It's our community

It’s Our Community (IOC) started in 2011 and was a project to explore and share how communities come together to take ownership of local assets and services. It explored best practice from community ownerships projects in the UK, France, Portugal and Germany. Overview of project and its achievements By developing guidance, undertaking research and holding events, the IOC project supported community ownership on the ground in the UK and elsewhere through connecting ideas, support and resource. It produced guidance on enabling community-owned projects to develop, from their initial ideas towards a sustainable and thriving formal entity. It also provided in-depth case studies on how community led projects respond to local needs across England and identified how very local community projects can be creative in a challenging environment. A policy report was published making recommendations on what needs to be in place to provide the right conditions for continued community-led action, and also the work that needs to be carried out by governments to link up localised responses. As part of NCVO’s work on how European Structural and Investment Funds could be used to better benefit communities, IOC conducted research on opportunities for community-based organisations: ‘Building capacity in individuals and communities: the value of funds small projects learning from the European Social Fund community grants programme 2011-2013’. The final report ‘It’s Our Community – Innovations in community-led services’ was focussed on the experience of small community-led projects in England, and how communities come together to drive innovative service delivery to address local need.