Neighbourhood-based projects often tackle more than one problem at the same time, and can be very cross-cutting in nature. This aspect can often get lost in the desire to create thematic strategies – typically framed as reducing crime, improving health, cleaner and greener and so on. To improve this it is worth having a combination of thematic and cross-cutting aims working in tandem. In particular for neighbourhoods, it is worth considering how each project not only achieves a substantive aim but also builds local capacity or develops the community. There can be many other combinations, such as the creation of social enterprises or work opportunities alongside capital investments in local housing and other buildings.
In EC1, this was most apparent in choices about who should deliver local projects. In a number of cases, when a service need was identified local organisations were invited to bid and the choice was often influenced by the ability of the service provider to build local capacity – for example, one organisation helping families with drug and alcohol problems was chosen because they proposed to work by building the skills of existing front-line workers rather than taking a casework approach.
