Nottingham Community Network

Linking the voluntary sector and neighbourhood renewal

 

Community Network open meeting, May 2008

Helen Voce welcomed everyone and gave a quick introduction to the open meetings. Click here to see who came along.

 

Meet the Skills Board

Nicky Church from Greater Nottingham Partnership came along to talk and answer questions on how One Nottingham, Greater Nottingham Partnership and the Skills Board fit together. You can read her presentation here.

What is Making the Connection?

• Supporting Nottingham's people to gain skills and get jobs to share the waelth of the city
• Supporting employers to understand their recruitment and training needs so they can benefit from the talent of the city

Nicky highlighted the key role that the voluntary and community sector can play:

• reaching out to people
• raising aspirations and confidence
• volunteering opportunities.

The Greater Nottingham Employment and Skills Board are hosting their partnership development and consultation conference Our People, Better Chances which will shape the future of integrated learning, skills and employability until 2011. The event is on 5 June and Nicky encouraged people to come along if they had an interest.

Liz Asher has now left Bulwell Vision so we will be working with the Skills Board to recruit a new voluntary sector representative. Watch this space!

 

Introducing V

Jon Stevens and Kate Buchanan introduced v - the new youth volunteering project.

The v project provides young people aged 16 to 25 with the support and training to get involved, stay involved and make a positive contribution to their communities through volunteering.

The v involved team are experts on the ground who provide high quality support, advice and guidance to young people, and to organisations interested in engaging young volunteers. The teams work with young people in Nottingham to champion youth-led action and recruit Youth Action Teams – ambassadors to champion volunteering and inspire their peers to volunteer.

They are encouraging groups to refer young people to the project - just phone the v involved team on 0115 934 8400 or email vinvolved@nottinghamcvs.co.uk

 

2030 Vision

Jo talked about the LAA and explained that we all need to know about it because

• We care about the city we live and work in
• LAAs strongly influence how money is spent
• The voluntary sector needs to show the city how we are helping to meet priorities.

Jo then talked about Nottingham's vision for itself for 2030. 1800 people have been asked about their hopes and dreams for Nottingham in 20 years time.

Everyone was asked "what's good about Nottingham today?". Most people said:

• Good public transport - it's easy to get around the city
• Fabulous parks and green spaces, and is generally clean
• Has friendly people who generally get on with each other.

"What do we want Nottingham to be like in 2030?". Most people said:

• Everybody reaches their potential and poor children are as likely to achieve their talents as children from better off families
• EVeryone works together to achieve the best for our city
• We have fun together - different cultures and different ages
• Public spaces that are safe and have good facilites for everyone.

The 2030 vision is a long term plan, with several steps along the way:

• Strengthening communities, encouraging people to get involved, listening to residents
• More investment in Nottingham
• More focus on education and training, and raising young people's ambitions
• More environmentally friendly – using less energy, increasing recycling, improving housing.

 

Speedy updates on the theme partnerships

Communities and Neighbourhoods Partnership

• Mark Bowyer said the partnership is looking at its own structures and membership
• We agreed the next Open Meeting will focus on the Communities and Neighbourhoods partnership

Children, young people and families partnership

• Muhaj reported that the new representatives for the partnership have been recruited.
• The Early Intervention Launch was held successfully on 28 April.
• Anne Marie Ainger is working with the partnership to develop an approach for linking with small community groups. This will be pilotted in one area of the city.

Health Partnership

• Parul Jani talked about her involvement in a wide range of projects across the city
• Parul believes it is time for a voluntary sector health forum in the city to enable effective engagement and involvement of all voluntary organisations
• We shared details of a Department of Health consultation called World Class Commissioning. You can get the details online here.

Housing Strategic Partnership

• Jo reported she had had an early meeting with Hostels Liaison Group, Supporting People and One Nottingham to look at the implications of the Supporting People grant from 2009.

 

Come along to our next meeting

Our next meeting will focus on the Communities and Neighbourhoods partnership.

Please note the change of venue.

Monday 14 July 2008
2.00pm to 4.30pm
Nottinghamshire Deaf Society, 22 Forest Road West, Nottingham, NG7 4EQ