The Big Local

[Simple Simon 36]

I attended the meeting last night and detected an undercurrent of frustration regarding communication problems (getting the message across to the wider public about available funds) and the potential targets for the funding.

The presence of representatives (mostly passive) from Shropshire Council appeared to upset an individual. The suspicion perhaps being that, as we are living in a time of cutbacks, not least in the services provided by the council, that certain responsibilities will be left to individual communities and therefore any potential benefit from the funding will be swallowed up in maintaining existing services.

[Maggie 65]

I've started a Facebook page for the Big Local project as I was asked to do last night and have put some photos from last night onto it, and not much else. I don't intend to write much until I gather what people think is needed, so have also asked Nick Heard, the chair of the meeting last night, to respond to you Simon. I am really glad you came however! Here's the link to the Facebook page and I need some likes hint hint.

http://www.facebook.com/BigLocal3Parishes

We are starting on a Communications Strategy Document so I would be very happy to hear any comments from anyone!

[leebarnfield 30]

I believe the communication will be much better when they go into round 2 and can get a website up and running. It shows the public what's already been done, what is being done and where they are going. Coordination with the Community Online forum would be useful, so that a representative could post and answer any questions from the users of this forum.

There does seem to be resistance to embracing modern techniques, such as websites, forums, Twitter, Facebook etc. worrying that this is not exactly cutting edge technology and THE method of spreading your message. I wonder how they will get on in 5 and 10 years time? If you think 10 years ago we didn't have camera phones and the likes of Facebook, Twitter were unheard of.

My vote goes for 1 almighty sculpture, well OK, maybe 3 :D

[Maggie 65]

Guys can we stop talking about 'They' now in terms of Big Local Decisions, it is US, and a collective responsibility between all the people who live in the villages. By having given up a lot of my time over the last year UNPAID, I seem to have become part of the 'THEY'-Borg who run things' only to be complained about.

I think the fear of new technology which is in those who work in hierarchies stems from its revolutionary possibilities; by using social media there are huge opportunities for decisions to be made and acted on quickly circumventing chains of command. Agencies and organisations talk about working in a top down method, imposing their services and decisions upon the grateful community recipients (police, education, services, railways, councils etc etc). Communities themselves don't work like that, and are much more organic and interrelated. Social media can tap into that directly, and I expect that we will one day look back on crowd sourcing as having only been the beginning of a whole new system of working together. Social media is about empowerment and I am sure the technologies will change enormously over the next 10 years. Big Local needs to ride this wave to do its job effectively.

So There!

Yours sincerely: Disgruntled of Chirk Bank

[Simple Simon 36]

There's a charity run by Julie Thomas in Shrewsbury called North Shrewsbury Friendly Neighbours. She's won awards for her organisation. They have a large office in Castlefields. The do stuff like taking people to hospitals, shopping, gardening, community stuff.

I was wondering if I should approach her to ask her how she accesses community opinion and whether a similiar scheme would work for the 3 villages.

[Maggie 65]

Brilliant idea, I didn't know about this organisation, but can only be good thing to talk to her: Thanks Simon! Let me know when and how I can help; I have approached the Food Bank people in Os, and was surprised at how many residents from the 3P have to use them. Bloody shame on us all. We need a group of local organisations and a list of ideas ready for discussions in the next round. Round 2 will go quite quickly because a lot of the research work has already been done, and we need to be thinking about plans for the 10 years now.!

I'm sitting at the laptop watching Waterloo Rd and reading up on Communication Strategies; what a sad old bat I am. I knew all about SWOT analysis but PEST is a new one on me. Anyone know more about all this?

[suenick 7]

I agree with Maggie - lets change the THEY to WE!

[leebarnfield 30]

Well OK, WE don't appear to have done much so far, now I know and people more closely involved know that isn't true.

WE haven't done much in spreading the word and my feeling was this could have easily been done by now with the use of a website, Facebook and Twitter as other Big Local groups have already done. I may indeed be wrong but there didn't seem to be much interest In my comment about this, even though it was supported by other attendees of the meeting.

An alternative scenario could have been.... "we don't know too much about social media, can you help?" to which my response would have been yes.

The efforts of the people that have given up there time to become involved in the Big Local project is fantastic, so tell everyone the great work that has been done so far.

Maggie has been a star in getting really involved in this website, facebook and twitter (with some assistance ;) ) and has now set up a Facebook group for our Big Local group. It's not too difficult, and I and Community Online is here to help.

[Maggie 65]

I inwardly roared with laughter last night when I was described as the IT expert (or words to that effect). I wouldn't have been doing much more than emailing without Lee's online training and handholding. Not to worry though, I do know my limitations, and that there is a lot more out there, and where to go for help! I do think that things will move very rapidly in a couple of weeks when we get the official go ahead from Round 2 Funding, and I want to be ready to hit the ground with my little legs peddling like mad.

(Sorry I got cross a few posts above)

[suenick 7]

A couple of issues from the meeting....mentioned several times the misleading nature of some of the press output.....focus on the headline (£million) not the substance(research/resilience/discussion). Ah well, some people prefer more froth than beer.

Social media include more than those on ICT. (coffee mornings-garden gate chat etc) Clearly some at the meeting use nothing else than the computer, fine but we are working for all age groups and many older folk are still not comfortable with the machines. Any message going out needs, say, three media. Also, still the problem of far too slow webspeeds (less than 1/2 mbps on this one, sometimes down to dial-up!)

The issue of BIG money supplementing County cash is very salient. Will need plenty of thinking here. Especially when Kevin from County Training mentioned there was no money to transport trainees to the nearest trainer!!!! That used to be guaranteed.

What has been achieved so far? Well, a fair bit but the most important stuff is the learning. We are only just getting the idea of what the long term money is for. Try Googling "Resilient Communities" and see some of the stuff going on around the world.

Well, back to the beer.....not the froth!

[leebarnfield 30]

@suenick, you need the 'froth' to entice people to get involved, and lets be honest that's why we are all there, because there is a million pound of support money. You simply aren't going to get the kind of support we are after with an invite to a meeting about research/resilience and discussion.

Clearly some of the people who came to the meeting aren't using nothing but a computer because they were there in the room.

I am not saying to solely output everything by computer, but don't disregard its ability to get your message out there and quickly. Just take a look at the viewing numbers of this topic..... then take a look at the viewing numbers of the whole forum, well over 100,000 in just 6 months. If many older folk aren't comfortable with ICT then we can maybe address that, and this issue with internet speed really isn't a stumbling block, we are only talking downloads of a few hundred kB and not streaming video. It wasn't that long ago that we were all using 56k dial up modems and seemed to manage.

[Maggie 65]

It wasn't that long ago some of us were learning Cobol and Basic!

[Maggie 65]

And when I first started out I was using enormous humming cupboards full of magic stuff, when I got bored trying to do multivariant analysis with a bit of paper and a calculating machine and persuaded the computer department to let me use punch cards!!!

Yours sincely

A Grumpy Old Woman!

[Lola 0]

Can anybody tell me if Big Local have a website? I've tried googling them but seem to only find links back to this forum?

[Maggie 65]

Hi Lola, Bit of a contentious issue. When we get money through from the next round then we are scheduled to produce a web site. This will link in to Community Online. In the mean time, I have set up a Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/BigLocal3Parishes where you can post comments and Big Local in our area can put up information and it has photographs. The Big Local national organisation have set up a web site here... http://www.localtrust.org.uk/ I have also set up a Flickr account for photos of the area, but so far it only has my photos, hint hint to anyone reading this. http://www.flickr.com/groups/1919594@N23/ and it's called Big Local Gobowen, St Martins and Weston Rhyn if you are looking for it.

If you use Twitter then @LocalTrust and #BigLocal have links to interesting stuff, and @chirkmabel also tweets local things (but not just Big Local in the area)

Hope this helps.

[Simple Simon 36]

I've contacted the following charity to ask for their details. You can learn more by going to their website www.nsfn.org.uk. Julie Thomas has informed me that she would be happy to talk to anyone interested in setting up a similiar project, but it would mean visiting her at their office in Shrewsbury as she is a very busy lady.

North Shrewsbury Friendly Neighbours is a registered charity situated in Castlefields, Shrewsbury. Our services are provided by our Co-ordinator, Julie and a team of dedicated locally recruited volunteers, who receive full training, on-going support and expenses.

We address the needs of clients through the following means:

• Practical support

- help with shopping, collecting prescriptions or pensions, transport to appointments, dog walking, etc.

• Emotional support

- befriending the isolated and bereaved, support after stay in hospital, respite and support to carers.

• Companionship

- our Friendship Group provides a relaxed, supportive environment where participants enjoy a variety of activities and, just as important, the company of others.

• Signposting

- to an appropriate statutory or non-statutory organisation where a longer term need is identified.

Each volunteer is subject to a Police CRB check and two satisfactory references. If you would like to volunteer, please visit our volunteering pages.

North Shrewsbury Friendly Neighbours

Registered Charity No 1110476

67 New Park Street

Castlefields

Shrewsbury

SY1 2LE

Office opening hours are Monday to Thursday 10am ‘til 2pm

Telephone: 01743 235505 or 07973 395515 e-mail: juliethomas@nsfn.org.uk

How We Can Help

North Shrewsbury Friendly Neighbours can help you, your family or friends by providing one-off, short-term or long-term support through assistance with basic tasks such as:

• Light Shopping

• Collection of prescriptions/pensions

• Support for parents or carers

• Support during convalescence

• Transport to/from appointments

• Befriending

• Applying for Blue Badge/Attendance Allowance

• General form filling/correspondence

• Telephone befriending

• Dog walking

It's important to remember when considering projects for funding that it should be for the broad spectrum of the community to benefit from. And, that it's not used as an excuse by certain a organisation to cut back on services.

[Simple Simon 36]

@suenick

I spoke to Julie Thomas of North Shrewsbury Friendly Neightbours yesterday afternoon. She is very happy to meet with any members of the 3 Parishes Big Local team. She's also very happy to answer any questions via email.

I've also had a couple of A4 posters printed asking for people to come to this site (or facebook) and contribute their ideas on how the money should be spent. I'll put these up on the notice boards around Gobowen. I've sent a copy via email to Maggie.

I'm really only trying to reach people and get some feedback. It's not my attempt at pushing forward with any kind of "branding".

[Gardner 10]

On the news last week I saw a feature on a village in the south that had got together to arrange a lower fuel tarif. Perhaps this would be a good idea as some of us are not on the internet and cannot do price comparisons.

[Maggie 65]

The latest Big Local newsletter is out and can be read here;http://www.localtrust.org.uk/?blog=news-big-local-april-newsletter

there are links to other documents and guidance information and some useful ideas from other areas for getting the community involved in the process.

Sorry Gardner, I don't know about the fuel tarif group. I know that Shropshire Council have a system to organise areas to get heating oil cheaper... Tell us more.

[Gardner 10]

When you're on the internet you cannot shop around to get the lowest price for electric and gas, especially as the various suppliers keep changing their charges. A village has organised a system where they all (every household) buy their energy from the same (lowest) provider. Someone keeps an eye on energy prices for the whole community. I don't know how the system actually works (perhaps a block subscription, but at least it would help all of us struggling to pay our bills.

[Maggie 65]

Sounds like a good idea, all it takes is a little organisation within the chaos of pricing,

[Maggie 65]

All people involved in the Big Local project in our area are invited to a meeting in the West Mids on 17th May; (you don't have to live in the area to be involved, or eligible for this meeting, which is free, with reasonable Travel expenses paid)

Here is a letter from Helen Fairweather to Big Local in our area:

Dear all

You'll have seen the recent national newsletter which included news on the regional get-togethers. These are open to anyone in the Big Local areas and are a great opportunity to find out what's happening nationally and in other areas, get inspiration, information and ideas. Everyone who goes to these get a lot out of it - and your travel, childcare costs and any special arrangements you need are all taken care of.

So please do book yourself on one of these if at all possible. The one for our region is 17th May, but if you can't make that one you can go to any of the others. Sarah Donohoe is the person to book with (and raise any queries), details in the attachment, but I'd love to know if you are going so feel free to copy me in too.

All the best

Helen Fairweather

Our local event, is in Coseley (near Dudley) on 17th May, and here is the relevant info

.

We will be circulating a programme for each event shortly but it will include an opportunity to hear from and speak to Debbie Ladds, Chief Executive of Local Trust, time to meet and network with people from other Big Local areas, and sessions led by residents in Big Local areas who have been driving forward Big Local for the past year.

At each event registration will begin at 10.00, for an 10.30am start. Events will close at 3pm, and lunch is included.

Please note that:

· These events are for anyone living or working in a Big Local area that wants to know more, get more involved in Big Local or share experiences with other Big Local areas

· You can attend any event you like, and you can come as an individual or as part of a group

· Due to venue capacity we are restricting the number of people that can attend these events from one Big Local area to five. However, if more than five people from one Big Local area want to attend then please let us know, and if we can accommodate you we will.

· We can offer residents financial support to attend, just email Sarah (

Sarah@neighbourhoodmanagement.net

) to find out more

· If you represent an organisation in a Big Local area, such as the CVS, local authority or similar please consider cascading this information to local residents in the Big Local area

If you are interested in attending or have any queries please contact Sarah (Sarah@neighbourhoodmanagement.net, 0778 662 7692)”

NB can you get in touch with one of us from the local Big Local group if you want to go, you can contact me, or Helen, via this site (members list); So that we can organise car share etc., to keep costs to minimum.

(as you can see I've been doing some cut and paste-ing but I think it makes sense and all info is here.)

[Maggie 65]

For those who know very little about Big Local, Local Trust have just produced a bright green leaflet called "What's Big Local all about?" We received some of these on Wednesday so look out for them in the usual places', or you can download it here . In a nutshell it's about long lived sustainable community innovations not buying stuff.

http://www.localtrust.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Whats-Big-Local-all-about_.pdf

[Maggie 65]

Latest Big Local Newsletter (May) here

http://www.localtrust.org.uk/?blog=2442-2

[Simple Simon 36]

BIG Local Coordinator, Gobowen, St Martins and Weston Rhyn

Part-time 15 hours per week, fixed-term contract to end March 2012

Salary £19,851 pro rata

BIG Local is looking for an enthusiastic person with good organisational abilities and communication skills to coordinate the activities of the BIG Local project operating across Gobowen, St Martins and Weston Rhyn.

Employed by Oswestry Community Action but working with the Big Local Delivery Group, the post holder will act as a liaison for the community supporting the BIG Local Delivery Group, creating a partnership approach and shared community vision, culminating in a strategic plan for the BIG Local area.

Preferably educated to NVQ Level 3 or equivalent, the post holder will have excellent communication skills and experience of working with communities.

Full training will be given. Own car is essential.

This post is funded through the Local Trust

For full details of post and an application form (CVs are not

accepted) contact: Oswestry Community Action, Qube, Oswald Road, Oswestry, SY11 1RB.

Tel: 01691 656882, email: info@qube-oca.org.uk

Closing Date: 22 June 2012

Charity Number: 1063319. Inc Company. 3390138