Community Organising and Community Development- ground level reflections Marion Rayner Community Development Manager Rural Communities: development and organising…state of play 2014 8 Jan 2014 Reg. Charity No: 288117 Co. Ltd by Guarantee Reg. No: 1757334 VAT Reg No: 639386006 Registered with FCA No: FRN311971
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Community Organising and Community Development - ground level reflections (Marion Rayner, Community First, Community Development Manager)
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Community Organising and Community Development- ground
level reflections
Marion RaynerCommunity Development Manager
Rural Communities: development and organising…state of play 2014 8 Jan 2014
Reg. Charity No: 288117 Co. Ltd by Guarantee Reg. No: 1757334 VAT Reg No: 639386006Registered with FCA No: FRN311971
www.communityfirst.org.uk
Community First isCommunity First is……
… the Rural Community Council (RCC) for Wiltshire
and Swindon
A rural county
Market towns
257 parishes
Salisbury Plain
Community areas= market town + parishes
Our CO project
• Motivation- a different approach
• Hosting 3 Trainee COs - 1 F/T, 2 P/T
• Recruited April 13
• 2 based in Roundway
• 1 in Bishops Cannings
• Our impressions so far…
• Choice of area
• Recruit ‘out of area’
• New neighbourhoods
• Practical concerns- safety, getting around, lack of
meeting places, mobile signal, toilets!
• Existing relationships
• Rural vs urban differences
Practical issues
CD & CO approaches
Some similarities with CD approach:
•Community empowerment values
•Capacity building support
Differences:
•No predetermined agenda
•Works with individuals rather than groups
•Starts with individual’s needs rather than community’s
•Less collaborative with existing networks and processes
•Legacy- ‘holding team’ with contacts and asset lists
Strengths of CO approach
• Reach people that traditional methods miss• Builds resource of community concerns, ideas and
assets• Builds sustainable relationships, networks and
capacity• New way of initiating community led activities• New path into volunteering
Challenges
• Not invited in
• Door knocking- safety issues
• Emerging priorities differ from ‘official’ ones
• Operating at ‘grass roots’ -no linkage initially