Category

• Emerging Local Practice

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Poverty impact

• Prevention
• Mitigation
• Reduction

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Poverty driver

• Provide benefit in-kind (experience)
• Increase income from benefits
• Increase employment income

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Keywords

• Integrated Asset-based support
• Place-based approach
• Listening conversations
• Community engagement
• Deprived neighbourhoods

Aim

The Project's aim is to lift the neighbourhoods of Bingham, Magdalene, and The Hays out of poverty and improve their SIMD classification as being amongst Scotland's poorest neighbourhoods.

Summary

Community Renewal: Lifting Neighbourhoods Together (CRLNT) is an innovative approach, grounded in 20 years of expertise from Community Renewal Trust, ending persistent poverty in the most deprived neighbourhoods in Edinburgh and Newcastle. Currently active in Bingham, Magdalene, and The Hays (Edinburgh), with partner organisation Building Futures East replicating it in Walker (Newcastle), the project combines community development and case management tools to engage deeply with individuals and families. By reorganising existing resources and ensuring support is holistic, flexible, and resident-led, the project follows a whole-person, whole-place approach, fostering lasting transformation and empowering communities to lift themselves out of persistent poverty.

What difference does it make?

Community Renewal: Lifting Neighbourhoods Together (CRLNT) has demonstrated measurable positive impacts in deprived neighbourhoods through its holistic, resident-led approach. Independent evaluations conducted by the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR) at Sheffield Hallam University have assessed the project’s effectiveness. The baseline evaluation, published in February 2022, outlines the project’s methods and intended outcomes, providing a framework for assessing its impact over time. This evidence highlights CRLNT’s role in addressing persistent poverty and fostering sustainable improvements in quality of life, health, and employment.

Key take-aways

• There is a vital need for a focus on hyper-local neighbourhoods as the main organisation level of public services – it has more potential to be tangible, well-targeted, operate at a human level and foster trusted relationships.
• Evidence indicates that mitigating poverty, rather than seeking to end it, simply entrenches inequality and prevents change.
• Multiple rounds of visioning, three horizons and action learning are useful to embed change.
• They developed seven very impactful values which can be taught and embedded into their organisation or others. They discovered that orientating their work and staff learning around these values was more impactful than trying to have fixed methodologies that were taught.
• Recruiting core staff with lived experience and a strong alignment to the desired values and culture rather than broader service delivery experience.

 

Organisations

Main Partner Organisations: - Community Renewal Trust (CRT) – Manages the Community Renewal: Lifting Neighbourhoods Together (CRLNT) project in Edinburgh, providing guidance, training, and consultancy. - Building Futures East – Leads LNT in Newcastle (Walker) under the guidance of Community Renewal Trust. - National Lottery Community Fund - Funds the project. Other Partners: A range of organisations contribute to LNT in each area, depending on local needs and the availability of partners. In Edinburgh, the CRLNT team includes seconded staff from: • An employability project run by Capital City Partnership (funding from Edinburgh City Council). • A health and social care project, with health managers from a Health and Social Care Partnership initiative. • A welfare rights and community coordination project (funded by the Scottish Government). Additionally, there are working partnerships with statutory sector staff based in CRLNT buildings, supporting local residents. This includes: • Department for Work and Pensions • Social Security Scotland • Skills Development Scotland. There are also close working partnerships with other public sector departments, particularly: • Housing Departments – Strong links with local housing officers and housing association boards. • Public health – CRT and Public Health co-founded a new practitioner network for housing, health and public sector workers in Craigmillar. • Housing Associations – Formal partnerships with: Places for People – A key housing landlord in Edinburgh neighbourhood. CRT supports their community development site and operates a community pantry; Wheatley Group – Currently building additional housing on the outskirts of the project’s target neighbourhoods. Wider Community Partnerships: • Community centres – Two centres within the target neighbourhoods • Growing groups – e.g. Magdalene Brewers, Bingham Growers • Faith groups –e.g. Hope Church Bingham, Blackwell • Healthcare providers – GPs and community workers • Family support services – e.g. Home-Start • Arts and cultural groups – e.g. Art Buds Collective, Branching Out • Vocational and education organisations – ACE IT, The Bike Shed, Jewellery social enterprise

Location

Deprived neighbourhoods in Edinburgh (Bingham, Magdalene and the Hays) and Newcastle (Walker)

Contact