Putting ideas into practice

The regeneration of deprived areas and neighbourhoods is big business, with large programmes like New Deal for Communities spending millions of pounds in a specific area over several years. But spending money is not in itself a guarantee of lasting success. Projects and initiatives should ideally be 'sustainable', a challenge well-known to organisations in the voluntary and community sector.

Community Viewfinders have worked in many different regeneration environments over the last fifteen years. We have set up initiatives from scratch, such as the ENRgI project in the former coalfields of SE Northumberland, which has gone on to have a remarkable impact on the area. We have worked with local communities to ensure the use of vacant buildings for the benefit of the community. We have worked with architects, assisted with raising funds, and provided business plans. In short, we don't just advise on 'regeneration', we actually get involved and do it ourselves. Members of the team have also established a number of innovative local community projects themselves, and are as a result intimately acquainted with many of the challenges that must be overcome if regeneration programmes are to have a lasting impact on deprived neighbourhoods.

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