Voluntary Action Charnwood's Community Development Service

We have a new Community Development Service, which seeks to build social capital for stronger communities, working at neighbourhood level in priority areas in Charnwood, promoting community engagement and active citizenship.

Amina Wadud, Janet Lewis and Cath Walker form this new Community Service Development Team and they are based in John Storer House when not working out in the local community.

They can be contacted as follows:

amina.wadud@voluntaryactioncharnwood.org.uk or telephone
01509 631787.

janet.lewis@voluntaryactioncharnwood.org.uk or telephone
01509 631785.

cath.walker@voluntaryactioncharnwood.org.uk or telephone
01509 631784.

Excerpt For The Community Development Service From New Services Brochure 2009 - 2010

Amina Wadud, Cath Walker and Sallianne Bishop - Community Development Workers (CDW's)

Building Social Capital for Stronger Communities

The Community Development Service is a new initiative in 2009 working mainly in the four priority neighbourhoods in Charnwood. In the early phase, workers have been mapping local communities and neighbourhoods and making links with groups, agencies and elected representatives in order to identify community needs, as distinct from problems suffered by individuals and families.
They are now actively networking and supporting local events with a view to building stronger communities in line with the funding for the work under the Leicestershire Local Agreement. A key feature is the increasing of social capital, often referred to as neighbourliness and also a term used to combine cohesion and empowerment for local communities.
The targets are to achieve a 5% increase of the following National Indicators (NI), co-ordinated by Leicestershire Together:
· NI 1- people believe people from different backgrounds get on well together in their local area
· NI 2 - people feel they belong to their neighbourhood
· NI 4 - people feel they can influence key decisions about their locality
· NI - 6 participation in regular volunteering

As well as working to build the capacity of community groups into voluntary organisations, CDW’s will liaise with VAL staff (see page 18) to develop and sustain voluntary action. In each priority ward it is hoped to identify and support at least one ‘Community Anchor’ organisation, possibly an existing group or association. Ideally the community will be able to meet its own needs or be in control of agencies working in their areas.

Hastings and Lemyngton Wards in Loughborough – Amina Wadud

The Loughborough East Priority Neighbourhood is an urban area characterised by high levels of deprivation and has a relatively large Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) population. Bell Foundry, within Hastings, has the highest deprivation in Leicestershire.*
Amina has linked in with Hastings Community Association and is working to support the Town Centre Collective to establish a community house on Peel Drive. This is a new initiative supported by Charnwood Borough Council’s Neighbourhood Management Team, where local residents can access services.

Ashby Road Estate and Warwick Way, Loughborough – Sallianne Bishop (until August 2009)

The Loughborough West Priority Neighbourhood Area experiences high levels of multiple deprivation, made up of several factors including income, employment, education, health and living environment. The area rates within the 10% most deprived in Leicestershire.* Intervention work is planned to take place within Warwick Way, which will include the exploration of providing a community facility.

Mountsorrel and Charnwood South Priority Neighbourhoods – Cath Walker

People living in Mountsorrel experience moderate levels of deprivation relating to income, education, employment and health and has a larger proportion of younger people than in the County overall*. Charnwood South Priority Neighbourhood includes parts of Syston and Thurmaston

Syston neighbourhood has a relatively large population of older people and compared to other wards in Charnwood, Syston East is amongst those with the smallest proportion of children eating the recommended daily allowance of fruit and vegetables. But in general it does not suffer from high levels of deprivation.*
Thurmaston has moderate levels of deprivation (the most prominent being income affecting older people, education, skills and training). *
(* = taken from Neighbourhood profiles, LCC, December 2007)

Joint Working

We are working closely with colleagues from Charnwood Borough Council’s Neighbourhood Management Team, Charnwood Neighbourhood Housing, Police and other agencies and voluntary sector organisations; participating in Ward Walks, Action Weeks, arranging meetings, supporting community events and initiatives.

Community Engagement – (Neighbourhood Forums)

We are making every possible effort to get local people active and engaged to build stronger communities. We want to ensure we support local people in between interventions from the Council. Support may be informal, and happen alongside other meetings and events. Representatives from neighbourhoods will be encouraged and supported to attend formal meetings.

Area Forums

The team is actively working to improve public engagement in Area Forums, held in seven areas across Charnwood. The forums give the public the opportunity to discuss local services and raise issues with county, borough and parish councillors and service providers, including the police, health, the county, borough, town and parish councils. Details of the forums can be found on: www.leicestershireforums.org

Involvement in forums - District Forums

These are often based on themes such as Health and Social Care, either a specific aspect such as voluntary sector mental health or disability forum or more generally the Charnwood Together Health and Well-being Forum. These forums are often referred to as communities of interest, rather than place. A number of such forums and networks meet and are being increasingly connected to County-level.

At county level forums are more likely to be partnerships, called ‘boards’ and more formal in nature including powers to make decisions and affect public expenditure. Councillors are often involved, but VCS representatives are increasingly influential.

For further information, please contact
Amina Wadud on 01509 631787 or amina.wadud@
voluntaryactioncharnwood.org.uk

Cath Walker on 01509 631784 or cath.walker@
voluntaryactioncharnwood.org.uk

Sallianne Bishop on 01509 631785 or sallianne.bishop@
voluntaryactioncharnwood.org.uk
(Sallianne leaves in August 2009)

Important Changes to Capacity Building Service in 2009

Voluntary Action Charnwood Capacity Building Service can assist you in setting up and running your group/organisation up until the 13th February '09
Capacity building will be continued by Voluntary Action Leicester (VAL) from April '09. After April, please contact VAL at 9 Newarke Street Leicester LE1 5S. Telephone 0116 258 0666 http://www.voluntaryactionleicester.org.uk/

We can help you, for example, with:

• setting up a group or organisation
• a constitution
• roles of committee members (Chair, Secretary and Treasurer)
• supporting trustees
• registering as a charity
• policies, such as an Equal Opportunities policy
• looking for funding (see funding page of this website)
• PQASSO (Practical Quality Assurance System for Small Organisations). See the page link below

Social Capial Surveys

In 2006 surveys were undertaken in three Charnwood wards: Loughborough Hastings, Syston and the Wolds. The survey was held to measure 'social capital' in these areas.

Social capital describes the pattern and intensity of networks among people and the shared values that arise for those networks. The main aspects of Social Capital are citizenship, neighbourliness, trust and shared values, community involvement, volunteering, social networks and civic participation.

The results of the surveys can be downloaded, below.

See Voluntary Action Charnwood' newsletter, for updates about the Service. Please click on the link below.