Better Life Chances

A startling piece of research released recently affirms the need to us to work together to create better opportunities for our communities.

£8 billion a year is spent on around 120,000 families that have multiple problems. Services need to join up and intervene earlier so that families are given the chance to turn their lives around.

(Source: Communities and Local Government Dept 2010)

Greater Manchester Police and Greater Manchester Against Crime (GMAC) have recently invited Redeeming Our Communities to join the Integrated Neighbourhood Management Partnership Team. The purpose of this team is to pilot an initiative across 10 targeted areas in the 10 boroughs of Greater Manchester. This initiative, called ‘Better Life Chances’, is a 12-week pilot programme designed to bring service-providers into a streamlined effort to tackle deprivation problems experienced by families.

Redeeming Our Communities’ role is currently focused on rolling out ROC Cafés across these targeted areas. As a proven model in reducing anti-social behaviour among youth, the ROC Café has been identified by GMAC as a key project which meets the objectives set out in Better Life Chances. At the heart of ROC is the aim to empower people to offer communities practical support, which is much needed at this time of cut backs, and the ROC Café is just one example of our work. The “Big Society” agenda, which everyone is talking about, promotes the idea of devolving power back down into the hands of the local community and this is the core business of ROC. With six years experience we find ourselves very well placed to advise and support communities across the UK.

We have discovered that taking ideas to a place of realisation involves bringing key leaders and community members together to discuss what each has to offer. These gatherings, ‘ROC Conversations’, are being planned specifically at the neighbourhood level to encourage active participation and ensure the outcomes are realised. Within the 12-week pilot, as mentioned above, we are hosting 3 ROC Conversations at the beginning of April. What a privilege to be working strategically with our authorities!

“In summary, this [Better Life Chances] is about defining a sustainable model for delivering public services through one integrated public service team. To work together (co-located), with single leadership, single budget, single set of business processes, with the capability and capacity to focus on a cohort of high risk, high cost individuals/families/places and a the same time reducing overall spend as well as improved effectiveness.” (Better Life Chances publication, 2010)

Click here for more information on the upcoming ROC Conversations.

For more information on ROC Cafes, please click here.