In the Loop - SCN News

SCN Response to the Sunderland's Community Development Action Plan (CDAP)

In July 2008 the CDAP was distributed for comments and those mentioned in the plan were asked to 'populate' areas relevant to them with the activities that they intended to do in order to meet tagets in the plan.  The Network was also asked to contribute and a meeting was held on 21st August 2008.  Click on the documents below to view the plan and the response from the network.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PRACTITIONERS EXCHANGE

In July the draft for the Community Development Action Plan was revealed. Included in the plan was the proposed development of a Community Development Practitioners Exchange, which was to be led by SCN. This aims to be a forum where those delivering community development, whether a voluntary or a paid worker, can meet to exchange ideas, offer support and discuss relevant issues. 

The first planning meeting took place on 29th July, click here to view the notes from that first meeting.

Further meetings have taken place and an event is planned for 19th November, which will aim to establish what people perceive community development to be, gain commitment to support the exchange and gain commitment to take turns hosting the exchange

SCN Steering Group Strategic Planning Day 1st July 2008

Network Co-ordinator Update to members

Jeanette Harold writes about the plans for the network over the next six months.

Letter to members

Sunderland Community Network Members Meeting - 28th February 2008

On 28th February , members attended the meeting at Angel House. We heard presentations from

• Beverley Poulter who is the Lead on the Sunderland Strategy Co-ordination Group - talking about the Sunderland Strategy (Draft).
• Lee Cranston, Assistant Head of Corporate Policy - talking about Local Area Agreements (LAAs)
• Unfortunately Graham Burt was unable to attend but you can read his presentation below on Refreshing The Sunderland Compact.

Sunderland Community Network - Delegates Meeting

On 31st January 2008, delegates from the Network came together at the Bangladeshi Centre and a lively discussion took place. Delegates reported back from their Partnership meetings to keep everyone up to date and informed. Feedback included information about Local Area Agreements ( LAAs), NRF and changes to the fund, direct payments, volunteer training and much more. Read the notes below for more information.

Delegate Meeting            Agenda

31.01.08 Notes

Urban Forum Annual Conference – 3rd and 4th December, Leeds.  The Empowerment Game; – Chance or Community Chest?

On the 3rd and 4th of December the Network Coordinator, Jeanette Harold and 4 Network members traveled to Leeds for the Urban Forum Annual Conference.  here is Jeanette's report:

Delegates from SCN: Jeanette Harold, Coordinator, Sreelekha Reddy, Member, Linda Ohlson, Member, Irene Lindsey, Member. 

Everything went to plan until at Durham Station our direct train to Leeds was held up and none of us heard the announcement about the train which arrived at our platform. We duly boarded the train, along with others who also thought they were boarding the train to Leeds. However, the train we caught was the very late Kings Cross train which did not call at Leeds and we ended up at Newark. We had to make our way back up country to York and then across to Leeds, arriving at the conference at 11.30 a.m. having been travelling since 7.00 a.m. and our expected time into Leeds being 9.09 a.m. we were not happy bunnies at missing the start of conference.

We missed David Rossington, Director of Local Democracy at CLG, who was standing in for Hazel Blears as well as Professor Anne Power from London School of Economics, but we were there in time to hear the Chief Executive of the Urban Forum Toby Blume, set the conference themes. Toby questioned who held power and who dished it out and supplemented this by saying we can become more powerful. He said that empowerment was high on political agenda and was championed in government by Hazel Blears who has a deep commitment to empowerment.

He acknowledged that Community Empowerment Networks like us, despite having demonstrated impact and success are struggling to stay round as there is no monies. The Urban Forum and others have already pressed Government, the Office of the Third Sector and the Department for Communities and Local Government in respect of CEN’s providing an essential voice and critical role and would continue to press the need for proper resourcing.

The Government have an ambitious vision for UK business through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), as we have yet to see any job creation scheme which has empowered people or communities. CSR sees economics as a means of achieving social purpose rather than widening incomes between the richest and the poorest.

Toby also said that Local Area Agreements (LAA’s) are the only game in town:- if it’s not in the LAA it is unlikely to be given focus and therefore resources.

Toby continued his presentation to include issues of Duty to Involve, Planning, Development Companies and the fact that there was less than a third of Local Strategic Partnerships Chaired by Women. (Members have been issued with copies of the Report by Sue Robson and Colleagues), Equalities and Human Rights Commission, Commission for Integration and Cohesion Report and the Tensions in respect of Engagement and Participational Representation.

The conference then broke into Policy Forum Action Planning covering the following Issues:

Influencing Decisions – attended by Linda Ohlson

Equalities and Cohesion – attended by Irene Lindsey, Sreelekha Reddy
Places and Bases – attended by Jeanette Harold.

The second day gave us Inquiry Sessions with Expert Witnesses, Study Visits and Policy Development Sessions.

I opted for the Walking Tour of Holbeck Urban Village:-

The Urban Village was previously home to three of the greatest innovators of the Industrial Revolution, Colonel Thomas Harding, John Marshall and Mathew Murray. They helped change the face of industry in Britain but at the same time left behind a rich architectural legacy in Leeds including Italianate towers and an Egyptian Temple, together with uniquely styled mills and foundries giving the Holbeck Urban Village 33 listed buildings. Engineering steadily declined and with it the area resulting in the development of an Urban Village as part of regeneration of the area.

It is located 10 minutes south from the hustle and bustle of the City Centre and a short walk from the communities of Holbeck and Beeston Hill. During the walk we were told that this development would be beneficial to these poorer city centre communities but I have yet to be convinced. It seems to me the only opportunity for these communities to participate is the coming together annually to the annual Holbeck Gala, which is actually a show case for thedevelopment. Don’t get me wrong, it is excellent that the development is happening but I think we sometimes attribute Regeneration to some kind of Community Development which I find hard to understand or indeed believe. When I asked questions in this respect I and the rest of the group did not feel they were adequately answered by the Local Authority Planner who was taking us round. However after two days lock down in the Hilton (yes I know it’s a good place to be locked down in!) it was good to get out into the City.

All in all I found the two days provided lots of debate and great opportunities for networking and learning from each other. For your information I put myself forward as a Trustee for the Urban Forum at their AGM and have been voted onto their Board by the Membership.

Jeanette Harold.

Sunderland Community Network Delegates Meeting - 29th November 2007

Lee Cranston, Assistant Head of Corporate Policy for the Local Authority was invited to attend the meeting to give Delegates an update on Local Area Agreements, which are part of the delivery plan for the Strategy.

It had been agreed that Lee deliver a workshop to look at the 198 National Indicators, in particular the 35 Priorities which was to be set locally. Lee started his presentation to set the scene for the workshop and got no further due to the questions from delegates. Lee was asked if there were actually 35 local indicators to be set. Lee responded that there was at least one indicator which was mandatory around teenage pregnancy. He believed the Government required this but locally we would set out how this would be achieved. There was some scepticism that there might very well be more mandatory indictors which meant that those to be set locally were in fact diminishing. The intention of the Partnership was to identify 7 indictors across the 5 themes giving a total of 35. When the 35 indicators are finally agreed the Government will be looking at how Sunderland is performing against each of them. A reward grant could be available to Partners. One delegate asked how that grant would be spent - LC suggested that this was a question to ask the City Treasurer.  Access the full notes here!

Meeting of the Sunderland Community Network 25th October 2007
A meeting of the Sunderland Community Network members was held on Thursday 25th October at the new Sunderland CVS Training Suite, 134-136 High Street West, Sunderland, SR1 1XD. Jeanette Harold, Network Coordinator introduced the meeting and gave a warm welcome to the members present.

Rob Charlton gave a presentation on the Training and Development Project, which he runs at Sunderland CVS. Rob gave an overview on how the project came about; he explained the aims of the project and plans for the future.  Rob’s full presentation can be found below.

Carla Keegans from the Community Training Department of Gentoo gave an overview of her organisation and a very informative talk to members around training.  Find out more in the Meeting Notes, Questions and Answers document below.

Video of the Main Speakers

Sunderland Community Network Members Meeting - 30th August 2007

On Thursday 30th August 2007 Sunderland Community Network held their second Members Meeting with an excellent turn out of 32 members in attendance.  The meeting was held at Sunderland CVS Training Suite, 134-136 High Street West, Sunderland, SR1 1UD (the site of World furnishings), which is proving to be an excellent venue, due to it's size and locality.

Lenny Szrama, Sunderland Community Network Development Officer, presented the Third Sector Strategy document to members to enable them to make an informed response to the content. After the presentation members went into groups to consider a number of questions which were used to give feedback from the Sunderland Community Network.

Lee Cranston from the Corporate Development Team delivered a presentation on the Local Area Agreement, which was most interesting and informative.

The next members meeting will take place on Thursday 25th October.

The Value and Independence of the Voluntary and Community Sector is a study undertaken by Barry Knight and Sue Robson, and describes the distinctive values of the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS). It assesses whether the government’s service delivery agenda has impacted on the sector’s independence.  Access a summary of this very interesting report.