Building Healthy Communities together - the glass is half full!
Building Healthy Communities together - the glass is half full!
Our Life and North West Together We Can (NWTWC) are keen to ensure that the learning that NWTWC created over the past four years continues to expand. We recently held a successful autumn programme of Learning Exchange Seminars to explore how best to build Healthy Communities in the North West, with the support of our host partners. These events were supported by the Big Lottery Fund.
The seminars which took place in Blackburn and Trafford included case studies from these areas on exciting initiatives that local people are taking in improving their own health. Both seminars were attended by over 40 participants from voluntary and community organisations, and interested professionals.
Supported by Blackburn with Darwen CVS and Blackburn with Darwen Council, the ‘Healthy Communities: Taking action in Blackburn with Darwen’ seminar on 18th November, involved a variety of lively presentations looking at successful health initiatives in Blackburn with Darwen and wider.
Andrew Taylor from Our Life gave a presentation on Talking Food: Taking Action, Our Life’s regional award-winning initiative around what kind of food system people want to see, with local communities taking action for themselves.
Sharon Lucas from Blackburn with Darwen Healthy Living Centre discussed the use of a community development approach to improving health and how the Center has supported a Food Co-Op and trained up local residents to act as Cancer Awareness advocates.
Danielle Dean from Blackburn with Darwen Council’s Healthy Community Partnerships spoke about the enabling role of the borough's Refresh project giving examples of local people taking action targeted at the areas with the highest health needs.
Lynette Banister from Blackburn with Darwen Council spoke about the partnership between NHS Blackburn with Darwen and Sustainable Neighbourhood Service Designing & delivering bespoke training packages on key health issues e.g. Bowel Cancer screening, stroke awareness.
The feedback from participants was very positive and included the following comments:
Thank you very much. I am new in post and it was great to find out what is happening in other parts.
Very well organised with many other services promoted in the room.
Supported by Trafford Council, the Trafford ‘Healthy Communities: Meeting Needs and Aspirations in Trafford’ seminar on 7th December looked at new structures and strategies for improving health and well being in local communities.
Ged Devereux Project Lead Transition Alliance Team gave us a flavour of the function of Health and Wellbeing Boards on a national, regional and sub-regional level and the implications of the Health and Social Care Bill, conveying that it’s up to us how good they’ll be, public engagement will be critical and in order for them to work they must ensure that there are ways in for communities to engage with the Boards.
Dr Diana Forrest, Vice Chair of the Sale West and Ashton Partnership explained the case for Asset Based Community Development, using the individual strengths and skills of citizens to build stronger communities. Using motivating success stories from the community partnership which is trying to improve the lives of local residents around the Sale West Community Centre, she cited the ‘glass half full’ approach, which values the capacity, skills, knowledge, connections and potential in a community.
One of the success stories that’s come out of the Trafford Asset Based Community Development work was the ‘Healthy Places and Healthy Lives in Sale West’ project. Debbie Nash, Strategic Manager for Health and Commissioning and Dale Ward Alcohol and Violent Crime Co-ordinator from Trafford Council spoke about how the Council aims aimed to identify, develop and spread joint public service which led to greater impacts on the social determinants of health in Sale West and empowered the local community to lead on projects. There were some fantastic examples from the community leads revealing how the residents have been empowered to get involved, gain new skills, and have their voices heard on issues that matter to them and their community.
There was some great feedback from attendees including:
I represent a small voluntary organisation and I'm grateful that I was invited and learnt a lot and take back to my community a lot.
I found the presentations very useful and it was great that I am not the only person striving for these things in our community.
The seminars’ take-home message was that the glass half full is the best approach for building partnerships and ensuring sustainable futures for our communities around health needs.
Watch out for our new Seminar programme in the New Year, which will continue to spread the message of co-operation and empowerment as the best way forward in difficult times.
To see the presentations from these Seminars please go to our Recent Events page.
NWTWC has a new home!
Key elements of NWTWC's programme are being taken over by Our Life, a social enterprise which delivers community engagement in the North West and beyond. Eve Davidson, from NWTWC is joining Our Life, from April 2011. as Network Manager.
Dr Alison Giles, Chief Executive of Our Life says: “The agreement with NWTWC is very important to us and for the region as it will enable all the fantastic work achieved by them over the last four years to live on.
“In particular, we want to ensure that NWTWC's networks continue to be supported, and also look at how we can continue the successful Empowerment Awards.”
North West Together We Can presents…
We have produced a new DVD that showcases the highlights of our work over the last four years. The DVD features our support for Social Enterprises, Appreciative Inquiry, peer research and Community Empowerment Awards.
If you would like a DVD copy, please email info@ourlife.org.uk with your contact details or ring Our Life on 0161 233 7500.
North West Together We Can and Targeted Support funding
North West Together We Can funded more than 80 projects across the region with £1m from CLG from 2009 to 2011.
All these projects focused on community empowerment. The money was allocated to North West Together We Can - one of the country's nine Regional Empowerment Partnerships.
The local authority projects, with their voluntary sector partners, were also complemented by a number of regional projects and, separate, sub-regional projects.
NWTWC Community Empowerment & Social Cohesion Award.
The Community Empowerment and Cohesion Award Scheme was 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 was 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 benefits of the Scheme were that it offered a way of independently validating and proving the worth of good empowerment and social cohesion activity. The Scheme celebrated twenty two Award winners in 2010 - 2011. Details of the Award Winners are available in two Case Studies which are available in our Resources section.
Our Life is now taking forward this Scheme and will launch a new round of awards in the Autumn.
For more details contact Eve Davidson - eve.davidson@ourlife.org.uk
Ways of Seeing & Doing: Improving Health Equity in South Ribble using an Appreciative Approach.
This appreciative inquiry (AI) took place as a result of the converging interests of three organisations:
The scrutiny committee of S. Ribble District Council who wanted to do a review to improve health equity.
The Local Government Improvement and Development (formerly IDeA) is leading a national programme of developing and promoting good practice to improve health equity through its Healthy Communities Programme.
North West Together We Can who encouraged local authorities to use AI in order to improve engagement with communities.
Social enterprise - preparing for a new role in meeting local communities' needs
A REPORT, funded by North West Together We Can, has looked at social enterprise in the context of emerging concepts of the Big Society. The Government's Big Society plans envisage a key role for social enterprises in delivering public services and supporting community action.
But a new report commissioned by NWTWC, and produced by leading think tank ippr north, reveals that, without support, community and social enterprise may struggle to make the most of opportunities presented by the Big Society.
It suggests that there is a significant gap between the expectations of the Big Society and the current capacity of the sector. It argues there are not sufficient numbers of 'enterprise ready' organisations looking to contract with the public sector.
Despite these concerns, the report highlights some examples of some of the best practice in the North West region. St Peter's Partnership in Manchester has an annual turnover of £2 million, earned by their willingness to take risks and the talents of their committed team. But such examples are few and far between.
The research reveals many organisations claiming to be community or social enterprises are currently relying on grants and public sector funding. In an online survey conducted by ippr north with social enterprises in the North West, grant funding had been the primary port of call for over 70% of respondents in the last 12 months. The report argues that with such a strong preference for grants, even amongst those claiming to be community and social enterprises, there is a long way to travel before voluntary and community organisations can become fully fledged social enterprises. It is going to require significantly more intellectual and financial investment and coordination, particularly at the local level, if the Big Society is going to take off.
ippr north director Ed Cox said:
"Public sector contracts are a key route to sustainability for social and community enterprises but the drive for efficiencies means contracts are increasing in size. This makes it more difficult for social and community enterprises to win contracts as they're often small and locally focused. If we're not careful this drive for economies of scale will be at odds with the best intentions of the Big Society. Organisations need support to make the transition from being aspirant community organisations to fully fledged social enterprises. But the support on offer to them is complex, confusing and unhelpfully competitive."
The report recommends:
- Urgent, robust and frequent dialogue between national policy-makers, regionally and locally-based representatives of the third sector, local authorities and other support agencies in order to address concerns about capacity and funding.
- Money coming to the sector through the Big Society Bank, the Communities First Fund and any local authority discretionary spend should be targeted at the areas of greatest need. Investment should focus on securing sustainability and supporting start up organisations in areas where they are absent.
- Aspirant social enterprises should undergo an organisational review, focussing on core mission and future financial sustainability in order to facilitate a genuine transition to a more enterprising approach.
- Local authorities and other public service providers review their commissioning and procurement processes to ensure they are accessible to the social and community enterprise sector. This should then move quickly from developing strategies and planning to concrete action.
- Better co-ordination between the myriad of support agencies in the so that more coherent support can be offered to existing and aspiring community and social enterprises in the region. This should be based on a 'life-cycle framework'.
Oldham residents test drive a new Community Empowerment Award scheme
Oldham’s New Deal for Communities programme was the focus for the pilot project to test the value of the Community Empowerment and Social Cohesion Awards.
A huge amount of work has taken place in the Fitton Hill and Hathershaw areas of Oldham under the New Deal for Communities scheme. One of the key outcomes from this work has been the setting up of a series of neighbourhood agreements between the community and key agencies such as the police and the council.
The activity undertaken to set up the neighbourhood agreements formed the basis of the application that the Oldham New Deal For Communities submitted for assessment under the Award scheme.
The Oldham New Deal for Communities residents’ group were asked by the Awards’ developers to give their views on the application form and whether it was easy or difficult to do. They were also asked to give feedback on the guidance notes and rate their usefulness.
Residents were also recruited to be part of the Awards assessment panel and received training to support them. They also set up their own neighbourhood board known as The Neighbourhoods Team(TNT) Oldham.
Abid Jaweed, Chair of TNT told NWTWC: "We are a group that replicate the diverse make up and the needs of the area, there was a lack of community spirit, people had grown wary and reluctant to be part of the community. The residents in Hathershaw and Fitton Hill always saw themselves and agencies as ‘them and us’.
“The change under the neighbourhood agreements – and all the work that’s gone on around them – has been really impressive.”
And he added: “We can see that there’s been a real impact from the neighbourhood agreements but being able to measure and evaluate just how much of an impact has been fantastic.”
Watch video about the Neighbourhood Agreements in Hathershaw and Fitton Hill