Words and Misuse
In theory one way to understand what Regeneration means is to read the Bidding Guidance issued by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (the Government Department with overall responsibility for regeneration moneys and strategy). In their Guidance issued September 1998, they state the following:

"The SRB provides resources to support regeneration initiatives in England carried out by local partnerships. It is an important instrument in the Government's drive to tackle social exclusion and promote equality. Its priority is to enhance the quality of life of local people in areas of need by reducing the gap between deprived and other areas, and between different groups.'' (page 3 SRB Bidding Guidance).

Support regeneration
It is important to understand that although SRB may be worth £20 million or more to your local area, its real value is in the amount of money it can bring into the area. This is called 'leverage'. Unfortunately, some local authorities, local partnerships etc are not very good at obtaining support from the business sector and so the amount of leverage is less than it should be.

Local partnerships
One of the biggest barriers to Black community involvement is the fact that they are not involved in the planning, approval or allocation of regeneration money. This is a local issue, because the guidance explicitly states that:

• local communities should be involved in the preparation and implementation of bids
• Bids should mobilise the talents of all local people, including ethnic minorities, mosques etc.
• Bureaucracy should be minimised
• 10% of resources is for community capacity building

Tackle social exclusion and promote equality
All of the new initiatives that have come from the current Government have at the core this central principle of fighting exclusion and encouraging inclusion. This is important because that all current funding sources have a common political theme.
Promoting equality is not a success. Ministers are aware of this failing of the partnerships. Partnerships have tended to perceive quality of life in terms of jobs and buildings. The way people actually feel about their local area and about themselves (social regeneration) is a vital issue for local I Black communities, and Government Offices are seeking to change that balance.
An important issue is - who can best provide the vital elements of an improved quality, of life? As has been demonstrated by The Asian Health Agency, a community business that has principles can deliver all the needs of a client more effectively than statutory sector providers.

Funding
This is the first article of a series that I will be providing to the Newsletter and so I will not be going into more detail, but it is important to always consider why you want funding. What is available does not matter, what is important is what you want to do. Regeneration like all funding sources will to seek to shape you into a mould that is convenient to the funder. That weakens your ability to deliver, the principles that should be the base of your work, the confidence of those who would provide matched funding and the end product to your clients. So, consider this simple checklist:

• What do we want to do? (be explicit even in internal discussion)
• Who is the client group? (by age, gender etc)
• Who else is doing this work? (Do you need to compete or collaborate)
• When will we be ready to start? (Set your own timetable; don't simply react to funders' demands)
• How will I demonstrate success? (Look at monitoring forms, this may be reason enough not to bid if no one is committed to dealing with bureaucracy)
• Whom have I asked? (Consultation is important).

Most of all remember that there is help available.