This autumn, the Community Regeneration Team aimed at taking the local geographically based forums to another level – although appreciative of the committed attendance of some we wanted to also reach out to those whose voices are seldom heard, and therefore endeavour to make it relevant to both bigger and smaller groups. The team successfully attracted a diversity of local groups whose active participation contributed enormously to the fruitful discussions had on the day. All together 120 participants attended the three forums which has treble the normal numbers.

The team is committed to taking these contributions further to where decisions are being made in order to influence the impact these will be having locally and to make the links for further involvement clear and transparent. For example with the support of the area managers and the sector’s representative, the team will be taking the outcomes of team neighbourhood discussions back to the Neighbourhood Policy Group where its implementation is being discussed and overseen.

‘Get Informed, Get Involved!’ forums were organised in a way that truly reflected a partnership approach drawing on strengths and expertise from Leeds Voice, Voluntary Action-Leeds and the Area Management Teams (Leeds City Council). The coordinated effort intended to better inform the Voluntary, Community and Faith sector of current initiatives in their particular areas, of which they may want to be having a say and/or having an active role to play.

A short snap of the highlights:


Team Neighbourhood approach presented by each Area Manager (Leeds City Council)

South South East: Keith Lander
East North East: Rory Barke
West North west: Steve Croker

Team Neighbourhood approach has been piloted in Gipton where around 120 community workers have been coordinating efforts to better serve the needs and priorities of local communities. In practice it can be as simple as signposting people to the right service and making sure a colleague (from private, statutory or voluntary sector) follows it up. This initiative also draws from the ‘preventative tasking’ experience of Children Services.

This approach came about as the council reviews the loss of Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF): how are we going to sustain the improvement made using that fund? How are we going to carry out progress with fewer resources?

The thought behind this integrated approach is that front line staff will adhere to the dual responsibility of 1) being accountable to their organisation and 2) being accountable to the people in the neighbourhood and to the colleagues working there.

Following this, an interesting question posed by Rory Barke was: how to invest more in community development to have the people-places agendas balanced?

Download:
'Managing our Priority Neighbourhoods’ by Rory Barke
West:North West area developments presentation
Team Neighbourhood presentations; ENE / / WNW / / SSE


Supporting links to Commissioning presented by Rachel Koivunen (Leeds Voice)

A Commitment to look at the links within the council to understand how commissioning works and pass that understanding to the voluntary sector. A key attraction of this workshop was the commissioning M.O.T. as in a self-assessment of where are you as an organisation to be able to respond and the opportunity to chat with major commissioners from NHS Leeds and Social Services. Rachel has an ongoing training package that can help you improve your understanding of commissioning and readiness to respond to procurement opportunities.

Link to presentation - available soon
Link to training

Leeds Year of Volunteering 2010 by Natasha Mort (VA-L)

2010 is Leeds Year of Volunteering followed by European Year of Volunteering 2011
Leeds Year of volunteering will be launched on the 13th December. The programme starts in January and each month is dedicated to a particular theme such as ‘Volunteering for health’ and ‘Volunteering across generations’.

Leeds Year of volunteering aims at recognising and valuing volunteers whether formal or informal, encouraging people to volunteer, increasing type and diversifying volunteering and improving the quality of volunteering opportunities in Leeds.

Think tank: How many of you do volunteer for 4hrs or more?
Fact: 22 million people do volunteer in the UK contributing £40billion to the UK’s economy.

Creative acronym for VOLUNTEER from one of the workshops:
Vibrant/ Valued
Opportunities
Learning
Unique
Needed
Talented
Enthusiastic
Empowering
Reliable/ Recognition

Download:
Volunteering Workshops: ENE / / WNW / / SSE