The vision of Local Area Coordination is one that is shared by most of us; a society where people live in welcoming communities that provide friendship, mutual support, equity and opportunities for all.\u00a0 It is a vision that is very much focussed on building on strengths rather than deficits and nurturing natural, supportive connections rather than relying on services.<\/p>\n
The Local Area Coordination approach in communities is therefore one that is focussed on helping people to get involved and contribute their gifts with those around them in spite of any barriers to inclusion. Coordinators are on hand to help people build bridges between groups, help people identify funding, help people establish and sustain new groups and support people to use their voice in order to co-design public services.\u00a0 This aspect of Local Area Coordination is highlighted very clearly in the following example from London Borough of Haringey:<\/p>\n
Local Area Coordinator Andrea started in Hornsey in October 2017.\u00a0 The area is a predominantly residential one in the west of the borough.\u00a0 Hornsey isn\u2019t an area characterised by issues surrounding poverty and deprivation, but it has a large population of single person householders over the age of 75.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n It soon became apparent to Andrea that loneliness, isolation and lack of support around low level care needs were prevalent for many she was walking alongside.\u00a0 Conversely, it was also evident that there was a growing, spirited community of younger people and families moving to the area keen to connect with and support those around them.\u00a0 The issue was that there were few natural opportunities for people in that community to meet, interact and come together.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Having identified this, Andrea approached a contact at the Bridge Renewal Trust, a community development organisation operating predominantly in east of the borough. She also approached the chair of the local Community Centre who she had met several times before as part of her wider work.\u00a0 Andrea explained what she had seen and they discussed potential solutions that could make the most of the assets in the community.\u00a0 Working together, they came up with a new idea that could help individuals to achieve their visions for a better life through hyper-local neighbourliness.\u00a0 The idea of Big Up My Street was born.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The challenge was to find ways to work within existing community infrastructure to support people who had expressed a desire for companionship and possibly low-level support to connect with those around them keen to help.\u00a0 Andrea knew from her discussions with people in the community that there was a very real concern around asking neighbours for help, whilst on the other hand people keen to help were worried about how their approaches might be interpreted.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n