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Take Part
The Take Part approach
Take Part has helped people gain the skills, knowledge and confidence to become empowered, enabling them to make an active contribution to their communities and influence public policies and services.
Take Part learning has been a distinctive and proven approach has enabled people to make a difference in their community by focusing on:
- community-based learning to build the skills, confidence and experience needed to tackle local political, social and technical challenges
- an informal, practical approach that gives people an understanding of how power works and how they can learn to influence decisions and policies
- open dialogue and reflection as key learning tools, recognising that change in a community emerges from individuals working together
The Take Part programme
Funded by the Department for Communities and Local Government and managed by CDF, the Take Part programme was a three-year initiative to develop and promote the Take Part approach as a successful means of increasing community empowerment and engagement, especially in communities facing greater challenges. The programme ended on 31 March 2011. As part of the legacy of this work, there is an independent Take Part website with more information about the Take Part approach here.
The Take Part programme final evaluation is now available: download Take Part final evaluation.
The Take Part pathfinders
The Take Part pathfinders, built on the existing Take Part network, and provided Take Part learning around England. Each local pathfinder was a partnership between local authorities, third sector bodies and educational institutions, coordinated by one lead organisation. Links to each of the pathfinders can be found on the right.
A pathfinder was responsible for providing learning using the Take Part approach in their local area through a programme that included:
- learning opportunities that build skills and confidence
- community leadership development offering tailored support leading to civic activism and/or lay governance roles
- information about the availability of opportunities for influence and lay governance involvement across the public sector in the locality, and support for greater mobility between such roles
- access to accreditation for citizenship learning and skills development where it is required.
The national support programme
There was also a national element to the Take Part Pathfinder programme which aimed to promote and develop the Take Part approach across the country. This included:
- ‘Train the Trainers' courses so that more people will have the skills to provide practical support, leading to more people trained in areas outside as well as inside the pathfinder areas.
A report on 'Train the Trainers' is available for download: Train the Trainers report.
- Development of the existing Take Part learning framework, by drawing on other existing models and materials to extend its scope, by developing new resources and trainers' packs and by advising on its wider use. This work, carried out by Ekosgen in partnership with the Institute of Community Cohesion and IT-West, resulted in the development of an online resource, the Take Part directory.
- Targeted ‘How To' guides and other tools to meet identified gaps of support to help particular groups assume community leadership positions.
- Initiatives to encourage and engage more learning providers beyond the Take Part pathfinders to adopt the practices successfully rolled out by the pathfinders.