Communities
Communities have the answer.
Welcome to EOA
EOA offers both direct project delivery and consultancy. Having been
a highly successful local regeneration agency EOA now operates across
the UK and in Europe. Community Consultation
EOA are specialists in community consultation. We offer consultancy and training covering:
- An introduction to participatory consultation - ethos and principles
- Statutory requirements - developments in Government guidelines and legislation
- Stakeholder analysis - who needs to be consulted
- How to design a consultation - including setting objcetives and parameters,
- Methods and resource implications - including participatory video, mapping, models, decision matrices.
- How to sell consultation - internally and externally.
- The pitfalls of consultation and how to avoid them - including how to deal with lobby groups, conflict management, results you don't like, dealing with the media.
- Evaluation - how to effectively report, utilize, and feedback the outcomes of consultation.
EOA also offers consultation management and delivery to organisations and agencies within Oxfordshire and the Thames Valley area.
For video examples of EOA's approach to consultation:
Cowley Road Matters (wmv format). Please note this a large file and could take some time to download.
Community Mapping
In order to deliver a successful transformation of a community, you need to understand that community. This is the first step in any EOA regeneration initiative. The mapping of communities includes understanding the way a community behaves in a locality, where are the meeting points, what are the routes through the landscape. The map also needs to have a historical dimension— places came into existence for a reason, such as a major junction of roads, a market place or industry, they go into decline when something happens to remove these reasons. It also needs to identify what the mental and emotional landscape—what the community cares about. Community focal points may be social or they may be physical, but they can trip up those who try to plan change without understanding.
Social Capital
Social
capitalA key concept for EOA's approach is that of social capital. The development of positive social capital is a key tool in transformative planning. EOA believes that it is crucial to develop all types of social capital - bonding, bridging and linking - within disadvantaged communities to enable them to achieve their potential.
EOA offers training and consultancy on how to develop social capital and to use it in regeneration.
For information on transformative planning download the briefing document on
Transformative Planning (pdf format).
Inclusion of disadvantaged groups and
communities
EOA is a specialist in engaging and
including disadvantaged groups and communities in consultations,
designing and delivering regeneration and other programmes. These approaches includes using non-literacy bases methodologies eg mapping, visual arts and participatory video, developing community champions and social capital.
See also social inclusion.