As the UK Government’s Head of Civil Renewal, I devised the national ‘Together We Can’ programme (2003-2010) as an action-learning exercise to empower citizens to cooperate with each other and with public bodies to solve shared problems, and improve their quality of life. Listed below are resources that will inform you of what the programme covered and the practices it promoted on the basis of their effectiveness in advancing community empowerment.
A selection of resources
These are all available to download for free from the given links:
• ‘Together We Can’ action plan: the cross-government plan with commitments in the key public policy areas.
• Annex to ‘Together We Can’ action plan: with details of the proposed initiatives.
• ‘Together We Can’ 2005/2006 review: reports from the Secretaries of State and Ministers on progress in 12 Government Departments.
• ‘Guide Neighbourhoods’: how communities can learn cooperative problem-solving and civic activism from each other.
• ‘Take Part’: resources for ‘Active Learning for Active Citizenship’.
• ‘Quirk Review’: report on community management and ownership of public assets.
• ‘Asset Transfer Unit’: resources to support the transfer of assets to community-based organisations.
• ‘Participatory Budgeting’: resources to expand the use of participatory budgeting in deciding how to allocate public resources.
Supplementary Materials
Articles:
• ‘Rejuvenating Democracy: lessons from a communitarian experiment’: on the lessons from the ‘Together We Can’ programme and ‘Working with Communities’ initiative (first published in Forum Journal, Vol 53, Number 3, 2011).
• 'The Importance of Being a Citizen’ (Henry Tam): in Active Learning for Active Citizenship, ed. by John Annette & Marjorie Mayo, (NIACE, 2010)
• ‘Civil Renewal: the agenda for empowering citizens’ (Henry Tam), in Re-energizing Citizenship: Strategies for Civil Renewal, ed. by Gerry Stoker, Tessa Brannan, and Peter John, (Macmillan Palgrave, 2007).
Presentation:
• ‘Together We Can - tackle the power gap’, The Frontiers of Innovation Conference: 20 Years of Innovation in Government, the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation, University of Harvard, USA: 1/4/08: 'Innovations in Participation: Citizen Engagement in Deliberative Democracy’ (Henry Tam’s presentation begins at 33.40 minutes into the video)
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For a full listing of related resources, go to: Together We Can: resources for cooperative problem-solving
