At the Chain Reaction event last week we invited Julian Dobson, journalist, blogger and Urban Pollinator to reflect on localism, regeneration and the Big Society agenda – and to share his experience of community led regeneration in context of the current economic climate.

You can listen to the presentation below or download the file as an MP3

With cuts set to hit the deprived communities of East London particularly hard come April, the event builds on the regions existing projects skills and resources to develop collaborative solutions to promote economic development in East London, to make sure the regeneration millions benefit the people of East London, and to make the area a better place for young people to grow up despite the difficult economic climate

Held at Clifford Chance’s offices in Canary Wharf, the day was organised jointly by Community Links, a local charity, and the East London Business Alliance (ELBA).With representatives from leading Canary Wharf companies, local authorities, community groups and young people from local schools, the day was buzzing with ideas for how to work together better in response to rocketing youth unemployment and the withdrawal of public sector funding from key community services.

Participants committed to take forward ideas from the a number of concrete ideas from the day, which include organising a peace march through East London to combat rising fear of youth crime, training young people as peer facilitators and facilitators to talk to others about job opportunities, and ramping up business involvement in work placements and job creation.

David Robinson, a senior adviser at Community Links, who spoke at the event says, ‘Post-April will bring even tougher times for East London. But the turnout at the Chain Reaction event, from MPs through to teenagers, shows that people are willing to commit to take action to improve prospects in East London. If the government wants to see the Big Society in action, then it’s right here.’

Liam Kane from ELBA, who opened the discussions on economic development, highlighted that there are opportunities out there for local people, but that more support is needed to make them ‘job ready’ and to raise aspirations. He pointed out that East London as a whole over the last 8 years has created more than 100,000 new jobs – more than Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow put together, and said we need to continue this positive growth

One of the young people who took part said he had started the day feeling hopeless but now recognised there were opportunities out there and that we could work together to create more.

East London community charities and Canary Wharf’s biggest businesses are pledging to work together to help forge the ‘Big Society’ in east London, at a conference in Canary Wharf.

Chain Reaction 2011, on 1^st February, will see figures from top businesses, central and local government, and community groups come together to tackle the most pressing problems facing East London.

The area boasts Canary Wharf, home to some of the world’s largest banks, alongside east London boroughs that rank amongst the poorest in the UK. Conference organisers – local charity Community Links and the East London Business Alliance – say they hope to bridge this gap and establish new ways of working with a joint action plan for east London.

Liam Kane chief executive of ELBA, which focuses on social regeneration in East London, says that this event will be about practical action, rather than empty rhetoric.

“This event will generate some real practical ways of working together for the future and to ensure that these ideas are taken forward.”

This year is the first time that the successful nationwide Chain Reaction event has put the spotlight on a specific region. David Robinson, Co founder of Community Links, explains,

“If the Big Society is genuinely about encouraging people to play a part in the communities we share, we need to work together to make sure that our communities benefit from the life-changing opportunities on offer. East London is home to the biggest regeneration project in Europe but there is a danger the result could be islands of prosperity in a sea of poverty.”

As with all the Chain Reaction events, the organisers will be sharing the methods, processes and outcomes from the day as a catalyst for other communities around the UK to make their own chain reaction.

The event, hosted by Community Links and East London Business Alliance (ELBA), is produced in collaboration with Canary Wharf Ltd, Clifford Chance LLP, 14a Conversations, and Social by Social.

To find out more about the event, please contact Laura Hyde at Community Links at laura.hyde@community-links.org or call 020 7473 9661

Following our blog post last last year about ‘What Big Society Means for East London‘, we are delighted to announce our plans for Chain Reaction 2011.

Everything in east London is bigger – more wealth, more poverty, more diversity more opportunity, more agencies to involve in everything.  And the human costs of not addressing the challenges and making the best of the huge opportunities are spiralling upwards.  Despite the biggest regeneration programmes in Europe, we are in danger of finding ourselves with islands of prosperity in a sea of poverty.   So what can we do to address this in a time of shrinking public finances and a dramatic reconfiguring of public services?  We need to find new ways of working, and we need to work together better.

On 1 February 2011, we will connect a core group to explore the issues and collaborate on the once in a lifetime opportunities in east London. Communities, businesses and local government can work together to maximise our collective power to ensure the delivery of better services and find innovative ways to develop stronger, more responsive communities.

Those who have attended previous Chain Reaction events say that Chain Reaction was “…such an imaginative and interactive event!” and that it was  “…an amazing opportunity that gave people the chance to make contact with others holding a similar view on topics including the environment, world poverty, entrepreneurship and much more”

Community Links has operated in east London for over 30 years, and this will be a focused application of what we have learnt from previous Chain Reaction events.  The outcomes from Chain Reaction 2011 will influence the Strategic Regeneration Framework, will inform the Olympic Legacy, will provide feedback to central government, and will result in a practical action plan of innovative ideas that will be championed by organisations operating in east London.

But this isn’t just about east London.  This is about every community in the UK.

We will be sharing our methods, processes and outcomes as a catalyst for other communities around the UK to make their own chain reaction.  If we can get it right here, there are lessons for the whole country.

Chain Reaction 2011 is a collaboration between Community Links, Canary Wharf Ltd, Clifford Chance LLP, Social by Social, and the East London Business Alliance (ELBA)

Follow #CR11 on Twitter for updates

To follow the theme of Trustee Week we would like to share a free resource for Trustees – “Living Values: a pocket guide for Trustees”, a guide published by Community Links in partnership with the Governance Hub.

The material in this pocket guide is drawn from Living Values: a report encouraging boldness in third sector organisations published in 2006.  This project brought together 12 people from a range of organisations (third, private and public sectors) to research the topic of values with us. We spoke to over 100 people, and this pocket guide focuses on the messages from this work for trustees.

You can download the pocket guide and full Living Values report from the Community Links website for free, and to obtain a free printed copy of Living Values report, the Summary, or the Guide for Trustees, please email us or telephone on 020 7473 9664

Often the ‘unsung heroes’ of the charitable world, trustees are vital to the work of many not for profit organisations, helping to make decisions about how the organisation is run and how it uses its resources.

At Community Links, we are proud to have an excellent Board of Trustees, who bring a diversity of skills and experience to benefit Community Links, so we are delighted to help to spread the word about Trustee Week and celebrate the work of Trustees.

Take a look at the interview with Gavin Rennie, our Chair of Trustees, by David Wilcox below.

Another organisation supporting Trustee Week is KnowHow NonProfit, who has recorded interviews with five very different types of trustee – from young to old, working to retired, from those looking to develop their career to those directly affected by the cause they are championing. The interviews shed light on trusteeship in ways that everyone can relate to.

“Every organisation needs a different mix of people”, says Edward Pickering, trustee for Relate in Richmond, Kingston and Hounslow. “If Relate had ten clinical psychologists as its trustees it would be missing out on so much. Everyone brings a different skill to the table and can take part in their own way.”

The aim is to inspire people from all walks of life (including students!) to think about trusteeship as an exciting, rewarding volunteering opportunity but also to highlight the importance of diversity on charity boards. The panel talk candidly about the motivation behind taking up a trustee role, the mix of skills and people that make up a board, the responsibilities that come with the job, and the rewards that make it worth their while, both professionally and personally. There is also advice on how to become a trustee and how to be good at it. Moreover, throughout Trustees’ Week 2010 the KnowHow NonProfit trustee panel will take questions about their trustee experience on the KnowHow comment boards.

KnowHow NonProfit is an organisation that enables an online community of individuals and organisations in the voluntary sector to share knowledge and expertise, and inspire effective practice. It aims to improve the efficiency of non profit organisations by increasing the knowledge and skills of people working in the sector-especially those new to training or from ‘hard to reach’

The stories of the five trustees are free to access on the website of KnowHow NonProfit at http://www.knowhownonprofit.org/leadership/governance/trustees-week

I’ve already written about how you can rebrand without breaking the bank for Charity Comms. We were lucky enough to have fabulous support from Beautiful World who helped us review and develop our brand identity.  Illuminate Communications are doing a great job on our launch.  We’re launching our brand on 10 Nov so keep an eye on www.lasa.org.uk …

It’s got me thinking though: what if you don’t have a budget for rebranding? Well, there are still some great ways you can update your brand at no extra cost. All of them can make a real difference. Here’s how:

1. What is your brand, anyway? When was the last time you sat down with your board and directors and looked at all the elements of your brand identity? Are the vision, mission and scope of your target audience clear? Are they fit for purpose as funding cuts bite further? If the answer to any of these questions is ‘no’ I’d suggest that you run a short internal workshop for senior management to revisit your brand and consider how to develop it. The end result could be something as simple and costs effective as tweaking your key messages.
2. Positioning. Is your charity clear about how it wants to be regarded? What associations do you want stakeholders to make when they hear or see your brand? Again, if this isn’t clear, or you feel your organisation could change how it is perceived to stand out more against increasing competition, then an internal brainstorming session could be the way forward. As Don Draper says, “If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation.”
3. What do your stakeholders really think of your brand? Like many charities we have a minimal budget for market research- but we’ve discovered there are plenty of things we can do for free to find out what our target audience thinks about us. We talk to key external stakeholders regularly by doing our own interviews and focus groups. You can also conduct online surveys for free using the basic entry level packages from Surveymonkey and Zoomerang.
4. Are you on top of all your branded materials? Earlier this year we finally had the chance to look at all our online and offline branded materials and pull them together in a ‘brand audit.’ Inevitably, there were some items which had slipped through the cracks. It was a great opportunity to make sure that our messaging and look was more consistent. Sure, it will cost something to update them, unless you can do the work in-house. But at least you will know where the inconsistencies are, and can think about how to put processes in place to ensure that they don’t happen again.
5. Launching your brand. Again, there’s plenty of stuff you can do to communicate your newly tweaked brand, using press and PR. This can work especially well if you’re updating your positioning or messaging. Can you find some new case studies which support this? Can you use any of your upcoming campaigns to roll this out? Are there any hot media issues you can hijack?

So that’s how you can make some simple but effective changes to your brand which require no –or minimal- investment. Tweet me @zoeamar if you’d like to kick around some ideas.

Influence n: “the capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behaviour, opinions, etc, of others”  (source Dictionary.com)

In 2002, the Commonwealth Foundation conducted a piece of research, asking 10,000 people from across the globe to describe the ‘good society’.  The responses revealed that the good society is one where basic needs are met; where there is association; and where there is participation – that is where people feel fairly and justly treated, do not experience social discrimination, and feel involved in public affairs and listened to. (source ‘Willing Citizens and the Making of the Good Society’)

As individuals we have the ability to influence the others every day via the power of our own actions.  From inspiring strangers with acts of kindness, to campaigning or lobbying for change, by sharing ideas with the local community, or by voting in local and general elections, we can all inspire change.

Yet, according to Big Society Network ‘only 4 out of 10 of us believe that we can influence local decisions’ and that ‘most of us try to be reasonably good citizens but our influence seems very small’.

So how can we, as individuals and organisations, be more aware of our ability to influence others, and how best can we harness our power to influence the actions of others for good?

At Community Links we influence others by pioneering new ideas and new ways of working locally, and shares the learning nationally with practitioners and policy makers.

One of the things that we established through our work with the Council on Social Action was how practical support or the transfer of knowledge creates the conditions for progress but it is the deeper qualities of a relationship that have the power to transform:

“the best community workers, advice workers, youth workers, don’t seek to control people or make them dependant but to be the influence on the lives of others that makes them free.”

And via our Chain Reaction events we have celebrated those whose actions and opinions have influenced the course of events for positive good, and who have encouraged social action.

One of those influential speakers, or ‘inspirers’ who participated in Chain Reaction in 2008, was Jeremy Gilley – founder of Peace One Day, an international day of peace recognised by the United Nations on 21 September each year.

On 19 November in London, Jeremy will be participating in another event “Unleash Your Power of Influence” (part of the Peace one Day Patrons programme) alongside other influential figures such as Sam Roddick (Coco de Mer), Marc Kosca OBE (Star Syringe) and other amazing people who have “grown their ‘Power of Influence’ to create world-changing results” This event promises a diverse collection of outstanding, internationally renowned speakers who have mastered the skills required to positively shape their lives, and as a result significantly influence the world around them.

Obviously, we are not all going to be individual world changers like Jeremy Gilley – but the aggregation of lots of small, seemingly meaningless actions can influence the bigger picture.  Take, for example, the We Are What We Do approach, where a small action like turning the tap off when you brush your teeth makes little difference individually, but collectively can make a huge saving of water.

We all have the power of our own actions, and together, we can all use the influence we have – in whatever way we can – to influence positive change.

“Isn’t it wonderful that none of us need wait a moment before starting to change the world?” Anne Frank (1929 – 1945)

We know that great work goes on across London, but that tracking and proving its impact is often difficult.

That’s why the  GLA  has set up Project Oracle to develop a London-wide framework for measuring success. In these workshops you will  be given a head start  in using the Oracle self-assessment, and  will be helping us  to  develop a guidebook to support other practitioners in using it. Once the Oracle website is launched, you will be able to upload information about your project to a central database promoted to funders  and potentially access tools and resources .

Project Oracle was launched by the GLA in November 2008 as part of Time for Action – the Mayor’s plan to tackle youth violence in the capital and improve the opportunities and lives of young Londoners. It is a key Mayoral commitment to help practitioners and commissioners improve services for young people across London. Community Links are supporting the development of the Project .

With the capital’s population of under-10s projected to rise by almost 10 per cent by 2016, this alone is a compelling reason behind the need for a step-change in our ability to improve services to give young Londoners the best start in life. Unless agencies working for and with young people do not proactively use what is proven to really work and, together, improve the knowledge base, the quality of life for everyone living in the capital is affected, often adversely.

As the challenges mount and the money available shrinks – now, more than ever, it is important to achieve genuine long-term improvements while making every penny count.

More information about Project Oracle or Time for Action can be found here.

The consultation workshop is designed for practitioners who are delivering children and youth services and projects in the Greater London Area. . The possible workshop dates are below. To take part, please register or contact Zoraida Colorado at 020 7473 9664 or zoraida.colorado@community-links.org to book your place.

Young people in our part of east London may not have everything that their better off contempories do in more affluent surroundings, but access to clean water is not a worry to them or their families.

Unlike in other areas of the world, such as sub-Saharan Africa, where remote communities often lack the access to both water, and the engineering support which could help them access safe, clean water through a well.

PlayPumps in an inspirational idea that we originally shared as part of our Ideas Annual series, the premise of which is to access clean drinking water for communities in sub-Saharan Africa, through harnessing the power of play.

It has been estimated that half the people in developing countries are suffering from water related diseases – diseases that are responsible for about 80 per cent of all sickness in the world.  For many remote communities in sub-Saharan Africa, water, often of dubious quality, has to be transported daily from the nearest rives or stream. 

Through the unique idea of using the power of children at play, the PlayPumps system doubles as a water pump and a roundabout for children.  Pumps are situated close to local schools, and while children have fun spinning on the roundabout, clean water is pumped from an underground well into a 2,500-litre taken which stands seven meters above the ground. 

The technology used is simple and can be maintained on site by those with basis mechanical skills, and the design of the PlayPump water system makes it highly effective, easy to operate and very economical, keeping costs and maintenance to an absolute minimum.

The benefits of a clean water supply are obvious.  But, like the example of our Play Sow and Grow project, community benefits flow from water – such as safe places for children to develop and play, a sense of community purpose around using and maintaining the PlayPump, and women benefit too, as they no longer have the daily task of transporting heavy containers of water over great distances, and they can use the time saved to better care for their children and start small enterprises that bring additional food and income to their families.

So when you turn on the tap later today give a thought for those who are unable – sign the Blog Action Day petition to Support the UN’s efforts to bring clean, safe water to millions globally

Photo by mediamolocule on Flickr