- Building a bigger we
- Local Area Coordination and Community Organisers
- Small Good Stuff marketing guide for community enterprises
- And much more…
A note from Nick
Hello there and welcome to this month’s newsletter.
We hope you will find it suitably stuffed with useful information to reflect upon. Thanks as always to Rachel Tait for skilfully and diligently putting this together.
So far May has proven to be an especially productive month with lots of activity in and across our Network. Some highlights for us include:
- Our work alongside new member Wakefield Council is now well and truly underway – they have their first Local Area Coordination Leadership Group meeting this month.
- Finalising some wonderful new professionally produced videos about LAC – watch this space!
- Seeing a hugely positive response to the Local Area Coordination Manager recruitment that far exceeded our wildest expectations.
- A joint webinar with our friends at Community Organisers where we explored in what ways the two approaches complement each other.
- Being invited to present alongside Network member Surrey County Council at the upcoming Local Government Association (LGA) conference Innovation Zone in June.
Today we had our Local Area Coordinator’s online Gathering which is my personal monthly highlight. Several Local Area Coordinators from across the Network came together to share ideas and reflections, focussing on both the positives and challenges of now. It was evident that they are being introduced to more and more people all the time. This was seen as a sign of an increasing pressure that people, families and services are under with the ongoing effects of Covid and the cost-of-living crisis that is really hitting hard. We also heard stories of new groups and community activity starting and restarting again in communities. Thurrock’s Frank told us about a ‘community fridge’ that was launched in June and Havering’s Juliet shared a story about a new group of friends who have formed as a result of her connections alongside them individually. All of this was a timely and helpful reminder of the power of people coming together to offer mutual, natural support through tough times.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to updating with more exciting news next month.
Nick Sinclair