Community Capacity Building & Asset based Community Development

Transcription

1 Community Capacity Building & Asset based Community Development Barry Glasspell Community Capacity Lead Bolton Council & Dr Oboh Achioyamen Coordinator Bolton Community Development Partnership

2 Context Public Sector reforms - reducing resources. Implementation of the Care Act and new duties on Local Authorities. Health & Social Care integration. Increasing demand on Health & Social Care services as more people live longer with long term health conditions. Drive for asset based approaches. Cross sector collaboration and co-production Partnership with Bolton University

3 Care Act 2014 Greater emphasis on delivering service user outcomes and high quality services Duty of Well Being and to provide/arrange preventative services Improve information and advice New duty to undertake carers assessments and provide services that help support carers Market Shaping responsibility which means the council has to understand and develop all parts of the market including for self funders

4 Community Capacity To support the management of demand and the prevention agenda we aim to: Increase the capacity of the community & voluntary sector organisations and other cross sector services. To ensure that a process is developed to identify gaps in service that need to be addressed with new solutions. To support the improvement of information and advice through a local directory. To develop asset based approaches that encourage citizens to take the lead in improving their outcomes with support from behind.

5 What is Asset Based Community Development Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) is a strategy for sustainable community-driven development. Beyond the mobilisation of a particular community, ABCD is concerned with how to link micro-assets to the macroenvironment. The appeal of ABCD lies in its premise that communities can drive the development process themselves by identifying and mobilising existing, but often unrecognized assets, and thereby responding to and creating local economic opportunity. ABCD builds on the assets that are already found in the community and mobilises individuals, associations, and institutions to come together to build on their assets-- not concentrate on their needs. An extensive period of time is spent in identifying the assets of individuals, associations, and then institutions before they are mobilised to work together to build on the identified assets of all involved. Then the identified assets from an individual are matched with people or groups who have an interest or need in that asset. The key is to begin to use what is already in the community.

6 Five Key Assets in ABCD Communities can no longer be thought of as complex masses of needs and problems, but rather diverse and potent webs of gifts and assets. Each community has a unique set of skills and capacities to channel for community development. ABCD categorises asset inventories into five groups: Individuals: At the centre of ABCD are residents of the community that have gifts and skills. Everyone has assets and gifts. Individual gifts and assets need to be recognised and identified. In community development you cannot do anything with people s needs, only their assets. Deficits or needs are only useful to institutions. Associations: Small informal groups of people, such as clubs, working with a common interest as volunteers are called associations in ABCD and are critical to community mobilization. They don t control anything; they are just coming together around a common interest by their individual choice. Institutions: Paid groups of people who generally are professionals who are structurally organized are called institutions. They include government agencies and private business, as well as schools, etc. They can all be valuable resources. The assets of these institutions help the community capture valuable resources and establish a sense of civic responsibility. Physical Assets: Physical assets such as land, buildings, space, and funds are other assets that can be used. Connections: There must be an exchange between people sharing their assets by bartering, etc. These connections are made by people who are connectors. It takes time to find out about individuals; this is normally done through building relationships with individual by individual.

7 Bolton Community Development Partnership BCDP was formed to be the catalyst in communities to empower them to use their assets to improve their outcomes as individuals, families and communities. A steering group named the Asset Based Community Development Partnership governs the work of the BCDP and helps give strategic guidance, identifies community connections and can give support to remove any barriers that prevent communities from developing. Members include local councillors, faith leaders, community and voluntary sector organisations, education, housing and local authority representatives and from these members access to a number of networks, forums and management structures across different sectors in Bolton and Greater Manchester.

8 BCDP will build capacity in communities by: Utilising ABCD principles to draw strengths from the community to build stronger communities. Encourage collaborative networks across the community between local organisations, the council, institutions and citizens. Helping to improve social and economic capacity in Bolton. To develop projects that are co-owned by the citizens of the community. Helping the citizens within the community to help themselves by utilising their local individual assets, associational assets and local institutional assets to meet local needs, like poverty relief, reduction of isolation, improving social economy. Carrying out multidisciplinary researches on factors that can help improve the health and wellbeing of the community and using these findings to advocate for policies that will further enhance capacity of for resilience of the citizens of Bolton.

9 How this provides opportunities for Student placements and volunteering Local providers that will support ABCD projects and that address Health & Social Care outcomes require professional volunteers who have a range of skills that can enhance their outcomes. There is a diverse provider market place in Bolton and as ABCD projects develop new opportunities will arise. Areas such as: 1. Project management, 2. Community development 3. Public and environmental health 4. Administration 5. Adult and children social care 6. Research & Evaluation 7. Working with young and old people 8. Business analysis 9. Working with the ethnic minority groups

10 Benefits for Students; 1. Opportunities to multitask 2. Gain skills that are transferable 3. Working in a professional but caring environment 4. Learn more about Bolton services and chance to work along them 5. Build professional confidence 6. Working with real life projects within the community. 7. Work experience to add to your CV linked to your career pathway. 8. Research projects that can be used as part of your course whilst benefiting providers.

11 Examples of services Lunch Clubs, befriending, social activities provided by Age UK. Senior Solutions, Asian Elders and Halliwell befriending. Environmental projects with community groups, Lancashire Wildlife Trust & Groundwork UK Stroke support groups Bolton Stroke association, Jigsaw and Bolton west stroke group, Bolton Carers support Carers networks Bolton Dementia support Dementia Café s BCDP ABCD project support, fundraising, marketing and volunteer peer support.

12 Vision going forward Cross sector providers from Housing, Faith, Voluntary and Community Sector, Health and Social Care, Emergency Services, Private Sector, Education, Employment and Leisure Services working together to empower individuals and communities to meet their own needs through an asset based approach with organisations supporting from behind and not creating dependencies. Providing opportunities for students to get real life work experiences, develop skills and in doing so helping Bolton citizens.

13 Next steps To help us connect you to a suitable opportunity we need to know What are your interests / passions in a work / career context? What drives you? Do you have ideas about placements that will fit with your studies? Do you have an interest in volunteering that could improve your employment opportunities in the future? If you live in Bolton would you prefer to volunteer in your local area? Where is this? As a volunteer how many hours could you offer?

14 Thanks for listening any questions?