Building connections, getting involved : measuring social capital outcomes of community learning and development : full report

The impact of the projects on people’s lives and experiences are without doubt positively contributing to their social capital in terms of extending social networks, trust, civic engagement, power to achieve things, and the bridges they are able to build with individuals and groups within and outwith their communities. The research confirms that community based learning can create a stronger sense of personal and social efficacy. There are clear and definitive changes in bonding and bridging social capital as well as civic engagement. The positive experience of involvement and enhanced confidence and skills is likely to encourage greater participation in other civic groups and community activities. We need to qualify this, however, by recognising what works for some people may not work for all. Also an unintended outcome is that the experience of involvement can lead to more selective forms of participation through a more astute awareness of the tokenistic exercise of power