Community Involvement

Contact Lesley Taylor on 01380 722475 or email ltaylor@communityfirst.org.uk

Young people make a difference to their community

12 young people from the youth club in Holt have recently completed a 12 week project to make their village more ‘youth-friendly’

Aptly named ‘Holt’R’Us’, the group of 11-15 year olds started out by consulting with their peers who identified the park and youth club as two areas they’d like to see improved.

During the project, the group did a ‘walkabout’ in Holt to talk to young people and take photos, they ran a consultation session at their youth club, visited Warminster youth development centre and park for inspiration, and attended training around representation and teamwork. They even had a chance to ask questions of the Children’s Commissioner for England, Sir Al Aynsley-Green, at a meeting in Urchfont.

One young person said afterwards “I wanted to improve Holt because there is nothing for young people to do… so I decided to join (Holt’R’Us) and make Holt better, not just for me but for other young people who think that Holt is boring and think that someone should do something about it”

After a fantastic meeting with the treasurer of the youth club, the group secured funding for a new pool table for their club which has recently been delivered. Far from resting on their success though, the group now want to install a youth shelter in the park. The big idea is to pay a graffiti artist to help them decorate a bus stop and they’ve applied to WYPOF (Wiltshire Young People’s Opportunity Fund) for the funding for this. After presenting their ideas to the parish council on 26 June they now await the decision of a newly set up sub-group on whether they can install it, which they really hope will be made before the end of the summer.

Lesley Taylor, the Community Involvement Officer at Community First, said “They’ve been a great group of young people to work with and have shown lots of enthusiasm for making positive changes to their community. They’ve worked very hard on this project and have gained a lot more confidence as well as new skills. It goes to show that young people care about the areas they live in and want to have their ideas listened to and taken seriously. This project aimed to do just that and it was very successful.”

An event held in the village hall on 12 June showcased all their work and everyone who attended (including parents, District Council representatives, local people, youth workers, Parish Council representatives and others) were really impressed with what they’d already done. The group now hope to build on their hard work by continuing to get involved in village life, and especially in improving the park with the Parish Council.

The Project was funded by West Wiltshire District Council and run with support from Broughton Gifford and Holt Youth Project and WCC Development Services for Young People.

HOME Community Involvement Community Transport Consultancy Credit Unions Fit Together Grants Link Schemes Local Councils Parish Council Insurance Parish Plans & Community Consultation Rural Housing Social Enterprise Sustain the Plain Village Halls Village Hall Insurance Village Shops & Rural Enterprise Wheels to Work Wiltshire Infrastructure Consortium Youth	What is Community Involvement? Community Involvement can take many forms but the overall aim of our work is to encourage people to work together for the benefit of their communities and to be able to influence decision making at local levels. What do we do? There are various ways we can support community involvement. Here are just some of the methods we use: Support local people to set up a community group. Help people to influence local decisions through the production of a community-plan. For example Community Area Plans or Parish Plans Help Community Area Partnerships to involve the wider community in what they are doing. Particularly helping to reach parts of the community that don’t often get involved. Support organisations and community groups to more widely involve and consult a broad cross section of people. Provide training, mentoring, facilitation and coaching for groups. Run workshops or training on key areas or issues. Who do we work with? We support community groups and organisations across Wiltshire. A community could be the residents in a street, a village, a neighbourhood, a town or a larger community area. It could be people coming together to address a topic or an issue or to discuss solutions to a shared experience/problem. Where do we work and who decides? We work throughout Wiltshire. Our work programme is funded and determined through District and County Council agreements and we work closely with a wide range of groups, organisations and partners. With the move towards a Unitary Authority in 2009, our current work is very focussed on supporting Community Area Partnerships during this transition period. What have we done recently? We’ve been working with the 5 Community Partnerships in the North Wiltshire. This support has mostly been around re-doing Community Plans and gaining wider involvement from their communities. We’ve trialled a social media project; undertaken wide consultation with young people; worked with Parish Council cluster groups and supported the consultation of ‘hard to reach’ groups as part of this work. We ran a workshop session for Parish Councils and other community groups about ‘Involving Young People’. There will be follow up workshops later in 2009. We facilitated a visioning event for a Jubilee Lake Community Group in Wootton Bassett. This event was run through the Town Council. We have worked with Salisbury District Council in the planning and facilitation of events to set up Community Area Partnerships in South Wiltshire. We facilitated community consultation events in Chute to look at the need for a playground and to establish a working group with wide local support. We ran a planning and review session for a Community Association in the Corsham area. Follow this link to download the end of year progress report - October 2009. (PDF File - 300kb)
		Contact Lesley Taylor on 01380 722475 or email ltaylor@communityfirst.org.uk Young people make a difference to their community 12 young people from the youth club in Holt have recently completed a 12 week project to make their village more ‘youth-friendly’ Aptly named ‘Holt’R’Us’, the group of 11-15 year olds started out by consulting with their peers who identified the park and youth club as two areas they’d like to see improved. During the project, the group did a ‘walkabout’ in Holt to talk to young people and take photos, they ran a consultation session at their youth club, visited Warminster youth development centre and park for inspiration, and attended training around representation and teamwork. They even had a chance to ask questions of the Children’s Commissioner for England, Sir Al Aynsley-Green, at a meeting in Urchfont. One young person said afterwards “I wanted to improve Holt because there is nothing for young people to do… so I decided to join (Holt’R’Us) and make Holt better, not just for me but for other young people who think that Holt is boring and think that someone should do something about it” After a fantastic meeting with the treasurer of the youth club, the group secured funding for a new pool table for their club which has recently been delivered. Far from resting on their success though, the group now want to install a youth shelter in the park. The big idea is to pay a graffiti artist to help them decorate a bus stop and they’ve applied to WYPOF (Wiltshire Young People’s Opportunity Fund) for the funding for this. After presenting their ideas to the parish council on 26 June they now await the decision of a newly set up sub-group on whether they can install it, which they really hope will be made before the end of the summer. Lesley Taylor, the Community Involvement Officer at Community First, said “They’ve been a great group of young people to work with and have shown lots of enthusiasm for making positive changes to their community. They’ve worked very hard on this project and have gained a lot more confidence as well as new skills. It goes to show that young people care about the areas they live in and want to have their ideas listened to and taken seriously. This project aimed to do just that and it was very successful.” An event held in the village hall on 12 June showcased all their work and everyone who attended (including parents, District Council representatives, local people, youth workers, Parish Council representatives and others) were really impressed with what they’d already done. The group now hope to build on their hard work by continuing to get involved in village life, and especially in improving the park with the Parish Council. The Project was funded by West Wiltshire District Council and run with support from Broughton Gifford and Holt Youth Project and WCC Development Services for Young People.
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