ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some aspects of the English experience of community development work with self help groups. It draws heavily upon the author's involvement with a single pioneering project, the Nottingham Self Help Team. The Self Help Team is the longest-established local self help support centre in England and at the beginning of the authors' series of seminars it was the only one which could present results of systematic monitoring and evaluation. The Self Help National Network holds an annual meeting of workers and researchers who are engaged in work with self help groups in a local setting. Responsibility for overseeing the development of the projects and providing central support was delegated to a consortium of national voluntary organizations, The Self Help Alliance. The National Self Help Support Centre is an independent initiative sponsored by two major national voluntary organizations, the Volunteer Centre and the National Council for Voluntary Organizations.
