen Power is creating change ratherthan only talking about it

Peter John, Professor of Governance and Co-Directo

of Institute for Political and Economic Governance,

University of Manchester

citizen power peterborough report

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