Community Development
Community development covers a range of practices dedicated to increasing the strength of community life, improving local conditions, especially for people in disadvantaged situations, and enabling people to participate in public decision-making and to achieve greater long-term control over their circumstances.
We aim to improve the quality of life of residents in our areas across Essex by helping reduce social exclusion, by tackling disadvantage and deprivation and by helping develop neighbourhoods where people want to live.
To help achieve these aims we have developed a neighbourhood improvement strategy and action plan setting out how we will meet our objectives as a social housing landlord, local employer and key partner working with statutory and voluntary organisations as well neighbourhood groups (Area Forums) to help address local, regional and national improvement and so contribute to building sustainable communities.
In doing so we seek to identify, through resident involvement, the key issues facing residents within their neighbourhoods, identifying and developing improvement strategies and establishing effective partnership working with key agencies. For example, we sponsor two Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) to help reduce antisocial behaviour, who work very closely with our Accredited Estate Rangers. As part of an extended police family, PCSOs are a highly visible, semi-official uniformed police presence. According to national research, they have cut crime and fear of crime by nearly 28%.
We are committed to improving the lives of our residents, neighbourhoods and communities and are committed to bringing about real improvements to the neighbourhoods we serve, for example by developing neighbourhood agreements and setting up environmental improvements.
The following link will explain how we help to fund neighbourhood improvement activities such as Community Development:
