Understand your Community Workshop

A workshop was organized by Faith in Community Dundee in collaboration with Faith in Community Scotland (FiCS) and Dundee City Council at Kirkton Community Centre on January 23, 2013. The trainers of the workshop were Shakeel Ali and Andy Whittet from the Transformation Team, FiCS. The workshop was aimed at helping community-based faith groups and other pertinent organizations understand their neighbourhood and community better. The objectives were to help participants:

 ·         Make use of neighbourhood information

 ·         Carry out community research

 ·         Respond to the priorities in an area

 ·         Build evidence for funding application

A total of 27 people attended the event, with participants from Priority Areas like Lochee, Menzeishill, Douglas, Mid Craigie, Coldside and Hilltown. The participants mostly represented faith-groups, mainly churches, while there was a small representation from non-faith groups and the Muslim community. A Community Research Toolkit was also made available to all participants. The workshop was free to attend and a light lunch was provided.

 

A very useful resource which lists and explores different methods of community research is

Action Research by, in and for Communities (ARC)

A practical guide to community-led action research

Scottish Community Development Centre

Available online - http://www.scdc.org.uk/what/community-led-action-research/ARC/

 

Few photos from the Workshop: 

  

  Gordon, FiCDundee welcoming the participants  A glimpse of the participants

 

Participants brainstorming on an exercise	A fruitful discussion!
Finding a way to understand community better	Consulting one of the trainers, Andy
Trying out Mapping Exercise	Shakeel & Andy going through the slides

 Learning how to use statistics                           Accessing information from right sources

Designing questionniares	Presenting the group work

Welfare Reform Leaflet

The Welfare Reform Act 2012 will radically redesign the system of welfare reform from April 2013.

At Faith in Community Scotland we felt that it was important to raise awareness of the reforms amongst our local communities. As a result we have created a leaflet, in partnership with the Church of Scotland Priority Areas Office and Child Action on Poverty, to explain the changes that could affect people in your local area.

You can download the Welfare Reform leaflet from the Faith in Community Scotland website.

New Funding Opportunities

Find below new funding opportunities by Priority Areas eNews:

The Anchor Foundation

The Foundation offers grants between £500 and £10,000 to UK registered Christian charities concerned with social inclusion for a range of projects. Applications need to be received by 31st January and 31st July and are considered at twice yearly trustees meetings in April and November.

Galaxy Hot Chocolate Fund

This fund looks to help small, local community based projects and community minded people. From January 7th 2013 to March 31st 2013 they are seeking to donate sixty £300 awards to help people or groups with their community programmes. Just tell them what your community could do with £300.

The Ironmongers’ Company

The Ironmonger's Company wishes to support projects that provide opportunities for disadvantaged children and young people to fulfil their potential. Grants are only given to registered charities. Closing date for applications: 31 January 2013.

Kelly Family Charitable Trust

Grants of between £1,000 and £5,000 are available for registered charities whose activities involve all or most family members in initiatives that support and encourage the family to work as a cohesive unit in tackling problems that face one or more of its members. Closing date for applications: 1st March 2013.

The Novum Trust

This Trust supports projects in any of the areas of mission and evangelism; Christian education; Christian help for immigrants; New ways of sharing the gospel; and Spiritual welfare of young people. They meet twice a year in May and November, typically award one-off grants of up to £2,500 and like to be surprised by something new. Click on the link above and scroll to the bottom of the page for their guidelines and application form.

The Third Sector Early Intervention Fund

The funding will support third sector organisations to deliver national outcomes relating to children and young people, and the families and communities that support them. The Scottish Government’s national outcomes can be found by following this link. This programme has two strands: Investing in organisations that can improve policy and practice nationally, and provide support for organisations delivering services to children and young people, and the families and communities that support them; and Investing in projects with creative approaches working directly with children and young people, and the families and communities that support them, which focus on prevention or intervening at an early stage. 

Welfare ‘Reform’ and Mitigation in Scotland

SCVO commissioned one of Scotland’s leading policy experts, Jim McCormick, to examine the impacts of the UK Government’s welfare cuts and reforms on Scotland and suggest remedial policy solutions.

This is the first in a series of papers. It examines the impacts of the UK Government’s welfare cuts and reforms on Scotland. Two subsequent papers, also prepared by Jim McCormick, will look at:

• how Scotland uses existing powers better to improve prospects for learning and work as well as exploring the potential for additional powers
• the principles which should underline a progressive approach to welfare

Read the report

• Welfare ‘Reform’ and Mitigation in Scotland – summary paper (PDF)
• Welfare ‘Reform’ and Mitigation in Scotland – report (PDF)

Kinship Carers's Campaign goes to the Scottish Parliament

Yesterday, the Poverty Truth Commission (PTC), a part of Faith in Community Scotland, visited the Scottish Parliament to hold an event for raising awareness on various Kinship Carers issues.

If you wish to check the interview of one of PTC's Commissioners, Sadie, by the STV channel yesterday, please click here.

Also, find below a news piece on the event by the Evening Times

Call for Fairer Deal to help Kinship Carers

GRANDPARENTS from Glasgow will travel to the Scottish Parliament today to call for a fairer deal for kinship carers.

They are the grandparents, aunts and uncles who care for children affected by parental drug or alcohol abuse, neglect or bereavement. Charities say they save the Scottish Government hundreds of millions every year but face significant disparities across local authorities in financial support and compared to foster carers.

According to official figures, Kinship Carers are currently looking after at least 10,742 of Scotland's most disadvantaged children. A parliamentary event has been organised by the Glasgow-based Poverty Truth Commission to highlight their plight with the backing of Johann Lamont MSP.

Some kinship carers are paid child benefit but others are not and some also receive allowances paid by councils.

The amounts vary from area to area and also according to whether children are in informal arrangements, officially designated as "looked after" or placed as a result of a court order.

One carer from Glasgow said: "I became a kinship carer 11 years ago when my wife and I brought our granddaughter home from hospital to care for her. "We had both retired and had no money to fall back on and nobody to help us. "The Children and Young People Bill currently passing through Holyrood proposes to address some of the shortcomings in the current support provided. However charities say without effective resources real change is unlikely.

caroline.wilson@eveningtimes.co.uk

 

New Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation

The latest update of the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) was produced in December. The SIMD highlights the changing geographical pattern of multiple deprivations in Scotland, with some changes in relation to some of the longstanding concentrations of deprivation. You can access the full report here.