Notting Hill Carnival Strategic Review - Intelligent Space

Carnival as Part of a Wider Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal
Carnival and Regeneration
4.1 The Notting Hill Carnival represents a ‘community of interest’ - people linked together by a
shared vision and concern. The history of Carnival is a clear demonstration of how, in adverse
conditions, a cultural event became a vehicle for community self-help, a movement towards
self-sufficiency, empowerment, participation and involvement. The Home Office’s Active
Community Unit has recognised the benefits of such communities of interest 83 and has argued
that the economic value of these benefits can be measured - the value of volunteering activity
undertaken within the costume bands or the money which Carnival bands bring into the
locality through grant applications and fundraising - are all examples of quantifiable benefits.
Active self-help is one of the common pre-conditions for sustained regeneration. Less easily
measurable are the changes in attitude that self-help brings. Organising mutual support
increases people’s self confidence and their belief that they can affect the circumstances of
their own lives. It can also act as a stepping-stone to more formal links with wider society.
4.2 One example of a self-help initiative developed by the Notting Hill Carnival which was linked
to a wider society agenda and policy was the Carnival Industrial Projects (CIP). Operating
between 1982 and 1987, CIP provided some of the first Carnival-centred vocational
workshops in the country. Based West London, the project was part of the government’s
Youth Training Scheme 84 . Managed by Victor Critchlowe, the chairman of the Caribbean
Music Association, students attended classes on a daily basis. The training programme
consisted of a series of workshops designed to teach young people about all aspects of the
Carnival and specific carnival skills. Participants were taught silk screen-printing, costume
making, wire-bending, welding and steel-pan making. Many of the Project’s graduates are
still involved in Carnival today and some have used it is as a stepping-stone for further
training, educational purposes or business enterprise. One participant went on to establish his
own business, the Happy Cobbler, on Goldbourne Road. Twenty years on, workshops with
children, young people and adults are now taking place across London.
Carnival and Neighbourhood Renewal
4.3 Historically, neighbourhood renewal programmes have been imposed from the top down with
little or no involvement from the communities that were supposed to be the beneficiaries of
such programmes. In a 1998 report on neighbourhood renewal 85 , the Government’s Social
Exclusion Unit’s (SEU) argued that the success of such regeneration programmes would
greatly depend upon the target communities themselves having the power and taking
responsibility to make things better. The Policy Action Team (PAT 10) established by SEU,
under the auspices of the Department of Culture Media and Sports (DCMS) to examine how
to maximise the contribution and impact of arts, sports and leisure on neighbourhood
regeneration, recognised the beneficial social outcomes:
83
Home Office Active Community Unit: Report of the Policy Action Team on Community Self-Help (1999)
84
The Youth Training Scheme (YTS) was seen as a bridge between school and work and it provided training for young people who were
unemployed. CIP therefore developed strong links with the Manpower Services Commission (MSC).
85
‘Bringing Britain Together: A National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal’ (1998), Social Exclusion Unit
138