Consultation or active participation? Using the right tools to involve local people.

Participatory Appraisal enables people to participate in an open debate, to have their say and actively determine key issues. Community Arts also attempts to give people the tools to be confident participants and go on to help communities discover, develop and use their creative abilities, through the arts, to express themselves and to find their voice. It is the interplay between the two that enables both workers and participants to see things differently, to think laterally and to come up with new answers and discover new solutions. This article explores the process and results of combining the two tools - Participatory Appraisal and Community Arts (particularly video) - in Blakenall, UK. The aim was to develop innovative ways of consulting with local people to involve them in defining a natural community and to identify key issues of concern.