Reports
community rights survey resultsUrban Forum has conducted a detailed survey of activists in local VCS organisations on their perceptions of community rights (Community Right to Buy, Right to Build, Right to Challenge, as well as neighbourhood planning) and community groups' abilities to take advantage of new opportunities.
This report summarises and analyses the results of the survey and draws some conclusions about support needed to overcome barriers to taking up community rights.
Urban Forum's innovative Bridging the Mismatch programme has now been published as a report. The programme looked at how how relationships between communities and public bodies can be strengthened; a vital requirement in these challenging times.
The coalition government has decided to make its Big Society and localism plans a major cornerstone for policy, with numerous proposals coming through which aim to devolve power from central to local government and from local government to communities. But what does this mean for local councillors? What is the place for local representative democracy in a rapidly changing policy environment?
Urban Forum linked up with Race Online 2012 to carry out a detailed survey about the use of computers, the internet and social media amongst our members as part of Race Online's challenge to make the UK the first nation in the world where everyone can use the web. In order to achieve this, Race Online are calling for urgent action to inspire, encourage and support millions more people to get online by the end of the Olympic year 2012.
Our aim was to discover and learn how voluntary and community groups use computers, the internet and social media in their organisations. The survey was sent out to all 741 Urban Forum members and gained a response rate of 9%. Such insight will enable Urban Forum to identify and respond to the needs of our members and assess and seek to address the barriers that may prevent them from using such tools effectively. Furthermore, the aim was to explore organisations' aspirations including their future plans for the use of computers and the internet and crucially the resources that could help them realise their aspirations.
On 4th February Urban Forum jointly held a national seminar on the role of councils in Big Society and Localism, with Involve and Local Government Leadership. A report capturing the discussion on the day has now been published. www.localsociety.org.uk.
