Community, Voluntary, Faith, Cohesion and Culture

The aim of the Community Theme is to create a confident and united community.In order to achieve this the NDC Board has adopted a Community Engagement Strategy to:

• Develop the community and voluntary sector

• Promote equality, diversity and community cohesion

• Build the skills and confidence of residents

• Increase participation and influence

In order to achieve this the Community Theme Group is responsible for commissioning a range of projects and activities that promote community engagement and ensure that the principles of community engagement underpin all regeneration activity in the area.

Projects

The Honeywell Centre - On going development and revenue support for the area's new community building

Neighbourhood Community Team – 5 community development workers responsible for capacity building, consultation,accessing resources and organising events. Current initiatives include the development of the Neighbourhoods Together Agreement

Youth Bus – mobile young people's resource for 13 – 19 year olds

Marketing and Communications – provision of publicity materials, signage and regular newsletters and a range of promotional events.

Community Grants – providing financial resources for local community groups :- to download an application form please click on Community Grant or Mini Grant.

Young People’s Development – co-ordination and development of a range of activities to engage children and young people aged 5-19. Current initiatives include a film project Youth bank and motivational training

10 Year Targets

By year 10 we aim to:

• Increase percentage of residents involved in community activity to 30%
• Increase the percentage of residents who feel that the area is a place where people from different backgrounds get on well together and ensure that the principles of community engagement underpin all regeneration activity in the area.
• Increase percentage of adults participating in learning to 25%
• Increase percentage of residents who feel they have influenced local services to 65%
• Increase percentage of residents satisfied with the area to 90%
• NDC also has a Communications Strategy to ensure that there is an excellent two-way flow of information between the programme and residents and projects

The Story So Far

The Honeywell Centre opened in January 2007 replacing the old Hathershaw Community Centre. It is accommodating a larger number of new and established groups as well as Medlock Vale Children's Centre and a local Jobshop.

There has been a significant increase in number of residents who feel they have influenced local services. This has been enhanced further by the development of a number of Neighbourhood Agreements, to download any of the agreements go to the Home page

An annual programme of NDC promotional events has been established. A large number of Community groups have been supported with an NDC grant.