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Local Area Coordination in England and Wales

April 2022
Updates on Local Area Coordination, the work of the Network and
the areas implementing Local Area Coordination.  
In this month's edition we'll be covering:
 
  • Looking through a different lens
  • Cawr o Farcud / A Giant of a Kite
  • We're recruiting!
  • And much more...

Update from Nick Sinclair, Director of the Local Area
Coordination Network

Welcome to April’s Newsletter and thanks as always to Rachel for putting it together so beautifully. The big news this month is we are recruiting someone to help us grow and develop Local Area Coordination across our Network. We’re so excited about this new role. Please do have a look and help spread the word! More here.

I am a big fan of this time of year. Since I last wrote Spring has well and truly sprung with new life abundant everywhere. Over the Easter weekend I had the pleasure of visiting my parents at their home (where I grew up) in Darlington. The garden was looking beautiful thanks to the huge amount of time and attention my Dad has been giving it of late. As we looked around, Dad reflected that a garden is never “finished” rather something that requires constant attention and adaptation to bring it to life. He further pointed out that you have to work with the forces of nature in a garden in order to ultimately direct them in a way that is helpful. I guess he should know after tending to his for the best part of 40 years!

The flourishing garden analogy is one that I often find helpful when thinking about establishing and growing Local Area Coordination. Local Area Coordination as a concept often starts off life as seeds planted in rocky and shaded soil. Over time though, and with the right nourishment and pruning of surrounding weeds, we can start to see it’s green shoots emerge, revealing for the first time a glimpse of its true potential. With even more time, we start to see something that resembles the vision of Local Area Coordination blossoming before our eyes. Like a garden, Local Area Coordination is never finished though. It requires constant attention, learning, adaptation and time.

Keep on gardening and enjoy the newsletter

Thank you,
Nick Sinclair

Useful publications inc. those on Local Area Coordination
and/or Asset Based work

Communities doing it for themselves: Lessons from the mutual aid experience


In this report MoVE brings together research conducted on the effectiveness of mutual aid groups during the covid-19 pandemic. it identifies key motivations for increased involvement in mutual aid and provides recommendations on the legacy of this way of working. 

Read the report

Looking Through a Different Lens

This month we have written a blog reflecting on the impact Local Area Coordination can have on the way we see the wider world. Drawing on reflections from our recent Coordinator Connection meeting, we look at the impact Local Area Coordination can have on our own relationship-building skills, and ability to find empathy.

Read the blog here 

Event Invitation: Community Organising and Local Area Coordination


Join us on 18th May, 10-11am as we come together with Community Organisers for Community Organising and Local Area Coordination. In this session, facilitated by Nick Gardham from Community Organisers and our Nick Sinclair, we will explore;
  • Some stories of the two approaches
  • Where the 2 approaches are working well (and why)
  • The differences these approaches are making

We hope it will be of interest to citizens, practitioners and policy makers alike interested in community organising, development, community wellbeing and social capital development.

Find out more and sign up here

Cawr o Farcud / A Giant of a Kite


Cwmbwrla Community Events recently launched a video documenting their recent project to make a Welsh ‘Gigantic Kite’ – ‘Cawr o Farcud’ to explore Cwmbwrla community's extraordinary responses to Covid (and the systemic problems it has exposed). The process created spaces and opportunities to address these huge considerations and provoke individual and shared reflection of what to hold onto and what to let go of in a visible collaborative public artwork.

This community project was supported by Local Area Coordinators Seren Aldron and Emma Shears (pictured below right).

Watch the video here
 

Vacancies

Local Area Coordination Network Manager
Employer: Community Catalysts
£38,000 per annum 
37.5 hours per week
Permanent

We are seeking someone brilliant to join us on the Local Area Coordination journey, getting alongside our Network members and supporting them in bringing the vision to life where they are.

The post holder will be given the scope, tools and support to shape the work within three clear strategic areas. 

  • Lead and develop Local Area Coordination Network activity. 
  • Ensure more stories, data and insights are generated about Local Area Coordination.
  • Lead the development of our learning resources and opportunities. 
Closing date: 16th May at 1pm
 

Community Micro-enterprise Catalysts/Coordinators (Central Bedfordshire)
Employer: Community Catalysts
£32,960 per annum 
37.5 hours per week
2 roles available
3 year fixed term contract

Community Catalysts are looking for two Catalysts/Coordinators who will lead the Central Bedfordshire Community Micro-enterprise Project. You will find and mentor local people and community organisations, helping them to create new ways for older people who need help at home to live the life they want.

To do this job you must:

  • Understand the world of care – but maybe feel it could do with a bit of a shake up!
  • Be a real people person – able to work well with all sorts of folks with confidence.
  • Instinctively make connections – and join up dots that are sometimes less than obvious.
  • Be able to spot what people are good at and nurture it.
Closing date: 23rd May at 1pm


Community Enterprise Catalyst (London Borough of Sutton)
Employer: Community Catalysts
£32,960 per annum 
37.5 hours per week
1 year fixed term contract

Community Catalysts are looking for someone to lead the Sutton Community Micro-enterprise Project. You will find and mentor local people and community organisations, helping them to create new ways for people who need care and support to live the life they want.

To do this job you must:

  • Understand the world of care – but maybe feel it could do with a bit of a shake up!
  • Be a real people person – able to work well with all sorts of folks with confidence.
  • Instinctively make connections – and join up dots that are sometimes less than obvious.
  • Be able to spot what people are good at and nurture it.
Closing date: 24th May at 1pm

Watch Stronger Things Online

Earlier this month Nick spoke on the Doing Community Power Panel at New Local's Stronger Things event in London alongside 

Recordings for the event are now available to watch on the New local YouTube channel including speeches from speakers Angela Rayner, Dr Fiona Hill and much more.

Watch the Stronger Things 2022 playlist

"It's about doing services differently with no referral system, no time limits...it's about very local, accessible relationships" 
Nick Sinclair at Stranger Things

Community Catalysts are talking about coproduction

In this series of blogs Community Catalysts explores the role of coproduction in their work with national charity Macintyre and equipment provider Mediquip.

Community Catalysts has been working with MacIntrye to develop their Great Communities Project. They have also recently been working with Mediquip to develop approaches to coproduction, customer feedback and community delivery.

Read the series:

Event: The future of mutual aid: translating learning into policy and practice


Last year, the MoVE team carried out research in England and Wales to understand what made mutual aid groups so distinctive and what we can learn from their success in responding to the pandemic.

Now the MoVE Project are inviting you to join them on the 26th April, 2-4pm for an online webinar exploring the learning from this research.

Find out more and sign up for this event

Global Networking Event - Living Support Communities


This webinar introduces how the model of living support networks has been shared and adapted across the world. Chaired by Cormac Russell, it will reflect on the successes and challenges faced by organisations who sought to change the landscape of support for people with learning disabilities and beyond.

Sign up for this event

Useful blogs


Co-production and the power of community "it starts with hello" by Abby Vella

https://www.thinklocalactpersonal.org.uk/Blog/It-starts-with-hello/
 

Top quotes from Stronger Things by Joseph Barnsley

https://www.newlocal.org.uk/articles/stronger-things-quotes/

How to get in touch

Email or phone Rachel for general enquiries or to supply content for future editions of the Update:
rachel.tait@communitycatalysts.co.uk
07384835721

Email or phone Nick about work with members and about new work to embed Local Area Coordination in your area:
nick@lacnetwork.org
07407789130

Website: http://lacnetwork.org/
Facebook: @LACNetwork
Twitter: @LACNetworkUK
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The Local Area Coordination Network is hosted by Community Catalysts CIC who make sure that people, wherever they live, have real choice of great local social care, health services and other community resources.
 
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