Open Meeting September 2008

WEYDON AND WRECCLESHAM COMMUNITY CONSULTATION

MINUTES OF AN OPEN MEETING HELD ON MONDAY, 29^TH SEPTEMBER 2008

AT 7.30PM AT THE WEYDON CHRISTIAN CENTRE

Present:	Suzanne Baker	Steve Delves	Sue Mealey	Pat Dent
	Ivy Skeet	Chris Secker	Sylvia Jacobs	Kenton Sparks
	Pat Lambert	Sue Marsh	Mike Henson
	Kate Collins	Juliet Green	Gemma Henson
	Helen Parnell	Bridget Berry	David Munro

Apologies:	Carol Macfarlane
	Anne Gell
	Jane Still
	Jonathan Still
	Mike Causey

1. Welcome

Ivy Skeet welcomed everyone to the meeting and outlined the programme for our time together.

2. Process

Suzanne Baker outlined the process that we had adopted and the five steps that we were involved in (see attached paper).

3. Discussion Groups

We split into three discussion groups to talk about the questionnaire and its findings and to see if we could identify common themes that came out from the responses that we had received. This was then drawn together as a set of proposals to be taken forward by smaller working parties, with people offering their names if willing to be part of these working groups.

4. Areas for Development

Information Leaflet + Insert in Farnham Herald etc Kenton Sparks
Coffee Mornings/Cafe Ivy Skeet
Computer Classes - publicise Kenton Sparks
Wrecclesham community Centre club and activities for 7-11 yr olds (nb time of day). Isabel Cowdry, Chris Secker
Home school Link Activities. Crossing schools/generations Sue Marsh
Holiday Activities/Drop ins etc - Julie Campbell. Sue Marsh, Helen Parnell, Isabel, Chris Secker, Bridget Naylor, Pat Lambert ( kept informed by email only)

ACTION POINTS

Arrange for an article in the Farnham Herald on the consultation process.
Prepare a paper for Surrey, Waverley and Farnham Town Council summarising the process.
Discuss with Pat Frost, David Munro and Mike Causey how best to circulate this.
Do a summary to Bridget Naylor to circulate to the school heads.
Talk with Carol Macfarlane about the computer courses.
Clearly there are gaps in participants to move things forward in some areas so we need to identify other people willing to contribute. The Steering Group will help to facilitate initial meetings of the working groups.
See what can be done to support the Monday Drop-in.

01/10/08

(fcct/weydon&wreccleshamcg/consultation/open meeting.sept08)

Farnham Research Stages

This paper outlines an approach to researching the needs of a community in order for community minded people to respond to local need. It is based on the 'Social Action Journey' model that was developed by The Shaftesbury Society.

First Stage - Preparation - Values/Setting up Team

The group needs to identify why people wish to be involved, what do they want to see happen, what are their philosophical or spiritual underpinnings, what set of values to they want to work with. Then to look at how they wish to operate as a team, how they will make decisions. They can find out within the group what skills set each has and any particular areas of interest. The group may wish to seek if there are others in the area that may be interested in being involved.

Values group agreed:

Listen to all
Value Different Opinions
Be community focused
Reach the silent voices, hard to reach, less articulate poeple, delve deeper into the community
Build individual and community esteem
Seek out talents and gifts in the community to help develop activities
Inclusive to all
Bring community together/develop community
Respond to local needs and change as needs change
Target all age ranges
For some - motivated by faith - desire to see Kingdom values such as peace, love, acceptance of difference, dignity and self worth.
For others - motivated by community values - which are similar to above!

Second Stage - Engaging and Researching the community

This is a very important stage as it enables the team to identify the key needs of the community, rather than focusing on the most apparent issues. It also stops the duplication of activities that may be happening by another provider in the area. It importantly asks the community what they want, giving them voice on what needs to take place. There are three suggested areas of research.

Reports and Statistics

The group can go to the local council and other statutory bodies to obtain any local statistics, government reports on areas such as crime, employment, education, health, housing etc. These reports and statistics can bring up some surprising information and provide some useful background information.

Find out about other agencies and organisations active in the area.

Then, the team needs to identify what local agencies are active in the area. They need to speak to them and find out what they are doing, what they see as the gaps in provision. This can take time but it gives these people awareness of group and also the group might find that you encounter 'people of peace' who provide them with some very helpful information or lead them to another helpful contact or opportunity.

See Weydon & Wrecclesham Mapping Report – February 2008.

Community Consultation

Finally the team need to consult the community on what they would like to see happen (based on what you know already exists and some needs that may have been identified). Various methods of consultation can be used, a common one is through a questionnaire (Shaftesbury Society have a very helpful pack), or 1 to 1 interviews etc.

This stage can take some time but again, in the mix of this relationships are being built with the local community.

See Weydon & Wrecclesham Community Consultation.

Third Stage - Choose Area to be involved with.

Having identified the key needs, the team will then need to explore ways in which they may be addressed. The team can then consider how the needs match skills identified within the group. It is good to start small and do something that is manageable.

Fourth Stage - Planning

This is about making it happen. The team need to look at what is needed to set up the project. They need to look at how the values they looked at Stage 1 work out through the project and how they operate. They need to look at what policies and procedures they need, what resources they need and where to look for them, identify other agencies to work with or make awareness to of the new initiative.

Fifth Stage - set the project up and build in evaluation stages.

Once the initiative is up and running, consultation with the community does not stop. The group will need to establish ongoing evaluation and monitoring procedures, as they will help them to keep answering the questions that are being asked by the community. The project may need to adapt and change to this. It is recommended that the team build in times of reflection to look at how the project is developing, reflect on the values, consider any changes that need to happen within the team etc.

Link to Questionnaire Results Summary Article

Wrecclesham Drop In – the story so far.

The Drop In opens between 6-8pm on a Monday evening. It is aimed at school years 6-11 (ages 11-16). It is always well attended with between 20 and 30 young people on the inside and up to 10 (ages 6-10 years) outside.

The positives include,

Enthusiasm from young people for simple activities, such as pens and stencils and icing biscuits (usually grown out of by youth club age).
Enthusiasm to have interaction with an adult, to join in a game of pool or table tennis.
Numbers involved and the fact they keep coming back.

The negatives (for me) have been,

Petty damage.
Theft from tuck shop.

The results from the questionnaire show that the Drop In would appear to be what they want to keep them occupied. They would also like sports and a disco (standard youth club requests). Interesting to note they have no issues with feeling safe.

The results from the young age group after a lunch time spent at St.Peters school were also interesting; the children want clubs focused around, pets, art and books. All are easy and cheap to achieve if the people were available to run them. I would suggest any club for say 6-10 years would have to be another day to Monday to avoid conflict.

Youth Achievement Award Group – these 6 young people are well on their way to completing the hours for these challenges (even if they have done no writing up yet!). I have nothing but respect for them; they have constant barracking when running the tuck shop which they face with good humour (mostly). They have done the planning and help run the activities; they have just completed the forms for Youth Opportunities Fund money which would hopefully include a salary.

We continue to have staffing issues.

One paid leader is heavily pregnant and starting to feel it is getting too much and feeling quite vulnerable. One leader has had six months money kindly paid for by Pat Frost/David Munro – this comes to an end Jan 09. My husband sets up and clears away each week (I could not move heavy equipment on my own). I have volunteers who pop in when they can but cannot commit to times and dates.