Group items tagged

Great contribution to understanding #BigSociety from Keystone Development Trust published today http://tinyurl.com/6dx33gn

This is a really collection of articles - but it is just a pdf. I wonder if the authors would be willing to have the published as linkable pages somewhere

We now have two strong strands emerging in the development of Big Society community organisers, and organising. The other day NESTA announced their Neighbourhood Challenge programme under which a number of organisations will be funded for a year to experiment with different types of organising in 10 areas, and then to share experience. Last week more details emerged of the bigger programme originally announced by David Cameron at the Big Society manifesto launch in March: a "Neighbourhood army" of 5,000 full-time, professional community organisers who will be trained with the skills they need to identify local community leaders, bring communities together, help people start their own neighbourhood groups, and give communities the help they need to take control and tackle their problems". The Office for Civil Society (OCS) announced a tender (deadline 23rd December 2010) for a National Partner to further develop, implement and manage the programme. Nick Bird has produced a briefing on behalf of Urban Forum - see below or download pdf here.

Report by Colin Miller and Gabriel Chanan of PACES reviewing Big Society after six months

Lotsa Helping Hands was created to support family caregivers by empowering their family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and church or synagogue members - what we call a family's 'circles of community' - who are eager to help them as they manage the daily tasks that become a challenge during times of family or medical crisis, caregiver exhaustion, or when caring for an elderly parent.

I think that some of the core ideas in Big Society - like mutual support, small group action to benefit neighbourhood life, and devolution of decision making - get mutters rather than shouts of support for several reasons. First, they produce: Yes, but many people have been doing that for years, what's new? Second, I may like the idea, but not with a Big Society label. Third, if we accept these are good ideas, and we should do more, what's the framework for action just when support organisations are losing staff through cuts? We need some common ground of practical policies to support ideas that can get common consent.

Following our blog post last last year about 'What Big Society Means for East London', we are delighted to announce our plans for Chain Reaction 2011. Everything in east London is bigger - more wealth, more poverty, more diversity more opportunity, more agencies to involve in everything.  And the human costs of not addressing the challenges and making the best of the huge opportunities are spiralling upwards.  Despite the biggest regeneration programmes in Europe, we are in danger of finding ourselves with islands of prosperity in a sea of poverty.   So what can we do to address this in a time of shrinking public finances and a dramatic reconfiguring of public services?  We need to find new ways of working, and we need to work together better. On 1 February 2011, we will connect a core group to explore the issues and collaborate on the once in a lifetime opportunities in east London. Communities, businesses and local government can work together to maximise our collective power to ensure the delivery of better services and find innovative ways to develop stronger, more responsive communities.

Maurice Glasman was moderately well known in Labour circles in the capital thanks to his ground-breaking work with London Citizens - an alliance of faith institutions, universities, schools and trade unions that he brought together to run community projects. Suddenly, his political philosophy of local activism is being touted by some as Labour's answer - its possible trump card - to David Cameron's "big society". Others in Labour go further, saying it could even offer the kernel of the "big idea" that Miliband is desperately seeking to define his leadership.