I’ve been catching up with the Neighbourhood Challenge programme that was launched last year by NESTA and Big Lottery to support innovative work by community groups in 17 locations around the country. They were chosen from 600 applicants, so I think we can expect to see some interesting developments.
Often the problem with these big agency funded programmes is that they are launched with a flourish in London, and after that it is difficult to see what’s going on until a long evaluation report emerges that may or may not give many insights into what really happened. By then things have moved on, and the chance to share lessons has been lost.
In between, local people and agency staff have probably been too caught up with reporting procedures to tell the stories that might interests the outside world … or even local people. There may be an unwillingness to open up on how they tackled problems in case that doesn’t play well with the funders. read more »