Project Name: Dingle Community Learning Programme (DCLP)

Location: Liverpool 8, Riverside Ward



The Challenge

Comprising the riverside area of Liverpool 8, Dingle is immediately south of the city centre. It is amongst the most deprived wards, with all predictable indicators: high levels of unemployment, very high levels of medication, poor educational attainment levels and low turn out rates at elections.

Research has shown that, despite much money and energy being expended in identified deprived communities ,gaps between the “haves” and the “have less” are widening. Mortality rates, educational achievement levels and health indicators continue to improve in more affluent areas, whilst the situation in our poorer communities grows worse.



The Approach

In 2005 DCLP was approached by local young people to house a Dingle Youth Forum and a free office was provided to the young people who formed its committee. This arrangement provided a safe location, flexible accommodation for the widest range of activities and opportunities for easy intergenerational exchange that would build community cohesion. Youth Charter were invited in November 2005 resulting in a broad community meeting in April 2007. There was optimism that an exciting collaboration could be built that would benefit all parties in the area.



Hopes and Dreams Event

In September 2007, DCLP led a community presentation at the Hopes and Dreams event held at the Anglican Cathedral and which was facilitated by YouthcharterUK. DCLP again showed that the energy of local people is matchless. DCLP not only led the presentation but provided culturally specific food and ensured high attendance of city voluntary activists at the event.

2008, the city’s Capital of Culture year, sees a chance for a truly inclusive strategy to be implemented which is youth led and implemented through a network of school’s councils.



The Benefits

DCLP has chosen not to seek funds that do not support the real needs of the locality. Rather than endure the restrictions and pressures that target driven, output assessed funds bring, the project has strengthened its position through volunteers’ efforts and small grants.

Working with sustained integrity and always for the common good, DCLP enjoys a high level of trust amongst local residents and agencies alike.

DCLP proves that with small amounts of money, a locally owned enterprise, operating consistently to identify and meet real needs of the area, can contribute very successfully to the local economy, creating work, saving money and changing lives.

Additionally, it reflects the reality of life in such communities. Driven as it is by local people there are no artificial , administratively convenient divisions to be overcome. DCLP is simultaneously and organically, a learning initiative, a health project, employment opportunity and social gathering resource for all ages. Its location at the heart and for many, quite literally at the centre of the area means that it met practical needs as well as earning the trust of local residents.



Key Recommendations

	Dingle Community Learning Programme illustrates the importance of genuine local ownership that leads to cost effective and efficient solutions to local problems. Contrary to a widely held view that aspirations in such communities are low, DCLP is evidence of residents' ambitions to take more responsibility and control of local decision making, further to do that through accessing the highest quality of learning including, where necessary, at HE level.
	DCLP offers the chance for large agencies to re learn the importance of facilitating local people in their development rather than imposing solutions or taking control.
	The continued waste of large amounts of public money would suggest that policy makers and large providers alike would do well to raise their ambitions for residents in communities such as Dingle. Indeed that they might seek ways to harness such skills and talents and to redirect them to sustainable development for everybody.

Key Quote

"We are a community, people know one another, everybody will muck in, everybody'll help, its neighbourly, everyone is not just out for themselves. We are looking out for one another." June, member of DCLPs founding committee.