Local Rep Report April – June 2021
As your Big Local Rep, every three months I share my thoughts on local area progress with you as residents and with the central team managing the national programme. Your comments and thoughts are always welcome.
As summer is upon us, I guess some things feel better than they have been, with warmer weather and greater freedom of movement. But I wonder also whether the cumulative effect of these last 15 months is also taking its toll. Many in our communities continue to have a very tough time economically, through isolation, illness and loss. But I am also inspired to witness the community resilience and the fires of local commitment and energy for change being stoked once more. Allenton Big Local has continued to work for the greater good of the area throughout and is keen to respond as best it can in these coming months to the specific needs emerging and to the opportunities opening up. The national Big Local programme is especially pleased that, at this point, it does look like this year’s Big Local Connects will be going ahead in October in Nottingham. Three places per partnership are available. Here is a link to the Eventbrite page and here is a link to our event page on the Local Trust website with more information and FAQs.
Running things
The partnership continues to work well at the start of the third year of this three year plan. It has moved to meeting every six weeks as opposed to monthly, as this is better fit for purpose at the moment in reviewing plan progress and finances. Minutes are posted on the website. The partnership looks forward to resuming face to face meetings in early July and working on its next 18 months, including submitting its final plan by April 2022. With Nicola Camp having to step down as chair, the partnership will also be looking to elect a new chair and new vice chair and plan an AGM for the autumn.
Doing things
Quarterly management reports have been reviewed and agreed and these and the service level agreements are on the website along with good news stories of local action and change and newsletters.
Support services and facilities have adapted well, including across the work funded by Allenton Big Local with children and families, young people, adults and older residents.
Support to older residents through St Martin’s weekly meals was initially kick started by Allenton Big Local and attracted additional funding from other sources. As Mairi Radcliffe said, this is “An excellent example of working together for the good of the wider community.” The plan now is to invite them all to St Martins for a lunch face to face and carry on building on the relationships established. The café is also reopening Wednesday to Friday in the morning. The Allen Park job club has opened again with Covid secure procedures in place, also continuing to offer phone and email support. Artcore delivered online Easter activities and delivered activity packs before the Easter break. Activities through Enthusiasm are still continuing to expand with restrictions slowly being lifted. Nacro is finding a lot more face to face contact now with families, including helping them access health appointments.
