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All governments, at national and local levels, need strong and prosperous communities to deliver their policy agendas, especially at a time of financial restraint and cutbacks in state expenditure.

The future for many communities looks bleak, with rising unemployment, reduction in income to individuals and less funding coming into community projects in the area to meet the increased needs of local residents.

The developing concept of the Big Society focuses on people and communities taking on more responsibility for their situation and a much-reduced role for national and local government. This requires local people to develop new skills and confidence and for the remaining local government staff to have the skills and confidence to work with people in the communities.

All communities have their own issues and concerns but there is a huge disparity between the scale of the problems that confront communities and the assets and skills they have to resolve them. Every political party has a different approach to tackling some of the deep-seated problems that face many communities who have been described as poor, excluded, deprived, disadvantaged, or marginalised, with varying degrees of success.

There can be no quick fixes to improving the situation of such communities; it is a long term and slow process which supports communities and public bodies to bring about much needed change. Many of the problems facing such communities are the result of structural inequalities created by our economic system and major government and private sector investment and support will be required to provide some economic equity across the country.

Communities, even the poorest ones, possess skills and expertise that are often unrecognised and which can be used to rebuild and expand their capacity to cope with change and to contribute to improving their own situation.

Community Development has a long history of supporting poor and marginalised communities to agree on their priorities and to recognise the skills and expertise they already possess to begin to make some of the changes they want to see. It also enables them to access additional support and resources from outside of their own communities.

Community Development is a long term, bottom up, and collective approach to working with communities of place, interest or identity.· Time and again it has been shown to be an effective way of working and can have major impacts on the individuals within a community, on community groups, on the situation of the community itself and can help fulfil many government inspired policies.

This pack describes work which has contributed to the engagement and empowerment of communities, and demonstrates its relevance to the current governments views on Big Society and a reduced state.