29th June 2012 Welcome to New Local Area Coordinators!
A big welcome to Julia Horsfall (Stroud, Gloucestershire) and Rajeev Nath (Derby City), new Local Area Coordinators – welcome to the LAC family.
A big responsibility, but also a wonderful, unique opportunity to make a real difference alongside local people in our communities
We look forward to hearing and sharing stories, exploring ideas that strengthen our local citizens and communities and sharing passion for nurturing the strengths, interests and mutual support of all citizens, including those who may be vulnerable due to disability, mental health needs, age or frailty
Welcome and best wishes for the future
19th June 2012 Local Area Coordination and Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) in Derby City
Great session with Cormac Russell, exploring LAC and ABCD in Derby City, as part of planned LAC learning events locally.
For more information about LAC and ABCD, see http://localareacoordination.wordpress.com/
New Report Published: Local Area Coordination – From Service Users to Citizens. OUT NOW
The new paper on Local Area Coordination – From Service Users to Citizens” has been published by the Centre for Welfare Reform this morning.
It is available from the Centre for Welfare Reform website – https://citizen-network.org/news/local-area-coordination-research-published
I hope it is useful in continuing the new conversations and development of LAC and reform – supporting people to build and pursue their vision for a good life, nurturing more welcoming, inclusive and mutually supportive communities and contributing to reform of social care and health services.
Hopefully it will also stimulate more discussions, partnerships and opportunities for us all to share ideas and learning.
A big thank you to Simon Duffy (Centre for Welfare Reform), Alex Fox (Shared Lives Plus), Brian Frisby (Derby City), Patrick Graham (Gloucestershire), Carol Taylor (Middlesbrough) and Neil Woodhead (Derby City) for their support and contribution to the paper and also for their commitment and passion for LAC and citizen led reform.
Our next step is to continue the conversations, share learning and new stories, as well as helping others to join us and start the positive reform process.
If you are interested in learning more about LAC or in being one of the next “learning and development sites”, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Best wishes
Ralph
27th June 2012 A Day in the Life of a Local Area Coordinator
A big thank you to Fiona Taylor for contributing to a great learning opportunity in Derby City – reflecting on the role, expectations, opportunities and passions of being a Local Area Coordinator (LAC).
We reflected not only on what a LAC does (person by person), the importance of the focus being nurturing individual control (not doing “to or for”), the value of individual, family and community assets as ways of building and pursuing a personal vision for a good life – but also that we are privileged to be allowed to be part of people’s lives and must always respect that privilege.
Fiona was a Local Area Coordinator in Western Australia for many years and we greatly appreciate her support, enthusiasm, passion and stories – looking forward to more in the future
20th June 2012 Article on Local Area Coordination in Guardian Newspaper
There is a new article on Local Area Coordination by Simon Duffy (Director Centre for Welfare Reform – http://www.centreforwelfarereform.org) in the Guardian Newspaper today (20th June 2012) – http://www.guardian.co.uk/public-leaders-network/blog/2012/jun/19/local-area-coordination-social-care?INTCMP=SRCH
There is growing awareness of the need for a rethinking of the role of social care and health services and the central role that LAC and Asset Based approaches can play in helping people to stay strong, building more welcoming, inclusive and mutually supportive communities, recognising, nurturing and releasing community assets and energy and (crucially) contributing to the reform, integration and simplification of services and systems people.
These are discussions that we can hopefully share, working together to develop supportive, connected and positive communities of practice.
We currently have a real opportunity for positive change – let’s hope we can make the most of it!
I look forward to our future discussions, plans and actions together.
Keep the stories coming in
Best wishes
Ralph