Bearing Fruit

This project was designed and written by Charlotte Marwood, DTA Rural Enterprise Manager, and Steve Clare, DTA Assistant Director for the South.

Across the country there are many stunning examples of rural communities taking responsibility for their futures - through village shops, sustainable energy generation, local food projects, affordable housing and much much more.

This report looks at seven rural and semi-rural development trusts that have successfully developed and managed community assets.

Underpinning the whole project was a desire to see ‘what works’.

Current policy approaches to rural community development are often based on the perspective of rural deprivation and disadvantage. However, narrowly focusing on ‘need’ may often miss opportunities to acknowledge and build on a community’s strengths and resources. Accentuating the positives and building on existing success can be far more empowering and liberating. Our approach has therefore been to focus primarily not on the barriers to developing an asset base but on what has worked and how development trusts have overcome those perceived barriers – modelling success rather than failure.