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Do you know a Big Local hero? Someone who beavers away tirelessly to help make their Big Local area even better. If there is somebody in your Big Local area whose dedication you think is worthy of recognition, please nominate them for an honour. It is not only about saying thank you to one tireless community champion, but also letting people know what is happening through Big Local in yours and other areas. A great way to say a collective well done to all the people who give their time, ideas and energy in pursuit of making their areas even better. The application process is quite straightforward. All you need to do is explain what makes someone’s contribution special, and the honours committee take it from there. You can find full details and step-by-step instructions here – https://www.gov.uk/honours/overview.

The Three Parish Big Local website is now live and can be found at.... http://www.big-local.org/

Big Local's first round of consultation carried out in 2011/2012 has been analysed and the following 6 priorities for the 3 communities have been identified. They would like your opinion on how valuable or otherwise these ideas are to YOUR community. (You are then asked to rate the following in terms of importance 0, 1, 2 or 3): 0 being not important and 3 being very important. The questions are in the Poll above, all you have to do is rate the importance. Below are the questions with some extra information. If you think the Big Local has missed anything, or you have any suggestions, just leave a reply. Help all ages to become better educated and qualified for life, both in and out of work. Help to develop "gifted and talented" young people in local schools? Provide job interview practice with local businesses? Encouage more "out-of-school" activities to help the health and well-being of our young people. Saturday afternoon films for young people? Open the swimming pool in the summer holidays? Support access to affordable housing. Set up an organisation to develop low cost dwellings? Help the area get the best out of its rural position. Car sharing scheme to help people to get to work cheaply? Produce an advertising campaign to attract visitors to our heritage sites? Support lots of new and established businesses so they can employ more local people. Set up business forum to swap business opportunities? Set up a locally available business advice service? Help those run community buildings so that they can more ably support themselves. Develop a commual marketing campaign to encourage more use of the buildings? Get solar panels on all appropriate community buildings?

Delivery Group Meeting Agenda Wednesday 13th February 2013 , 2.00pm, Weston Rhyn Institute 1.Apologies for absence 2.Declarations of interest 3.Minutes of the meeting 8th January 2013 and matters arising 4.Website – progress report 5.Youth Forum – consideration of two proposals, and decision to appoint 6.Business Forum Development 7.‘Quick Wins’ projects – progress update 8.Partnership development – possible partnership ‘models’ to follow (document attached) 9.Community Vision, Community Plan. 10.Date of next delivery group meeting and venue Want to download this agenda? You can here BL Meeting Agenda 13-02-2013.pdf

Resources for Change are running some more courses in the new year. These are available to all of us in the Big Local area, or involved in activities and community development etc in the Big Local area (i.e. Bronygarth and Selattyn shouldn't feel excluded). They are free, and travel expenses can be claimed, (petrol, child care, etc). We would need to minimise this by car sharing. This is the email I received: Dear residents and activists Some updates below from Big Local Trust: an opportunity to influence the new website, and reminders about networking and learning opportunities. I hope you have also recently received the latest newsletter; if not please let me know. Please find below updated information about the next activities in the Big local learning and networking programme. Also below is a link to a short questionnaire we are running to get ideas for the development of a new website for the organisation that will take over running Big Local in 2012. Please pass this information on to people in your Big Local area who might be interested. Web survey In the last Big Local newsletter we asked for ideas for the website we are developing for the new organisation that will take over running Big Local in 2012. If you or anyone in your Big Local area would like to contribute to this you can complete a very short survey here The survey has just 10 simple questions and should only take a few minutes to complete. Big Local learning and networking programme The next three activities in the Big Local learning and networking programme have just been finalised and details are below. We hope word is already getting out about the events we held in November. People say they found these inspiring and they also helped build new friendships between Big Local areas. If you know of anyone who would benefit from the next round of events then please pass the details on. To enable as wide a spread of people as possible to benefit from these opportunities we can support people to access events through help with travel arrangements and bursaries for travel and support costs. 31 January and 1 February – Site Visit (rescheduled): Village SoS in Newstead, Nottinghamshire During this overnight event in Newstead, Nottinghamshire you will learn how a new community group “Future Newstead” was formed by local people with a vision to bring their ex-mining village back to life. More information is available here Four dates January to April – Learning set about Getting people involved online – neighbourhood websites and social media These four meetings will help you gain confidence in using neighbourhood websites and social media to get local people talking about Big Local. The meetings are for people with hands-on responsibility for doing something online or digital in their area and will be in a ‘learning set’ format which means we hope everyone can attend all four sessions. More information is available here Four dates February to May - Learning set about Building relationships between different communities in your area Is your Big Local area trying to deal with tensions and conflicting priorities between different communities in your Big Local area? If so, this learning is designed for you. The aim of these four meetings is to enable Big Local areas to work together to overcome challenges they are facing by tapping into the knowledge and experience of other Big Local areas. More information is available here Helen Fairweather is our local Resources 4 Change representative and you can contact her via this site because she is a member!

I've just had an email from Big Local. They are running a series of events around the country for people who live in Big Local areas to find out what other areas are doing and how they are proceeding. The first one is 18-19 November in Liverpool called 'Community buildings and trusts: what makes them work?' They pay travel and childcare costs. ( I have tried to attach the flier which gives full details and contacts but if it doesn't work maybe an administrator could help sort it out.) i'VE TAKEN THIS ATTACHMENT DOWN AS OUT OF DATE NOW