Sustainable communities must be safe and inclusive, and offer equality and opportunity for all.  With the acute economic downturn, the challenges in achieving sustainable rural and urban communities have multiplied. With an in-depth understanding of the local development and community and voluntary sector across Europe and beyond, we can offer a unique service perspective to the planning and organisation of community activity through:

• Group formation/pre-development                         • Legal Structures                         • Action Learning;
• Project Management                                              • Funding/funding applications.

With the economic downturn, unemployment has re-emerged as a major concern for the first time in a generation.  As the number of redundancies spiral, the challenge will be to generate jobs and then match jobs to workers.  However, sight must not be lost of those affected by long-term unemployment.  Encouraging active economic participation among this group is very difficult, taking time and resources. In working towards genuinely sustainable communities, the deep-seated challenge of inter-generational unemployment needs to remain a priority. Our services and expertise include the following:

• Rural and urban community development, particularly at a local level.
• Group facilitation to support awareness-building and empowerment.
• Policy and practice linked to addressing unemployment through labour-market, educational and skilling interventions.
• Environmental aspects of economic development, including advice on low carbon growth and mitigating and adapting to climate change.
• Developing environmentally friendly niche tourism initiatives, particularly in a rural setting.
• Developing eco-villages that respond to a carbon-neutral aspiration.
• Valuing the environment and environmental impact assessments.
• Improving rural public transport services.
• Mainstreaming sustainable development.