Developing the Neighbourhood Management Work
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Update May 2008
Key priorities over the period since October 2007 have been to continue to progress the work programme, develop the communications strategy and deliver our community engagement work.
1. Work Programme
· The Community Warden scheme has been established. Working in partnership with NSHousing 2 wardens and 2 street cleaners have been recruited. The area is looking much cleaner. The response to fly tipping has been stepped up and work is being undertaken with Streets and Open Spaces to prevent dumping of black bags of domestic waste.
· Work has commenced on delivering the open spaces strategy including final plans for Jubilee Park, on the Coronation and Millennium Green, on the Potteries. Work will commence on both parks over the summer and be completed by December 2008. Plans are available to view at the Neighbourhood Management office in the HLC
· Working with the Environment Agency and Streets and Open Saces we have cleaned a stretch of the Uphill Great Rhyne, removing 25 tonnes of waste material. The 4youth group is working with us to build wildlife areas and improve planting of native species
· Two detached youth workers started work in January and are out on the 4 estates in the evenings working with young people aged 13 - 19.
· A reparation worker has been employed through the Youth Offending Team. This post will develop community based projects with young offenders on South Ward.
· A domestic abuse worker started on 1st May. This post is jointly funded with NSHousing and will work with the most high risk cases of domestic abuse.
2. Community Engagement
· The Youth Forum continues to meet every two weeks. A core group of young people have been involved in environmental projects including an inter generational gardening project with older residents .
· Monthly meetings take place on each of the four estates bringing key service providers together with local residents. The newly formed Oldmixon Residents Association held its first meeting on 12th May.
3. Communication Strategy
· The summer edition of the Connect4 newsletter will be distributed to all households in South Ward in late July,
Update - Dec 2007
View the South Ward highlights 2007 (pdf 511k)
Update - May 2007
The Neighbourhood Management Team has been in place since 1 February 2007. They set themselves three priorities for the first six months of the programme.
These are:
- Board Development - ensuring representation and an agreed constitution, development of a structure to manage and drive the work programme.
- Work Programme - agreement on the priority themes for the work programme, developing an evidence based process, setting the budgets and agreeing activities.
- Community Engagement - broadening the reach of the neighbourhood management programme by engaging with a wide range of local residents, including local young people.
Board Development
The first task has been to move from the interim Board to a more permanent structure. The Neighbourhood Management Team have run development sessions for the Board during April and May to establish a clear vision, underpinned by a delivery structure, with an agreed membership.
The new Board has 16 members - 8 service providers and 8 local residents. The service providers represent the strands of the work programme and the link to key providers and the residents have two members from each of the four estates that make up South Ward.
Work Programme
The Team are now engaging with partners (residents and service providers) to develop a proactive and evidence based work programme.
They have run a series of participative action planning sessions around each of the four key themes:
- Children & Young People - looking at developing mobile youth provision, holiday activity schemes for 0-19s and targeted work for excluded young people.
- Cleaner and Greener - improving the three local shopping parades, tackling rubbish and litter problems and enhancing local parks and open spaces.
- Crime &Community Safety - tackling anti-social behaviour, criminal damage and vandalism, reducing domestic violence and improving people's perceptions of South Ward.
- Employment & Skills - increasing opportunities for young adults and helping adults access training and skills development.
Community Engagement
The Team have focused on the following priorities:
- Building the capacity of resident Board members - each now has a personal development plan in place to help them meet the demands and challenges of being a Board member.
- Building the capacity of other local voluntary organsiations working in South Ward.
- Encouraging volunteering.
- Involving young people in the Neighbourhood Management processes. A youth event, planned and organised by local young people, is being held on 1 June at Weston St Johns Football Club.
Update - March 2007
An interim team began work in the area and the permanent team started on 1 February 2007. The Team consists of Sara Brown (Neighbourhood Manager), Cindy Eigler (Community Development Worker) and David Davis (Data, Monitoring and Evaluation officer).
A survey of views covering all 4,400 households across South Ward has been undertaken and 700 replies (about 16%) received so far. This work will be used to develop actions and projects for the Neighbourhood Management programme as well as set baselines and targets for indicators and outcomes in the Local Area Agreement.
The new Neighbourhood Management team is now working to support the Board and its partners in developing and delivering a programme of work within South Ward to meet the key outcome targets of the programme. The priority themes under which we will be developing a programme of work are:
- crime and community safety
- cleaner and greener environment
- young people
- education, employment and skills
The work programmes are being developed through a series of action planning sessions and public events designed to draw together key stakeholders (agencies and local residents) over March and April.
The NSP Board set up a subgroup to guide the initial development of the neighbourhood management structure and processes in South Ward. The agreed structure is a Neighbourhood Management Board (NM Board) and a Neighbourhood Management Team (NM Team).
The NM Board consists of a number of local residents as well as representatives from agencies and groups working locally. The NM Board will agree the interim work plan for the NM Team.