Take Part South-West

‘Take Part’ South West – Active Citizenship Training Project

VANS is delivering this project in North Somerset, providing ‘Active Learning for Active Citizens’ (ALAC) learning opportunities, as part of a regional initiative managed by Exeter CVS and the Community Development Foundation.

Debby Grice, our ‘Take Part’ trainer has been developing and delivering tailored learning for individuals and community groups, in partnership with development workers from the Local Authority and VANS development workers involved in ‘capacity-building’ work with local neighbourhoods and communities of interest.

The ‘Take Part’ agenda is about encouraging Active Citizenship, supporting individuals and groups to get their voice heard and to influence local decisions and work for positive changes in their community.

Workshops delivered have been tailored specifically to participants needs and have been mainly by demand, with one ‘open’ course running. Groups and individuals have requested support around the issue of the confidence to ‘speak up’ on issues, with tailored sessions working on the skills to speak up confidently; participate in meetings (eg partnership boards and local forums); to speak in public; to be assertive about needs in the community; to take on active roles in meetings and have the confidence to chair them. Seven groups also signed up to look at the ‘VOICE’ toolkit developed by the Community Development Foundation – a step-by-step approach to understanding ‘influence’ enabling groups to assess and increase their capacity to influence local decisions.

‘Take Part’ is funded until 31st March 2011. Any groups or Local Authority development workers interested in training workshops to support individuals and groups in increasing their ‘active citizenship’ and ‘influencing/ speaking up’ skills are invited to contact Debby in October to discuss any training sessions they would like run before the end of the project. For more information please email enquiries@vansweb.org.uk