Community Information Champions (CIC)
Free Training & Support for Community Leaders
Community Information Champions is a new project led by Community First, in partnership with Wiltshire Council, Your Care Your Support Wiltshire and Wessex Community Action. The project aims to recruit, train and support a network of Community Information Champions across Wiltshire to help provide signposting to health and care information, local services and support as well as practical advice around key issues like benefits and debts.
A Community Information Champion could be a member of staff from any organisation in Wiltshire or a local community leader or volunteer who is already in contact with local people through their work or voluntary activities. This could be as part of a formal service e.g. libraries or an information grassroots service such as a community cafe.
The overall aim of the Community Information Champions project is to ensure that all people across Wiltshire have access to good quality information to enable them to make the right choices for themselves, their families, friends and carers to live well and stay well for longer at any point in their lives.
As part of the project, Community First will be offering free Community Organising training and the chance to be part of a network of Community Information Champions across the county. For more information on our upcoming free training dates, please see the calendar below or download our training leaflet.
Get Involved
If you would like to attend a free training session via Zoom, please get in touch with Alex Neale
Email: aneale@communityfirst.org.uk
Course Start and End Dates
1st November – 13th December 2021
Thursday mornings via Zoom (10am)
REGISTER ONLINE
Each course consists of:
- 5 x 2 hour zoom learning sessions
- 2 x Reflect and learn drop in sessions
- 1 x Wiltshire Wide network meet up session
- 1 x Your Care Your Support Learning session
A typical course will cover the following:
- Intro Session; A fun introduction to the project with an understanding of a framework tool to work from. Great to get to know others and get a feel for what lies ahead
- Listening and Power session: Interactive listening techniques, understanding of Power and where it sits within your community or life
- Listening, Action and Power session; Looking at our personal power band how to take action in our own way. Also a look at how listening can involve others
- Barriers and Safeguarding session; Important points shared around safeguarding ourselves and the people we work with and a look at how sometimes we may face different challenges within our community interactions
- Move Forward and Connect session; Understanding what we do with our learning and how to use that collective power to tackle what Wiltshire needs locally and beyond.
To achieve a certificate all 5 learning sessions, plus 1 x reflect and learn session must be completed.
Face to face training can be delivered upon request. This would be limited to smaller groups with social distancing measures as per Covid-19 guidance and would be delivered over 2 full days between 9.30am-3.30pm. Please contact Alex Neale (aneale@communityfirst.org.uk) for more information about face to face training and bookings.
For more information about each course please contact Alex Neale: aneale@communityfirst.org.uk
More dates to follow
Start Up Grant Funding for Community Led Housing Groups
Homes of Our Own has a grant funding programme for new and emerging groups, this set-up funding which will be available to groups that have not received funding from previous community led housing grant programmes in Wiltshire and Swindon.
The grants are to cover community led housing project set-up costs, up to £2,000, including but not limited to:
- Forming a community organisation;
- Training sessions for members of the management team;
- Registration fees for the use of online meeting platforms such as Zoom;
- Costs associated with community engagement, member recruitment and project consultation, including publicity materials;
- Costs of incorporation, membership of a national body, registration with the Financial Conduct Authority, registration with the Information Commissioner’s Office and insurance.
More detail of the Start-Up Grant can be found on the resources area of the Homes of Our Own website. Groups who wish to apply for the funding, administered by Wiltshire Council, can do so between April and December 2021 and should email
CommunityLedHousing@wiltshire.gov.uk for an application form and terms and conditions.
