The £30 million Community Assets programme funded by the OTS and delivered by the Big Lottery Fund, has confirmed the first grant to be £337,000 funding for the Pelton Fell Community Resource Centre in Chester-le-Street. Under the scheme, the centre will be transferred into the hands of the community who will actually use it. The Community Assets programme is designed to enable third sector organisations to have greater control over the assets they use, such as community buildings. In April 2008, 38 projects across England were shortlisted to receive grants and were invited to develop detailed plans for the project for a non-competitive assessment. All shortlisted projects are then assessed over a four-month period from the date of submission. The £337,000 Community Assets grant confirmed today, funds part of a £937,000 partnership between Chester-le-Street District Council and Pelton Fell Community Group. Work will start this autumn through to summer 2009 to refurbish and extend the Pelton Fell Community Resource Centre. Over 3,000 people from Pelton Fell and neighbouring areas plus around 30 community organisations will benefit from the grant. The Pelton Fell Community Group will manage the community centre which will bring a new lease of life to the area enabling them to take a brave step forward into the world of social enterprise including cultivating new community interests, a community café sports bar and multi-use games area (MUGA) to deliver the priorities identified by local residents. The asset will be transferred via a 99-year lease at a peppercorn rent.

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12 November 2008
© Cabinet Office

Simon Berry, ruralnet|uk’s long standing CEO, is taking a secondment with Defra to work on the delivery of their Third Sector Strategy and Greener Living Fund, launched on Monday. Simon, who is well-known in the sector for promoting networking and collaborative approaches and for his work with carbon-saving initiatives in rural areas, will be working with Defra part-time until the end of this year. He will take the position full time at the beginning of 2009. He will be taking long experience in the Third Sector - with charities, Social Enterprises, co-ops and community groups - to help Defra take forward this vital work. Board member Helen Cherry said, “Simon has always been passionate about strengthening rural communities and promoting innovative approaches. He is committed to helping organisations and the people they serve adapt to tackle climate change. This secondment will take his skills and experience in ‘joining-up’ front-line groups and forging cross-sector partnerships to the heart of Defra.” Simon launched the Rural Community Carbon Network over a year ago, to map groups working on climate change and help them to exchange experience. ruralnet|uk and Defra have worked on a variety of joint initiatives, including the Community Broadband Network, early initiatives to counter the impact of Foot and Mouth, engaging communities in harnessing the power of online information and the subsided place scheme at the ruralnet|uk annual conference for community representatives.

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10 November 2008
© ruralnet|uk

Nine towns have won the opportunity to lead the way in helping their residents live healthier lives as part of the new Change4Life movement, Health Secretary Alan Johnson announced today. The “Healthy Towns” - Dudley, Halifax (Calderdale), Sheffield, Tower Hamlets, Thetford, Middlesbrough, Manchester, Tewkesbury and Portsmouth - are part of a new coalition called Change4Life which is backed by Government, food retailers, charities and community groups. The nine towns will share a £30 million pot from Government to encourage healthy lifestyles through increasing the opportunities for their population to be more physically active and make healthy food choices. They will help residents to live healthily through a holistic approach to promoting physical activity both in the community and the infrastructure of the town. The towns, which have been through a rigorous selection progress, will match the Government funding and have set out pledges around how they will encourage healthy living.

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10 November 2008
© Department of Health

Entering into Service Level Agreements with a variety of public bodies is vital for community radio sustainability and also will become increasingly vital for the public bodies themselves. Public bodies already working with community radio realise the benefits that accrue from these partnerships in getting the message out to and receiving messages back from parts of the community they often do not engage with effectively. These communities are often underserved and under-represented in the services public bodies provide. Free download from: http://www.commedia.org.uk/default/documents/user/SLA_Guide.pdf

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7 November 2008
© Community Media Association

Anti-poverty campaigners have urged caution over claims that social mobility is on the rise for the first time in 30 years. A government report published this week said the social background of teenagers is now less important in determining educational achievement and income than it was in 1970. It found that ‘positive changes’ began in 2000 after three decades of stagnation in which children were unable to overtake their parents on the social ladder. The findings suggest some of the government’s key initiatives of recent years, such as Sure Start and inner-city academies, may be having an impact and that further planned spending on childcare and early years will be effective. But the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) argued the report used a narrow definition of social mobility that was restricted to employment outcomes. Kate Green, chief executive of CPAG, told New Start: ‘Those unable to access work should not be left socially excluded and their lives must be taken into account too. ‘Comparisons with wealthy countries that have greater social mobility than the UK make clear that it’s the gap between rich and poor in the UK that is at the root of low social mobility. We have to narrow this gap to succeed in creating the fair country we want.
This needs government to make the moral case for an end to Britain’s culture of inequality, which has not only left those at the bottom in financial crisis for years, but now has our whole economy in crisis. ‘The chancellor must start by making the investment needed to halve child poverty by 2010 as part of the economic rescue package in the pre-budget report.’

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6 November 2008
© NewStart

In a nutshell is an exciting, free, ten-week online course delivered through the Academy for Sustainable Communities (ASC) learning portal. Participants work with other professionals, community workers and volunteers across the public, private and community sectors to develop a shared understanding of the sustainable communities agenda.The course will help develop a real understanding of the term ’sustainable community’ by exploring the national and regional policy context and perspectives. It will also consider the roles, responsibilities and skills of the various organisations and individuals responsible for delivery and examine putting theory into practice. The course is facilitated by a highly experienced tutor who provides feedback, advice and guidance from start to finish. You will be expected to set aside approximately three hours per week to take part in online discussion forums and active learning modules which enable the sharing of ideas and experiences. The course cost of £100 per participant is being fully funded by the ASC. For more information or to reserve a place call Kelly Brewell on 0113 394 4574, email k.brewell@ascskills.org.uk

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6 November 2008
© Creating Excellence

The resignation of the director and nine trustees of York Citizens Advice Bureau is an example of the “dire consequences” that can follow if volunteers are not managed well, the Association of Volunteer Managers has warned. Director Chris Hailey-Norris and all but one of the trustee board decided their positions were no longer tenable after the publication of a critical report into the circumstances of a walk-out by 28 volunteers at York CAB in June. The report by John Stoker, former chief charity commissioner, said the CAB suffered from a “failure of management” and “a shortcoming in governance” (Third Sector Online, 30 October). John Ramsey, chair of the Association of Volunteer Managers, said the case was a “timely reminder of the necessity for effective volunteer management”. He added: “I hope what this case has done is make many chief executives and trustee boards realise that, if you don’t manage volunteers properly, there are dire consequences for how your organisation is perceived and how you deliver your services.” According to the 2007 national volunteering survey by the Office of the Third Sector and the Institute of Volunteering Research, 31 per cent of volunteers believe volunteering could be “much better organised”. Ramsey said charities should make volunteer management a priority and invest in it. The York volunteers walked out in support of a colleague who was asked not to return after allegations of bullying were made. According to volunteering consultant Mark Restall, York CAB did not follow proper procedures or the norms of natural justice. He said: “Volunteers do not have any statutory rights and organisations have to be careful not to treat them like they do paid staff. At the same time, proper procedures must be adhered to.” The Stoker report said the volunteers should receive a formal apology. They will be returning to the York bureau.

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4 November 2008
© Volunteering Merseyside

Responding to the second round of the Government’s public consultation on eco-towns which opens today (Tuesday), TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “Everyone in the UK should be able to afford decent housing, but for many people renting a good quality flat or owning their own home remains a distant dream. We therefore welcome the Government’s plans to build five new eco-towns. More good quality, environmentally-friendly homes must be built and quickly. We need to get the housing market moving again during the economic down turn, and develop new skills to make construction environmentally friendly.”

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30 October 2008
© TUC

An examination of community involvement in the governance of local services, with an emphasis on the role of public officials. The role played by public officials in community engagement has important effects on the extent to which community views can influence local services. This study explores the experiences and views of public officials, comparing a local authority, a police service and a Primary Care Trust in one part of London.Download full report: http://www.jrf.org.uk/bookshop/eBooks/2248-governance-community-engagement.pdf

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30 October 2008
© Joseph Rowntree Foundation

The Government today announced proposals to tighten up part of the formula used to allocate the Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) - a three-year, £1.5bn Fund to turn around long term unemployment in the most disadvantaged communities. This move is to ensure this Fund is targeted where it is needed most and means all councils eligible for full WNF after this revision will receive extra funding. When it was launched last year the WNF was widely welcomed by councils and communities as a valuable contribution to help them develop more concentrated, concerted, community-led approaches to getting people in the most deprived areas back to work. Changes announced today follow concerns about the data used to construct the third eligibility criterion for receiving WNF - that councils should be among the top 40 with the highest combined rate of unemployment and benefit claims. The deadline for responses is 9 January, 2009.

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4 November 2008
© Communities and Local Government