Tag: #ruralcommunities

Big Local Big Changes

Posted on by Julie

We are super excited to announce that East Cleveland Villages Big Local has reviewed their development plan and are about to launch under a new name and new title.  This means a rebrand to something everyone will come to know and recognise.

East Cleveland Villages Big Local is being renamed and will become East Cleveland Good Neighbours – Connecting Communities.  Together with a new development plan for the area and new direction of travel for East Cleveland Good Neighbours – this is an exciting time for East Cleveland.

We believe that the change will be much easier for the community to connect with and relate to.  The partnership team has worked with a consultant and engaged with the community to develop an easy-to-understand development plan with clear themes that will benefit the communities of East Cleveland.  Following a period where COVID halted the progress of implementing the plan – now is the time to move forward.

To launch their new name, they would like to invite you to an event with a difference.

They are inviting community groups to come along and find out more and take part in a Chicken Soup event! At the event community groups will have the opportunity to pitch their ideas to the room audience who will then vote on their chosen cause.  The winners of the vote will be awarded a grant of £500.

All we are asking is that community groups are working on the themes of our development plan and the delivery is in our allocated area of East Cleveland.  On the launch evening we will be taking pitches from those working on our themes 2, 3, 4 and 5, see below for information.

The date of the event is 1st October at Loftus Community Hub CIC – Home of the East Cleveland Good Neighbours Food bank (The old Loftus Social Club, West Road, Loftus, TS13 4RG)

Groups will discover more about the themes over the next few weeks via their social media pages but for now the themes are:

Theme 1.  Developing the skills and confidence of local people and organisations

Theme 2. Young People

Theme 3. Health and Well Being

Theme 4. Being neighbourly – Connecting Our Communities

Theme 5. Campaigning and Strong Local Voices

Also, on the evening there will be a market stall event to find out more about the themes and how community groups can get involved either as a delivery partner or to access funding.

What’s not to get involved with? …. This is your chance too network with other organisations in the local area, a chance to find out more about the plans for East Cleveland Good Neighbours – Connecting Communities moving forward and an opportunity for funding.  We may even treat you all to some cake!!

Please follow social media groups and pages or contact info@teesvalleyruralaction.co.uk for more information.

 

Tees Valley Volunteering Charter launched as Volunteers’ Week 2022 comes to a close

Posted on by Julie
Tees Valley Volunteering Charter launched

Volunteers across Tees Valley can be assured that they will have a great experience, as a new Volunteering Charter is launched.

Tens of thousands of people take on voluntary roles across Tees Valley every year, making a huge contribution to the welfare of their communities, whilst having an enjoyable and rewarding time. The Tees Valley Volunteering Charter can be adopted by organisations which deploy volunteers, and demonstrates their commitment to ensuring that volunteers are safe, valued, and that they undertake meaningful tasks which make a real difference to their communities.

The Charter has been developed  by the Tees Valley Infrastructure Partnership (TVIP), a group of voluntary sector bodies which provide advice, support and a voice for the thousands of voluntary community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations in the region.

Jon Carling, Chief Executive of Catalyst, which supports the VCSE sector in Stockton-on-Tees, said ‘The aim of the Charter is to enable our partner organisations to demonstrate to volunteers that they will have a safe, enjoyable and rewarding experience’.

Mark Davis, Chief Executive of Middlesbrough Voluntary Development Agency, added ‘volunteers tell us all the time how much they enjoy volunteering. They make such a difference to the lives of local people, and add a lot of value to the economy too. Organisations which sign up to the Charter will be showing a real commitment to supporting our volunteers’.

Developed by the Tees Valley Infrastructure Partnership (TVIP) the Charter gives volunteers across the Tees Valley assurance that their volunteering experience will be as positive and worthwhile as possible.

The Charter does not provide set criteria for how organisations ensure the quality of their volunteering offer, but provides a list of statements, which they pledge to work towards in their volunteering practice.

This gives volunteers the confidence that they are valued and supported but allows organisations the flexibility to apply the Charter statements in a way that suits them.

Organisations will be invited to sign up to the Charter from 1st July 2022, and will receive a Charter pack, including a suite of suggested examples to help develop, embed, and uphold good practice.

For the Darlington area to sign up to the Charter or for any further information please contact TVRA’s Business Development Manager, Julie Thornton at info@teesvalleyruralaction.co.uk or 01642213852.

For other areas please contact:-

Hartlepool – Hartlepower -Tracy.Harvey@hartlepool.gov.uk

Middlesbrough – MVDA – Lesley.spaven@mvdauk.org.uk

Redcar & Cleveland – RCVDA – carole.marshall@rcvda.org.uk

Stockton – Catalyst – lucy.owens@catalyststockton.org

East Cleveland Villages – We need to find some good listeners, is this you?

Posted on by Julie

Lloyds Bank Foundation is  involved in long-term People and Communities work in Redcar and Cleveland (and five other communities across England and Wales). The Great Listeners approach in Redcar and Cleveland will be an essential part of the work, enabling residents to take the lead in researching local needs and views.

Supported by an independent community worker, Nick Beddow (Shared Places), the Great Listeners will be creating  a community-led research approach in Redcar and Cleveland, to find out what 600 local residents feel strongly about in their neighbourhoods: what do they currently like and wish to see continue? What do they dislike and want to see change? And what are their own ideas for making life better for all?

What difference will it make?

Consultation has become a dirty word in the past because communities can feel that they are being used by big organisations in a paper-exercise which leads to nothing changing and no further communication about what’s been discovered in the research.

The Great Listeners approach is tackling this head-on:  it is led by communities listening to each other, connecting and and learning about their different views, needs and priorities, and then using these conversations to create a long-term community voice on local issues. The Great Listeners conversations will be gathered into a report which will be available to communities and used at action-planning and decision-making events to guide everyone towards collaborating better on community priorities. The Great Listeners will be bringing together many voices from many backgrounds and perspectives.

These 600 conversations will be a starting point for learning what’s important to communities; we will be listening to people who often aren’t being heard.

In March 2022 the findings will be shared with communities, service providers and funders, to help them consider future actions to meet local people’s needs. We are ‘learning as we go’ and trying to evolve an approach to community engagement which will continue and be built on further. We hope that the learning from the Great Listeners work will inspire new approaches to how we involve communities in helping to shape local services and influence decision-making.

How it will work:

These conversations will be happening in three areas of Redcar & Cleveland: Grangetown, Redcar and neighbourhoods in the East Cleveland area. These sites were chosen because they offer different environments and we want to see if that creates different priorities for people who live there.

The research will be undertaken by ten residents who will be chatting to others in their neighbourhood from January to March 2022. We will be recruiting the residents from the three areas during November and December, and paying them in shopping vouchers for a couple of hours work each week, over three months. This ensures that people who are receiving benefit payments can be involved, as we will be keeping to a maximum of £20 payment each week in the form of vouchers. Anyone over 16 can be considered. The only qualifications required are that they are good listeners and care deeply about their communities.

How Can Residents Apply?

We will be sending our recruitment poster to communities throughout November and early December to invite people to express their interest in becoming our “Great Listeners” or “Community Explorers” (we’ll ask the recruited residents to decide on their own name).

The first step is for interested residents to contact Nick Beddow by phone or text (07985 570168) or email (nicksharedplaces@gmail.com).

Nick will contact each person to explain the project in more detail, and ask about their interests and social background – where they live, age, involvement in their community, etc.

As we have only ten places available, in mid December we will choose ten people who give us a good mix of backgrounds (where they live, and a mix of all social factors such as ages, gender, ethnicity, mobility, etc).

Everyone who applied will be contacted by Nick before Xmas: those chosen for the ten places will be asked if they still wish to go ahead, and everyone else will be asked if they are willing to be kept on a list of reserve places if any of the ten Great Listeners can’t continue.

In mid-January the ten Great Listeners will meet Nick in a local venue to train together as a team; a three hour meeting will look at their views on the issues locally and begin to use the chatting tools on each other. We will be deciding together the best ways to begin the local chats. Each Great Listener can decide when to use their own time each week (usually two hours to complete ten chats each week), and will be paid by Nick fortnightly at update meetings (usually one hour).  They will also be paid for the training and meetings.

Invitation to participate in DCMS survey about rural network coverage (mobile)

Posted on by Julie

Invitation to participate in DCMS survey about rural network coverage (mobile)

“ Would you like to contribute to government policy? We, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), are currently researching the impact of mobile coverage in rural areas. This is part of our Shared Rural Network programme which aims to increase mobile network coverage across the UK to 95%. Now, we want to find out how this programme can help you in your daily life.

We particularly want to hear from you if you live or work in rural UK!

You can participate via this link: https://dcms.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_7QWTy9OUU4PNnmK 

The survey should take around 10 minutes to complete.

Or email Laura.Hensel@dcms.gov.uk to request to complete the survey over the telephone.

Information about the Shared Rural Network can be found here

Tees Valley Rural Action supporting village halls bouncing back.

Posted on by Julie

TVRA wraps a supportive arm around our village hall communities, with support and expert advice.

What a sad and surreal day it was in spring 2020, when hundreds of village halls across the country had to close their doors, literally turning off a life-line for many who relied on the facilities as their safe haven and for social interaction.  Buildings that were a hive of activity providing coffee mornings, library and health and wellbeing activities etc – suddenly became silent.  Volunteer management committees now had to consider their new role, that of managing an empty building, they could not just lock the door, walk away, and wait for the government to tell them what to do.

At the start of lockdown, Tees Valley Rural Action’s (TVRA) staff and Village Hall Advisor were inundated with enquiries as to what was happening and what they should do.  Tees Valley has over 70 village halls who grabbed opportunities to come together virtually with expert partners/agencies such as Martyn Ingram from Norris and Fisher Insurance Brokers Ltd who was able to give guidance on behalf of insurers for village halls.

Throughout the pandemic, TVRA has provided advice, guidance and support to village halls and community buildings across the Tees Valley.  This has included funding advice and encouraging the management committees to apply for the government business support grant, regular interpretation of the guidelines coming out of central government and helping them to understand what they could and couldn’t do.

Fast forward some 15 months and there is an excited buzz in the air!  Why?  Because village halls are planning their re-opening and diligently working to ensure their users and visitors feel confident that they are entering a safe environment.  Returning once again to providing a facility for communities to meet and services that are paramount in small villages and go a long way to reduce loneliness and social isolation.

Rita Lawson CEO, “Throughout the pandemic, TVRA has never been so busy.  The team has been at the end of a phone providing advice and guidance on following the government guidelines.  Also, as TVRA is your regional network member of Action with Communities in Rural England, (ACRE) we have had access to simplified updates which again we have been able to share with our village hall and community building management committees.  One of our village hall members did say that without TVRA’s help and support they were fearful of doing things wrong and putting people and themselves at risk.  We’re coming to, what will hopefully be the end of this current lockdown and applaud everyone involved in our communities for diligently following the 4 step road map.   We do need to be continually mindful not to become complacent and undo all the good that has been done in keeping our communities and each other safe.  As we emerge back into the new normal of life, TVRA will be there every step of the way as ‘together we are stronger’.”

Village halls in England are being encouraged to sign the online record to mark 100 years of rural community action. Has your hall signed the national record yet? There is still time to get involved.

Many of England’s Village Halls date back to the 1920s. There are over 10,000 village and community halls to be found across England. Many were established in the 1920s when there was a national drive to improve social and educational provision in rural areas. In a survey undertaken by ACRE last year, it was found that 60% of village halls provide the only meeting space in the local community. An estimated 50,000 individuals too are reliant on the use of village halls to make a living.

The online record has been set up by national charity, Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE). The Domesday Book is a colourful, and arguably historical record, so far featuring 700+ village halls whose volunteer custodians have taken time to explain their charity’s history, their response to the pandemic, and hopes for reopening and supporting their community in the future.

 

Notes to editor 

TVRA work to ensure all village halls and community centres are well run by professional management committees working for the betterment of their communities.  TVRA encourage and support hall redevelopment projects, provide grant funding advice, give regular information and advice on running a hall in your local community and provide advice and guidance on all aspects of village hall and community building management.

  • There are 10,000+ village halls in England
  • 1,000 village halls host a community enterprise such as shop, café, post office.

Please feel free to contact Janice McColm at Tees Valley Rural Action on 01642 213852 info@teesvalleyruralaction.co.uk

Help us support you online and make sure you don’t miss any of our conversations by following us on social media. You can follow us on Facebook and on Twitter.

Tees Valley Village Halls

The Prince’s Countryside Fund

Posted on by Julie

The Prince’s Countryside Fund is now accepting applications from locally-focussed, legally-constituted not-for-profit organisations who are working to create resilient rural communities across the UK in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Grants of up to £10,000 are available for up to one year. Projects must be completed within one year of their start date and no later than 31 March 2022. Some match funding is required.
The grants will cover revenue costs that are directly associated with projects that are helping rural communities deal with the negative effects of the pandemic.
To date the funding has been used to address and combat issues such as isolation, financial pressures, and issues with physical and mental health.
Groups are advised to apply early as a large number of applications are expected and the fund may close earlier than the published deadline.
Application Deadline: 3rd November 2020.

The Prince’s Trust Countryside Fund 

Tees Valley Rural Action Rural Garden Competition Winners Announced

Posted on by Julie

Tees Valley Rural Action, (TVRA) would like to thank everyone for entering our Rural Garden Competition.

The judging was done by Ben Houchen, Tees Valley Mayor, who did tell us he had a very difficult time choosing the winners. We thank him for taking the time to judge your amazing photographs.

We can now announce the winners as follows:

  • 1st Prize Barbara Irvine from Elwick, Hartlepool
  • 2nd Prize Brian Chapman from Thornton, Middlesbrough
  • 3rd Prize Clare Wren from Stainton, Middlesbrough

The three winners will receive a wonderful canvas of their photograph, and a garden centre voucher. The first 1st prize will feature in TVRA’s Rural Evidence Report due to be published in early 2021.

Rita Lawson, TVRA’s, Chief Executive commented, “During COVID 19 our gardens and yard spaces have become our place of sanctuary, allowing us to enjoy a safe and happy space.  We are thankful you have taken the time to share with us and showcase Tees Valley in all its summer glory.  This pandemic has impacted on everyone in some way shape or form, and we have been truly blessed to be able to glimpse into your spaces which have played a part in lifting, not only your emotional wellbeing but also ours at TVRA, and keeping us all connected.”

We hope you enjoy the video of our 3 winners, Everyone is a winning entry in our eyes and we will showcase more of the fantastic entries in the coming weeks.

Don’t forget to keep in touch please like our social media channels and subscribe to our newsletter on the home page. #raisingtheruralvoice

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