Services

Community finance, and specifically the Community Bank Account, is central to this range of services. Horizontal Learning Networks underpin delivery as a methodology and as an operational principle.

Banking and finance are fundamental to the development of any economic activity. A guiding principle for RSN is that, if harnessed to addressing community needs and circulated within the community, rather than draining resources away from it, banking and finance can and should act as a catalyst for community regeneration. The Community Bank Account is described below in the context of the Community Banking Partnership. However, it also has the potential to play a key role in facilitating the operation and financial viability of other schemes, involving, for example, food and energy.

Success also depends on co-operation between a range of agencies, operating in the private, public and third sectors. Horisontal learning networks identify common interests and the links between sectors and explore how they can work together, each taking responsibility for areas in which they have strengths and co-operating to enable others to do the same.

From that starting point, RSN is delivering a strategic set of technical aid and social investment services covering:-

• Programmes, products and services

• Education in mutuality and tools for decentralisation

• Advice and information services: managerial, technical, legal and evaluative

• Capitalisation and lending services

• Experimentation with new mutuality models