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On February 25th 2011 YHCDN held a workshop for rural community development practitioners on the implications of the new localism bill.

Workshops included:

• The Community Right to Buy – Neil Berry, Development Trust Association
• Community Budgeting – Chris Parsons, Eastfield Link Training and Enterprise Centre
• Neighbourhood Plans – Karen Wood, East Riding of Yorkshire Council and Peter Hirschfeld, Humber and Wolds Rural Community Council

Download and read the conference report here

The conference came about by trying to draw together key themes that were around from at least 2008, if not longer; and which seem to have become increasingly important to the future of community development and health:

• The synergy between the New Horizon outcomes in the field of Mental Health and the Community Development National Occupational Standards;
• The new impetus at getting people involved to express their needs in service design and delivery, co-production and the values of community development
• The economic growth model; the power of financial capital and the belief in balancing budgets which may provide a threat or opportunity for community development work and many community health initiatives as we begin to prepare for cuts in publicly funded services;

These 3 themes were key factors in deciding what this practice sharing event should be about.

At the same time this was the third and final conference in a series of three that Yorkshire and Humber Community Development Network had put on with support from Wakefield District PCT. This trilogy was aimed at fostering closer links between those practising community development in the health and wellbeing agenda whilst getting those practising community development outside this agenda to be aware of health outcomes in their more generalist work.

The conference was also a way of sharing ideas about making the business case for community development i.e. proving it makes a positive difference to people’s lives through the provision of evidence especially around prevention of ill-health etc.

Download and read the conference report here

The idea of this workshop was to bring together community development practitioners from across the region to explore how the recession was impacting on the communities they were working and living in.

The idea was to give practitioners an opportunity to explore what would be an appropriate community development response to the economic situation in the communities they are supporting and what resources and support they need to be effective. YHCDN was successful in obtaining a networking support grant from NAVCA to support this event.

Downolad the report by clicking here

The YHCDN Duty to Involve workshop, held at Leeds Metropolitan University on 6th March 2009 was a workshop for community development practitioners to explore aspects of Duty to Involve and community engagement and share experiences.

The aims were:

• To extend practitioners knowledge of the Duty to Involve requirements on local authorities and public health bodies.
• To share experiences of working with statutory bodies to encourage their engagement and empowerment work with local communities
• To develop our ideas of what a community development approach might look like, how we support communities to understand and use opportunities which might get opened up by the legislation
• To decide what else the network can do to support community development practitioners work in this arena

The workshop was relevant to anyone taking a community development approach to their practice, in all sectors and in a variety of agencies.

Download the report by clicking here