It is the first framework that is easy to get .. it is a gentle challenge .. the first framework I have seen which is about cultural change

Developed in the West Midlands with support from the National Empowerment Parntership, Community Development Exchange, Improvement & Efficiency West Midlands (L2D programme), Wolverhampton Partnership and the Black Country Take Part Pathfinder we have now started running the first echo facilitator training courses. As with Voice, these are commissioned courses which may be opened up to wider audiences and which target people who are in aposition to facilitate discussions in their organisations

echo promises to have a 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
• 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 and/or join us on our network.

Voice, our framework on assessing and developing community influence,  is now being widely used by Community Groups, Networks, Organisations and Forums. Groups that have worked with it include: Police Independent Advisory Groups, Community Centre Management Committees, Community Anchors, Voluntary Sector Organisations, Forums and a Third Sector Partnership.

We have had an increased uptake of our 2-day Voice Facilitator Training Course, which is specifically designed for people who already work with groups and have good facilitation skills. In 2010 we have delivered this training in London, Wiltshire, & Birmingham and are due to deliver more in Redcar & Cleveland, Wolverhampton & Birmingham again. These are all commissioned course which potentially have places available for people from different organisations. Watch this space or join our network for updates.

If you haven’t come across Voice yet but like the sound of it so far, then check out our resources section to download a copy of our leaflet and handy guide, or read more about community influence under our areas of work.

Voice is of particular relevance for workers assigned/attached to particular community groups, networks, organisations, and workers working with and supporting community groups, networks and organisations.

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.

Hugely useful, quite enlightening, the breadth and depth is interesting. It doesn’t require significant adaptation to be used in a variety of circumstances

Voice, our framework on assessing and developing community influence,  is now being widely used by Community Groups, Networks, Organisations and Forums.

We have recently introduced it to: Police Independent Advisory Groups, Community Centre Management Committees and Community Anchors, and are soon to see how it works with Voluntary Sector Organisations and Forums.

If you haven’t come across it yet but like the sound of it then check out our resources section to download a copy of our leaflet and handy guide, or read more about community influence under our areas of work.

Voice is of particular relevance for workers assigned/attached to particular community groups, networks, organisations, and workers working with and supporting community groups, networks and organisations.

Very useful tool it has clarified things and has given us a lot more to think about

Instead of seeing leadership as something invested in one person we  consider leadership as a process: – tackling the big issues that face a group or an organisation.

For example, if we agree that there are three types of core issues in a group or organisation:
Strategic: the overall direction of the group and the vision
Task: how the group will achieve what it wants to
People: maintaining the morale, commitment and enthusiasm of people over time

Then, a leader is someone who helps the group tackle any or all of these issues - meaning that there can be several leaders at any one time, all working on different things.

It is therefore possible to talk about leadership being ‘dispersed’ throughout the group or organisation – with some having more dispersed leadership than others depending upon culture and membership.

People can demonstrate leadership in different ways:

• Reviewing where the group or organisation is going
• Making sure people feel comfortable and welcomed
• Searching for funding opportunities
• Representing the group in wider forums
• Researching matters of interest to the group
• Knowing the local political and funding context

People can only be leaders if other members of the group or organisation accept them as leaders, accept their influence. This acceptance is often based on knowledge and expertise.

For a brief lowdown – download the 2-page summary and, if you want more information, you can download a copy of the original research report.

We recently ran a ‘rapid briefing’ session in the East Midlands where officers identified a variety of uses for echo:

• It is an easy toolkit, could be useful across the County to help consistency and to talk to the non-converted
• It could help with the Community Engagement Strategy development thought process
• It could provide us with a baseline of where we are – and an action plan
• It made me think differently – more deeply into what outcomes could be
• It turns the intangible into the tangible
• I can see how we could usefully apply this to help the organisation move forward in terms of equality and diversity
• There has to be recognition of good practice in the organisation, echo can help us to locate this and learn from it
• Within an LSP context it is important – funding reductions will make it hard for the LA to respond so we are going to have to work more in partnership

changes offers short (3 hour) sessions to introduce echo and facilitate discussion about how it might be useful to agencies and partnerships: contact us for fees and availability

‘Voice’ is a tool which helps community groups and networks to assess and improve the influence they have on agencies and partnerships. The ‘axis’ in ‘voice’ plots existing capacity to influence against how influential the group feels. It can be used to: assess and monitor community influence, prompt discussion and debate within groups and help plan how to become more influential.

“If this was America you’d be paying a fortune for the information and know-how that’s contained here. This model is indispensable for any organisation serious about making an impact” – comment from recent ‘Voice’ facilitator training

changes has developed a Resource Pack to help people to make the best use of voice.

• Part 1 – handy guide is available to download here
• For information about the other sections of the Resource Pack, click to check out the ‘introduction and overview’

voice in print

In its former guise as ‘the axis of influence’, articles about voice have been published in the Community Development Journal and NCVO newsletter.

Contact us to talk to us about commissioning a course for people in your area who work with community groups and networks to learn more about ’voice’ and how to use it.

echo recognises the restrictions that may be in place for these agencies and so includes an aspect which considers their ‘potential to respond’. Our experience suggests there is huge interest in this and you can download a copy of the research report here.

We recently ran a ‘rapid briefing’ session in the East Midlands where officers identified a variety of uses for echo:

• It is an easy toolkit, could be useful across the County to help consistency and to talk to the non-converted
• It could help with the Community Engagement Strategy development thought process
• It could provide us with a baseline of where we are – and an action plan
• It made me think differently – more deeply into what outcomes could be
• It turns the intangible into the tangible
• I can see how we could usefully apply this to help the organisation move forward in terms of equality and diversity
• There has to be recognition of good practice in the organisation, echo can help us to locate this and learn from it
• Within an LSP context it is important – funding reductions will make it hard for the LA to respond so we are going to have to work more in partnership

changes offers short (3 hour) sessions to introduce echo and facilitate discussion about how it might be useful to agencies and partnerships: contact us for fees and availability

We are now working with Dosti to develop supporting materials, case studies and training for facilitators.

Contact us if you are interested in the axis.