Changes

echo update

echo, our framework to assess and develop public sector openness to community influence is now being used within Local Strategic Partnerships, thematic sub-groups and public sector agencies.

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.