Being prepared is all about being ready for something before it happens, and that implies planning and strategy, not reacting in panic after the fact!
There are a range of sensible measures available to everyone to increase self-reliance, regardless of who they may be.
Learning to plan in life is important, rather than living day to day and paycheck to paycheck, in case the unexpected happens!…
Let’s talk about hope, for a moment, because a lot of days recently hope feels like the only thing that matters. It’s easy to let it slip away from us. I h
I haven’t lived through events like this before, and I’m no prophet, but I assume the world will not return to how it was before. I assume the old status quo is gone. A new one will take its place.
I hope the new status quo will be better. I hope it will be built of resilient, interwoven communities. I hope it will be kinder. I hope the horrors of capitalism that have been laid bare will live on only in history books. I hope the horrors of policing and judicial solutions to crisis stay plain for everyone to see and become dark historical footnotes. I hope we remember mutual aid. I hope that in the new status quo that we remember we can just… take care of each other.
That’s what I hope. I think it’s a long shot, but I think it’s possible. I’ll work my hardest to make it happen, and I hope you will too. If I didn’t think it were possible, if I didn’t have hope, I don’t know what I would do.
Why systemic change needs connection, not segmentation
At System Changer Network Kenya, we often hear a familiar phrase in development circles:
“Let’s make it women-focused.”
It sounds right. It feels fair. But in many of the communities where we work — for example when it comes to teenage mothers , but in many other topics, too — that approach doesn’t always make sense.
Because life here is…
The Sepik river has hundreds of lakes (Raun wara) at least300-500 meters from the main river. These lakes are connected to the river by smalls waterways (Baret), which allows people to access the lakes from the main river.
And where there is no waterway, the people dig their own to allow canoes to travel inland.The picture shows a baret dug by the people Kembiam village in Kambu LLG who dwell…
What's life like living in a shed? I've lived in several. Here's my very personal perspective on Glastonbury's housing crisis.
My personal perspective on homelessness in Glastonbury
I have lived in a shed. Actually I’ve lived in several sheds. One was a homemade shed built on the side of a caravan on a traveller site on the Somerset Levels. I lived there for about two and a half years until the Spring of 2012. I had two wood-burners, one in the caravan, where I slept and cooked, one in the shed, which was my living…
In this blog as part of our week of blogs on Resilient Communities, Alison Hill of Caia Park Partnership discusses their work as an anchor organisation, and how grant funding for core costs allowed them to become the community anchor they are today.
Generations of support
For over 20 years Caia Park Partnership (CPP) has been at the heart of the community of Caia Park, Wrexham. We are part of people’s lives and our activities have grown over the years in response to needs.
We work with the whole community at all stages of their lives, starting with childcare for babies from just eight weeks old. We also support young people as they grow up through holiday clubs, youth work and sports.
As adults we support people as parents and through the provision of work club, help them find work. We are there when things go wrong providing help tackling housing problems, debt or mental health issues.
Finally we are there for the older people in our community providing day care, befriending and meals on wheels. Our 40 volunteers and 33 FTE staff, nearly all local residents, work with over 3000 people a year.
Changing priorities
Originally focusing on employment CPP has diversified greatly over the last 20 years meeting the changing and evolving needs of the local community.
Currently CPP focuses on:
Employment (providing a work club, paid work experience and mentoring)
Youth work (providing clubs, outreach and mentoring)
Tenancy/housing support (provided across the borough of Wrexham for people over the age of 50)
Childcare (running two Flying Start provisions)
Deva House older people’s day care
Support for people with learning and physical disabilities or poor mental health
Family support
Community development/voice
Core funding
I noted the recent reference to WCVA’s suggestion that community anchors or hubs should receive core funding in the National Assembly’s inquiry into the Lessons Learnt of Communities First. A key component of CPP’s success has been the grant received each year from Wrexham Council’s Housing, Assets and Economic Development Department.
This grant makes a contribution to core costs which allows CPP to focus on service delivery over the constant search for funding.
Wrexham CBC through this grant recognises the central role CPP plays as a community anchor in the regeneration of Caia Park.
Some of the services currently provided by CPP and its partners are Communities First funded and there is clearly going to be a funding gap when the programme finally ends next year. We are working with the Communities First Support Service to strategically plan for life after CF and to continue to meet the needs of the community on Caia Park.
Social Enterprise
The relief of core funding means that CPP has also over the last seven years developed a number of social enterprises that form its trading arm, Wrexham Community Enterprises.
The enterprises provide employment to over 20 people and services on a sustainable basis and include:
Sparkles day care nursery
Sparkles Holiday Club
Caia Crafts (wood manufacture)
Advance Training and Consultancy
Meals on wheels (run from Deva House)
Working with service providers
CPP manages five community buildings on Caia Park and is responsible for all the associated running costs. These buildings host CPP services but also provide a base for the delivery of services provided by others.
Providing a well-used base in the heart of Caia Park allows partners to access the community and deliver services that are responsive to local needs.
The Caia Park Health Team use CPPs Café kitchen to deliver cooking and nutrition sessions. The police hold a weekly surgery. The Community Council base its Community Advice Service at the centre. Communities 4 Work can not only provide advice and support to its clients but also refer them to additional support e.g. housing advice, provided by CPP on site.
Combat negativity and empowering the community
Unfortunately, Caia Park is still regularly portrayed in a negative light by the local media. A large part of our work as a community anchor is to demonstrate what the local people can achieve and their pride in their local community.
For example, Caia Crafts which is entirely staffed by volunteers produces high quality hand crafted products that are sold nationally to stately homes, garden centres and other retailers such as Prince Charles’ Highgrove Estates.
We work with our partners to help them shape the services they deliver around the needs of the community. There is an ongoing conversation with local people to identify their priorities and then work with them to meet these themselves or through shaping services provided by other agencies.
CPP also supports the community to respond directly - for example through helping them organise community litter picks and community information events. We’ve supported them to negotiate with the local community council regarding the provision of additional litter bins, and a local private gym about the provision of boxing for young people.
Resilient Communities: a third sector perspective
WCVA has been working with members and a range of partners to develop proposals on developing more resilient communities. Within this, we’re particularly interested in what needs to happen to achieve more empowered communities. We will share these proposals with our members and Welsh Government in the autumn.
You’ll find more information on this and how to get involved, plus podcasts, vlogs and other views from around the sector on our Resilient Communities Hub.
Date: Thursday, July 27, 2017 - 9:00am - Tuesday, August 1, 2017 - 5:00pm Mark your calendars for the fir...
Mark your calendars for the first-ever Transition US National Gathering, “Growing a Movement for Resilient Communities: Broadening, Deepening, and Scaling Up,” to be held July 27-31 at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Transition members and community resilience builders from across the country are invited to gather in St. Paul, Minnesota, this July to make connections, share knowledge, and generate strategies to bring the Transition vision of resilient, local, connected and fossil-fuel-free communities to life across this nation.
With a team of Transition organizers from across the country, and 75 knowledgeable, dynamic and diverse presenters, this event promises to be inspiring, informative and fun!
