Who are We?

We are a couple of people who are concerned about the way many development projects are run throughout the world. We operate under the name of the Community Involvement Group, are based in the north west of England and offer the following services:

Training

	An Introduction to Community Involvement. A one day course which will help your organisation to think about the concept, look at its place within national policy making, experiment with some examples and decide a way forward.
	An Introduction to Participatory Learning and Action (PLA). A five day practically based course which allows participants to learn about this approach through the planning and implementation of a real community involvement exercise. This workshop will be based at a community centre within the targeted community and can be structured to suit the needs of participants (e.g. 2 days one week, some evenings etc).
	Training follow up. Regular visits to help training participants to implement their learning.
	Management of participatory development projects.

Consultancy

We are available to conduct Community Involvement Assessments (an assessment of your organisation's community involvement approach), to advise on the production of a Community Involvement Strategy and also to conduct actual Community Consultations (preferably in conjunction with your organisation's personnel to allow capacity building)

Rates

We are both extremely committed to our work and the promotion of a participatory style of development. As a result we are keen to ensure that our costs are realistic and not prohibitive. Our rates are based on an organisation's ability to pay and so we have different rates for different situations. Contact us directly for more information.

Here is a little more information on who we are:

Peter Bryant

' I have worked in community development for the last thirteen years. I have been commissioned to work for numerous local authorities, the UK government's Department for International Development (DfID), Oxfam, Greenpeace, Sure Start, Health Living Centres and many other NGOs and community based organisations. Previous to my present role I worked for two local authorities, a university college and a charity in England and two NGOs in the developing world (South Africa and Belize). I am currently working on a project with young people from the Bank Top ward in Blackburn to help them design their own play area, a Citizens Jury project investigating Nano technology (sponsored by amongst others Cambridge University, Greenpeace and the Guardian) and advising a Sure start project embarking upon a community consultation strategy. In October I will start some research investigating the accountability of International NGOs to resource poor Africans'.

Claire Mason

'I have been working in the field of community development for the last twelve years and have a particular interest in participatory approaches to working with children and young people. I spent two years in South Africa as a development worker on a street-children's project. As a manager with a CVS I have experience of working extensively with community and voluntary organisations. I also spent some years involved in the development of advocacy services ensuring the involvement of people traditionally marginalised by many services. At present I am working with the NSPCC doing therapeutic work with children that have experienced significant harm and Lancaster university as a Research Associate. '

In the last two years here is a list of some of the community involvement projects we have been involved in (as of 2004).

	Northern Cities Citizens Jury Project: Joseph Rowntree. To act as facilitator working with 20 jurors from Blackburn. Facilitating discussion with witnesses and production of recommendations.
	Youth Consultants project. Bank Top Healthy Living Centre. Blackburn. Work with 10 ‘socially excluded’ young people to manage and support them as they are employed as consultants to investigate the development needs of the local area.
	'We have Rights!!!' children's project, Cumbria, UK. Training and supporting primary school children from Cumbria as they consult their peers on local service provision.
	Planning for Real, Blackburn, Lancashire UK. Working with some residents of the Shadsworth Estate to support them as they consult with other residents.
	Participatory Research, Healthy Lifestyle Community Consultation events, Lancashire, UK. A series of community consultation events organised by us for the Activate Pendle team during March 2003. The events used participatory research methods to stimulate discussion amongst local residents on the issue of healthy lifestyles.
	Participatory Research on Neighbourhood Learning, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, Lancashire, UK This project involved the design and facilitation of accredited training (and subsequent mentoring and supervision) for 12 local residents in participatory research techniques for use in the identification of neighbourhood learning needs. The researchers used participatory research methods in 12 neighbourhoods.
	PLA Training and Project Support. Morecambe Bay Primary Care Trust, Cumbria, UK. The design and facilitation of P.L.A. training for health professionals and community development officers and residents of the rural community of Flookburgh. Upon completion of the course support for 'professionals' and residents in their efforts to implement an approach to tackle issues within the area. (September 2002 - present)
	Community Consultation methods training. Blackburn Borough Council, Blackburn UK. We designed and facilitated a workshops for members of the Council’s Multi Agency Forum (June 2002.)
	Community Profiling using P.L.A. Burnley, Lancashire UK With Bootstrap Enterprises we managed a community-profiling project, which involved the recruitment, training and supervision of 15 local people who over a two-month period used PL.A. techniques to gather opinions from local residents for a community profile of the 8 most deprived wards. (January – April 2002.
	PLA training Rochdale, Lancashire UK. We designed and facilitated a weeklong P.L.A. training course for people working in community sports development. The training course involved the practical application of the P L A approach in a deprived ward in Rochdale, UK. Post workshop evaluation was very positive and Sport England aims to repeat the course as a national training programme. (SPRITO. (National Training Organisation for Sport, Recreation and Allied Occupations) for Sport England.) (March 2002)
	PLA Training Cornwall, UK. We designed and facilitated a weeklong P.L.A. training course for people working in community sports development for the National Association of Sports Development (NASD), based in Redruth.
	PLA project support, Blackburn, Lancashire UK. We worked with members of the local Kashmiri Association organisation to design and implement consultation methods (using PLA), which would then allow the organisation to consult with their community. We then supported them in using this information to produce a Business plan. (September - December 2001).
	Community consultation project management. Blackburn, Lancashire UK. We managed a project, which used the P.L.A. approach and methods (and Planning for Real) to work with groups of residents to help them identify their aims and design and implement their own projects. (e.g. residents groups, informal groups of young people, people from a homeless shelter). We designed a community consultation process with each community group and then trained and worked with them to support them in leading the process. Community groups went on to apply for project funding or produce business plans. (Bootstrap Enterprises) (January 2001 - December 2001)
	Community development research. Blackburn, Lancashire UK We worked with members of Itihad Community Association (an Asian CBO), to investigate options for the use of a community building. (Bootstrap Enterprises) (September - November 2001)
	Equity research Sport England. We completed original research and compilation of the following national research reports.

‘Social exclusion and sport, the role of training and learning’ This research report has been widely used by Sport England in the formulation of national social inclusion policy and the adoption of a community development and participation based approach to sports development.

'Employment equity at management level’. (December 2000 - May 2001)

Equity research Nottinghamshire UK. We co-managed a research project, which examined the reasons for low levels of participation by Asian and Black young people in a local authority youth sports programme. As part of this project we trained (and then mentored) local people in the use of participatory research methods. (Nottinghamshire County Council) (June – September 2000)

Development Project Consultant, South Africa. Peter was employed on a consultancy basis to work with the newly established South Africa Sports Commission. (4 consultancy visits). His responsibilities were to further develop the national training programme for community based Sport and Recreation facility management particularly in the area of participation. Primary areas of work were project sustainability, training programme evaluation, authoring / editing of training materials and the monitoring of project finances.( July 2000 – September 2001)

We are also regularly employed as workshop facilitators e.g. National Association for Sports Development Annual Conference 2003, Active Sports National Seminar 2002, Strategic planning workshop for Community Development Officers supporting the Community Regeneration Zone Boards in Blackburn, 2002, Association for Sports Development (London) 2002.

Peter is an Associate Lecturer for the Open University's Masters programme in Development Management.' Module TU870 'Capacities for Managing development' (institutional and conceptual frameworks for development management, project planning (logical framework planning etc), evaluation, strategic thinking etc). He is also on the board of the international campaigning organisation the World Development Movement and is chair of the South Lakes local group.

If you want to know more about our services please get in touch on pbinclusion@btinternet.com

or call us on (01539) 720255.