The Community Empowerment and Cohesion Award Scheme is sponsored by NWTWC and supported by Government Office North West, North West Improvement and Efficiency Partnership (NWIEP), Neighbourhoods NW and the Institute for Political and Economic Governance (IPEG) at The University of Manchester.
The Scheme is designed to showcase the impact of good Community Empowerment and Cohesion activity in the North West as carried out by any Local Authority or Council, or public sector organisation. The Award Scheme will also assist Authorities undertaking Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) by highlighting their good practice in delivering empowerment and social cohesion initiatives.
The benefits of the Scheme are that is offers a way of independently validating and proving the worth of good empowerment and social
cohesion activity.
For more details contact Eve Davidson on 0161 218 1789.
Our first NWTWC Newsletter for 2010 has been punblished and we are busy sending it to our contacts across the North West and beyond.
If you would like a copy please email karen.haughton@stockport.gov.uk with your details including postal adddress and we shall be happy to send you one or more.
To download a PDF version of the newsletter please click this link
Government Office North West are working with the North West Community Activists Network (NWCAN) in their aim to support local people who want to get involved in community action and local decision making.
NWCAN want to reach people wherever they are in the North West with a particular focus on the 18 North West Connecting Communities areas.
Click link for more information about the areas: http://www.gos.gov.uk/gonw/PeopleSustainableCommunities/885175/?a=42496
NWCAN have produced a flyer, funded by NWTWC, to reach as many people as possible.
This will be followed by a conference in late March, further information to follow.
If you want paper copies of these flyers, brochures or want to discuss with CAN please contact them direct on 01942 700060 or 07821 201 136.
Download a copy of the NWCAN flyer here
This Arise and Shine advocacy project, funded by NWTWC, aims to increase understanding of the issues faced by women asylum seekers and refugees amongst those who provide services to this community or play a role in developing policy which touches them in some way. Please see our events section for more details about the play, workshops and booking information.
We are pleased to announce another programme of three Action Learning Sets fully funded by NWTWC and delivered by Faiths4Change for 2010 in Burnley, Speke and Oldham. The theme is Empowerment, Equality and Economic Inclusion and places are free but limited. Visit our events page for individual programme and booking details.
Friday 22nd January 2010 at GHS Centre, Gujarati Centre, Preston from 9.30am closing at 1pm with networking lunch.
This event will establish a regional community of practice. It is an opportunity to come together with others in the NW to share experiences, identlfy what works and what is proving to be more challenging. It will be highly participative with plenty of time to discuss issues and agree priorities for learning. By the end of the morning there will be clarity over how people want to take forward their learning through further workshops, study visits or other activities.
This free event is aimed at practitioners, managers and policy makers interested in improving their understanding and practice relating to Community Empowerment and the Duty to Involve.
This series of communities of interest is developed by Alison Gilchrist, a national community development consultant who has over 25 years experience in the field of community development and has recently published 'The well-connected community: a networking approach to community development.'
Vists Neighbourhoods NW website for more details
Following the recent NWTWC Partnership Board Meeting we are pleased to annouce the election of Richard Caulfield, Chief Executive, Voluntary Sector North West as the new Chair of NWTWC.
Communities secretary John Denham has outlined measures to reinvigorate and connect with areas hit by the recession most acutely to ensure they are well placed to emerge stronger and more cohesive.
Some 100 areas of the country have been identified as the focus of a targeted programme, with 27 neighbourhoods across 21 local authorities to be involved in the initial phase. Each area is to draw up specific plans based on local challenges. Responses are likely to focus on three common areas: Leadership, Giving people a voice and Increased opportunities.
More details to follow.
Click here to visit Communities and Local Government web page.
North West Community Activists CAN Get Connected! Join Us!
Monday 21st December 2009 at St Thomas Centre, Manchester.
The main focus will be learning and sharing the 'Connecting Communities' initiative the Government recently launched in 18 areas across the North West. It's an opportunity for community activists to come together to discuss, make suggestions, provide support and plan activity that's important for community activists, especially in these Connecting Communities areas.
Just as important, the event will also be:
Community Development Foundation are launching an England - wide survey of community development workers and managers which will update and improve on the survey conducted in 2003.
If you are doing any of the following then CDF want to hear from you;
Your information and experience will be used to raise the profile of community development nationally and locally and will form part of a published report on Community Development Workers and Managers due to be released March 2010.
To take part you need to register you interest by contacting research@cdf.org.uk or call Helena Sender, Research Officer at CDF on 0207 812 5451.
Download an information leaflet here
The Government published its Empowerment White Paper on 9th July, setting out Communities and Local Government’s (CLG) vision for the future of democracy, society and citizens.
The White Paper focuses on seven areas – all from the perspective of an individual citizen. They are: active citizens, access to information, having an influence, accountability, redress, standing for office and community control.
Click here to read the White Paper.
NWTWC will be organising Seminars over the next few months in all 5 sub-regions in the North West which will look at these different aspects of the White Paper.
14th & 15th September 2009 at Bowrick Hall, nr Carnforth.
The North West region has thousands of local people who are already very active in their local communities. Many work tirelessly in their own communities, without payment and often with little support from official bodies and are an inspiration to others. These “unsung heroes” work to improve their own lives as well as the people around them and often act as leaders in their local communities. By working across boundaries, members of the Community Activists Network have the chance to bring these ideas together, support each other and be part of a campaign to improve people’s lives and services.
As there are limited places for this residential a restriction may be placed on numbers from particular groups or areas.
For more details contact Dave Hannay, Community North West on 01282 692323, email info@communitynw.org.uk or visit www.communitynw.org.uk
CAN have also set up a webiste to share ideas.
Saturday 12th September - Manchester Metropolitan University, Didsbury Campus
Transition journeys point the way for Communities for Change An innovative project in Greater Manchester is highlighting and celebrating community organisations involved in grassroots environmental change.
Culminating with the Communities for Change event on Saturday 12th September at MMU's Didsbury campus the projects will see a series of Transition Journeys throughout Greater Manchester in which community groups taking action on the environment will travel by low carbon transport to visit and learn from each other's projects. Communities for Change is overseen and funded by a community empowerment partnership including Manchester Metropolitan University, Community North West, the Federation of Community Development Learning, Neighbourhoods North West and North West Together We Can.
Transition Journeys
As a prelude to the Communities for Change event the Transition Journeys project will build momentum and get groups all over Greater Manchester thinking about sustainability. During July, August and September people involved in community-led environmental projects will embark on a series of Transition Journeys throughout Greater Manchester. Each journey features a different form of low carbon transportation including bikes, trains, canal boats and even a red routemaster double decker bus.
Participants on the Transition Journeys will visit each other's projects learning and being inspired by stories of environmental change, from community cafes and urban farms to centres of sustainability and education.
Over 25 groups will take part in Transition Journeys all over Greater Manchester including Wigan, Tameside, Manchester, Stockport and High Peak.
Communities for Change
Featuring films, music, food and discussion, the Communities for Change event will take place 10am-4pm, on Saturday 12th September 2009 at Manchester Metropolitan University's Didsbury campus. Attended by over 50 community and Transition Town groups taking action on the environment and sustainability, the event will offer a chance for networking, inspiration and exchange. It will showcase amazing projects in which people and communities work together, featuring everything from bikes, to food, solar panels and allotments.
The event will also feature documentation and stories from the Transition Journeys. Films, photographs and audio stories will track the journeys while participants will be on hand to share experiences.
The event is free but spaces are limited and booking is essential, contact Hilda at Community North West on 01282 692 323 or email info@communitynw.org.uk
Between January and March 2009, the GAP Unit led self-esteem and group-building sessions with migrant, refugee and asylum seeker women’s organisations in Greater Manchester and Merseyside. The aim was to strengthen their identity as groups and facilitate discussion of the issues and problems they face as women who are creating new lives in a foreign country. Traumatic experiences typically precede their arrival in the UK, while their reception and treatment here has all-to-often been hostile or indifferent.
Saturday’s event was a chance for representatives these groups to come together in a unique celebration of the rich cultural heritage they bring to the region, and to empower one another through exchange of stories, strategies and contacts, including details of local and national campaigns and coalitions which are working to promote the rights of migrants.
The main workshop was a learning exchange based on the project outcomes of the previous months. It focussed questions such as: What are our needs? What keeps us going? What do UK authorities need to hear so policies can be more just and sensitive to our needs? How can we support each other? How can we build the future we want for ourselves and our families?
Then a sumptuous shared meal cooked by women from Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, China and Iran was followed by spontaneous singing, dancing and drumming. In an activity inspired by a poem written by one of the Arise and Shine! participants, the women adorned the bare branches of a painted tree with leaves bearing their hopes for the future.
Refugees and other migrant women have many ideas for simple actions which UK authorities could implement to make the immigration system more humane. The Arise and Shine! project is helping women consider what they can do together to make their voices heard and to support one another and future arrivals from their countries. A full project report, incorporating all the suggestions gathered between January and March and the outcomes of the Gathering, is forthcoming.
Thirty-four children, aged 4 months to 14 years, accompanied their mothers to the event. The majority of these women could not have attended without the onsite crèche generously financed by Oxfam UK Poverty Programme.
Women’s groups represented at the Arise and Shine! Gathering:
Merseyside Refugee & Asylum Seekers Pre & Post Natal Support Group (MRANG)
Wai Yin Chinese Women’s Postnatal Peer Group Migrants Supporting Migrants
British Red Cross Women’s Integration and Support Group (WISP) – Manchester
British Red Cross Women’s Integration and Support Group (WISP) – Bolton Bolton
Refugee Action Gateway Protection Iraqi Women’s Group Zimbabwe Women’s
Organisation Women Asylum Seekers Together (WAST)
GAP Unit, formerly the Gender and Participation Unit, is a Community Interest Company based in Hulme, Manchester. We carry out research and training for the promotion of gender equality across the public and community sectors and work with women’s groups on issues of self-esteem and empowerment.
Contact: Hannah Berry, GAP Unit, Unit 1, Work for Change, 41 Old Birley St, Manchester M15 5RF 0161 232 727 • hanberuk@yahoo.co.uk • www.gapunit.org (under construction).
NWTWC recently commissioned research on assessing the current state of practice and issues around monitoring, measuring and using community empowerment indicators for improvement, particularly focusing on NI4. A report has now been published which includes collation of evidence and data in the North West from local authorities, as well as a deeper understanding of issues facing local government and its partners.
These findings have been presented to the NWTWC Board, and to GONW.
NWTWC is now working with GONW to organise sub-regional Roadshows which will help Local Authorities to meet their targets through sharing good practice around managing risk and effective interventions. Further information to follow soon.
Community Development Foundation has produced a new guide to help authorities prepare for and meet the new duty that is essential reading for anyone who wants to involve local people in a meaningful way that really helps the communities they work in. For further information visit their website www.cdf.org.uk