Hello. Welcome…
changes is an independent consultancy specialising in community empowerment, community engagement, community development and active citizenship.
We work across the UK with public, community, voluntary and private sectors.
This is what we do…
Latest thinking blog…
Get talking!
We are delighted to announce the launch of our new networking site, where clients, participants from our courses and the simply curious can get together and talk about anything related to the different areas of changes’ work. The vast majority of the site is open, with just a few groups kept aside for participants who have been involved in specific course and are encouraged to share their learning and practice. Have a look-see: http://changesuk.net/network
Coming up in March 2010
Voice
We have just trained up facilitators in Wiltshire to work with ’Voice’. Other training in the pipeline includes a 2-day course in Birmingham. Commissioned by CDF and targeting Take Part Pathfinders and delivery partners from across England, this Voice facilitators course is on16 & 17 March 2010. Contact Emma Perry: emma.perry@cdf.org.uk at CDF 0207 833 1772 to book places.
echo
Echo is in the midst of being piloted in the West Midlands and materials are currently being developed to accompany the up and coming training for ‘echo facilitators’ which is due to take place in Wolverhampton on 24 & 25 March 2010. Funded by Wolverhampton Partnership and the Black Country Take Part Pathfinder, this course is open to people working in the West Midlands. Contact Monika Verma: monika@wton-partnership.org.uk at Wolverhampton Partnership.
Dynamo
Introducing ‘Dynamo’, a new framework designed to help Climate Change Agents become more influential within their own organisations. There is a one-day event on 23rd March 2010 in Birmingham for interested parties to gain an overview of dynamo > application form. We suspect this framework will have wider application, so watch this space!
Making the business case for community engagement
We are interested in debating this – click on the title of this post if you would like to proceed to a message board where you can comment and contribute.
This might be about
- explicit messages on how community engagement can help agencies to meet targets, in the light of statistics like the 85.7% of Local Authorities who think that the economic slowdown will make it more difficult to achieve Local Area Agreement targets (Survey of the Impact of the Economic Slowdown on Local Authorities 2008)
- ideas for, and experience of, measuring ROI (Return on Investment) where the investment is community engagement
or something else …
echo update
echo, our framework to assess and develop public sector openness to influence, is now being tested in the West Midlands as part of the Improvement & Efficiency West Midlands ‘Learning to Deliver’ Programme.
It promises to have a relatively wide application and has already been used to:
- help a Partnership Board to consider how genuinely open they are to community influence
- help inform proposals for improving the quality of community engagement across a locality
- increase awareness and understanding amongst key decision makers and influencers of the need to be open to influence and of what being open to influence looks like
- prioritise actions to move community engagement forward across a Partnership
- as part of a broader action plan on delivering community engagement in a District over a three year period.
- enhance understanding of engagement & empowerment.
- contribute to an LAA NI4 Delivery Plan
If you have not yet come across echo, but this raises your interest, you can find out more in our resources section.