Resident participation, social cohesion and sustainability in neighbourhood renewal: developing best practice models

Summary

The key factors in promoting resident participation in renewal are community development approaches that start with local people, identify local issues and give residents the confidence and skills to influence their communities.

Project Number: 70026
Research Theme: Public_and_Community_housing
Project Leader: Randolph, Bill
Funding Year: 2000
Research Centre: UNSW-UWS

Research & Policy Bulletin

Issue 019: Achieving resident participation in community and urban renewal in Australia

Over the past ten years, State and Territory housing authorities have stressed the importance of resident participation in community and urban renewal. However, their renewal efforts have lacked a sound evidence base. Why is community participation seen as crucial? What are the most effective ways of promoting participation, and what are the practical barriers to residents getting involved?

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Description

Much of the debate and policy action involving area renewal, place management and strengthening communities through government action centres on the how the shelter and non-shelter aspects of renewal initiatives can be better coordinated to deliver better outcomes on the ground in disadvantaged communities. However, there is an increasing body of research and practice that suggests strongly that simply putting "Whole of Government" approaches in place in disadvantaged communities is not enough.

These approaches may well result in better service delivery outcomes on the ground. But they do not of themselves necessarily develop the critical benefits in terms of social cohesion and inclusion that these interventions, in part at least, aim to generate, or ensure that the positive impacts are sustained over the long term. Put simply, it is not possible to transform and strengthen communities over the long term without the community itself participating in the solutions - the top down approach of place management needs to meet the bottom up of community participation.

This research aimed to explore the critical role to be played by effective community participation in ensuring the long-term sustainability of urban and neighbourhood renewal programs in Australia, by examining current experience in Australia and drawing on best practice examples overseas. This research entails:

A review of current best practice models of effective resident participation in neighbourhood renewal in both Australia and overseas;
A review of the concept of social cohesion and sustainability as applied to renewal programs and the role of participation in generating sustainable neighbourhood renewal;
A series of detailed case studies of current approaches to resident participation in renewal programs in three states (New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia);
A set of draft evaluation tools to monitor the effectiveness of resident participation in creating social cohesion and longer-term sustainability of renewal initiatives;
A series of state-based workshops to feedback the key findings to practitioners to assist in formulating an agenda for effective resident participation in renewal programs and a proposal for a second stage project to test models of participation in generating sustainable social cohesion in urban renewal schemes.

More Information

Research and Policy Bulletin: Issue 019: Achieving resident participation in community and urban renewal in Australia
61 KB PDF Document

Positioning Paper: No. 026: Resident participation, social cohesion and sustainability in neighbourhood renewal: developing best practive models
934 KB PDF Document

Final Report: No. 023: Resident participation in urban and community renewal
308 KB PDF Document

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