FAQs

Neighbourhood improvement means helping make local communities more vibrant, healthy, connected and better places for residents to live, meeting the needs and aspirations of people who live there. 3ni’s work is particularly targeted towards those neighbourhoods with the lowest levels of social infrastructure and social capital and the highest levels of economic deprivation and community need, as research shows that residents in these areas experience some of the worse outcomes across health, wellbeing, employment and education outcomes.

‘Doubly disadvantaged’, (sometimes called ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods) are disinvested communities that suffer from a combination of social and economic deprivation, poor connectivity (physical and digital), low levels of community engagement and a lack of community spaces and places. They are identified on the basis that they rank in the top 10% of the Community Needs Index and Index of Multiple Deprivation.

Read more about how our Discovery diagnostic tool can help map levels and dimensions of community need, and identify doubly disadvantaged neighbourhoods in your area here.

We use the term to describe an aea because it captures how communities facing the double disadvantage of high deprivation and low levels of social infrastructure have tended not to receive their fair share of available investment and therefore lack the services and facilities that many of us take for granted.

This is why we might also refer to these neighbourhoods as disinvested neighbourhoods.

They have previously also been referred to as ‘left behind’, although recognise that this can be contentious. ‘Left behind’ does not imply that the areas so described lack people with skills and commitment or a rich heritage, but rather was used to capture the entrenched disadvantage resulting from a historical lack of resources and opportunity.

Capacity building supports individuals to develop skills and abilities that will give them greater control over their own lives and the decisions affecting their community. When local authorities invest to build communities’ capacity, it creates more resilient communities that are better equipped to confront economic and social challenges, thereby saving costs in the long-term.

An asset-based approach is one that nurtures and builds upon the strengths and resources that already exist in a given community, rather than programmes that overlook those strengths and resources and seek to impose a top-down, off-the-shelf programme.

Hyper-local means being limited to a small, specific, geographical area, perhaps comparable in size but not having the same boundaries as an electoral ward, or a cluster of Lower-Layer Super Output Areas so a population size of between 4,000 and 10,000 people. One of the benefits of adopting a hyper-local approach is that it enables the identification and targeting of pockets of deprivation and community need that can often be overlooked when working at a higher spatial level.

The network is free to join.

The network welcomes full membership by local government officers and others working in public sector agencies to create stronger, more cohesive and resilient communities, deliver neighbourhood improvement, renewal and regeneration, support local economic development, and improve health and wellbeing outcomes.

We also welcome associate memberships from individuals and organisations with an interest in the neighbourhood improvement agenda.

Join using the form here.