Five dimensions of ambition

A bigger question

Our conversations with Pride in Place areas surfaced a host of practical challenges. But they also raised a bigger question about how to approach the work — is PiP just another government programme to invest £20m in our area, or is it something bigger?

At the more traditional end of the spectrum, we can see Pride in Place as an exercise in allocating funds. Money arrives, projects are chosen and delivered, and in 2036 we can point to things that were built, many of them capital improvements.

This is a legitimate approach, but at the frontier of community-led development people have developed more ambitious alternatives. We have noticed five such approaches, which we call ‘dimensions of ambition’. They are ways to use a programme like PiP to effect deeper change that goes beyond the programme, and well beyond £20m.

The dimensions are:

• 01
  Shift the storyChanging the story a place tells about itself — and the story others tell about it.
• 02
  Cultivate agencyGoing beyond consulting to empowering, so that local people can exercise, and truly feel, agency over their future.
• 03
  Strengthen relationshipsBuilding shared purpose between local institutions, and the relationships needed to deliver together.
• 04
  Crowd in capitalTreating Pride in Place's £20m as a floor, not a ceiling — drawing in private, public, and philanthropic investment.
• 05
  Shape the systemGiving local people a louder voice to guide how money is spent.

How to think about the dimensions

The dimensions are choices, rather than being a checklist. A local area does not need to maximise all of them, but choosing only one could risk being imbalanced. For example, if you go big on narrative alone, you might be seen as ‘all talk and no action’.

The key is for your approach to reflect your local context. One place might find it needs to start by shifting an ingrained local narrative. Another might feel the local area has a positive story, but needs to deliver by crowding new investment.

The goal is to be intentional. Pick the dimensions you would like to prioritise — two might be a good number to start with. Then ask yourselves, across all five: where are we now? And where do we want to be?

To help with these conversations, we have produced a simple self-assessment tool. As a local PiP area, you can use this tool to map your current state, and your aspirations. You could then repeat the conversation, over time, to see how you are progressing over one, three, and five years and beyond.

You can read more about each of the dimensions at the links above, illuminated by case studies. And you can try out the self-assessment tool here.