Category

• Promising Local Practice

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Poverty impact

• Mitigation
• Reduction
• Awareness

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Poverty driver

• Reduce cost of living
• Provide benefit in-kind (material)
• Increase income from benefits
• Increase employment income

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Keywords

• Co-production
• Fairness work
• Community project
• Partnership work
• Local empowerment

Aim

To lift people out of poverty by improving financial resilience, and addressing impacts associated with poverty, including poor health and wellbeing, social isolation and fuel and food insecurity.

Summary

The Linlathen Local Fairness Initiative is a community empowerment project delivered in the neighbourhood of Linlathen in Dundee by the Dundee City Council and various public and third sector partners. The Initiative comprises of a range of coordinated and diverse interventions with partners to reduce poverty and improve wellbeing in the neighbourhood. The Initiative is informed by the social research project that was commissioned by the Council at the start of the Initiative. As a part of this, residents of Linlathen contributed video and picture material of the challenges they were facing, and these were used to inform the five key themes on which the Initiative was developed and built around. The project has seen an increase in community engagement and demand for the services.

What difference does it make?

The Linlathen Local Fairness Initiative has increased the levels of community engagement in the neighbourhood of Linlathen in Dundee and involves a diverse range of coordinated poverty responses with the delivery partners. The Initiative has reduced costs of living in the neighbourhood, improved mental health provision, increased uptake of benefits, and supported people with transitions to employment. The Initiative has made more accessible a range of support and advice services through a holistic pop-up clinic they offer on Tuesdays in Linlathen that has seen significant levels of success even outside the community. The project has successfully involved the residents of the neighbourhood which it targets into the development and provision of the Initiative.

Key take-aways

• Successful and early engagement of community members in community development projects can be a key to their success.
• Co-produced creative social research projects can be useful in informing the direction of community development initiatives, and in engaging the residents of the communities.
• Close and functioning relationships with grassroots partner organisations are valuable in understanding the community-specific needs and delivering the right interventions in community fairness work.

 

Organisations

Dundee City Council and various partner organisations across public bodies and third sector

Location

Dundee (the neighbourhood of Linlathen)

No set end date

Contact