Monday
After a quick catch up on my emails and my to do list, I had a quick catch up with three of our top community anchor members to discuss an “up and coming” project.
It’s always a pleasure to connect with our members on projects and policy challenges and it ensures I’ve retain a good understanding of our members current priorities and concerns.
I then had a quick information and training session about a new support programme Locality is delivering with a national funder and partners.
In the afternoon I had an online meeting with a neighbourhood leisure activities group I am supporting through the Bright Ideas Fund who are setting up accessible community sports facilities for an area of the city without these resources.
We needed to convince the council that the group could deliver on its business and their income generation strategy. I think we’re getting there!
Tuesday
Started with an online meeting with one of the regions local authorities keep it local group we are exploring how the Councils strategy to build capacity of community organisations to deliver vital services in new ways, and how this is best achieved.
Then on to delivering a strategic planning session with a new group who are seeking to develop new community led sports and leisure faculties in a local park. We analysed who their key stakeholders were and the most effective way to build voice and influence with the local community (as well as potential funders and supporters!)
In the afternoon, I caught up with my colleagues in the Policy team about the community asset ownership programme I am working on alongside a local authority and the local VCSE infrastructure group.
The Policy team will be turning all the work we’ve done into a report, so we have regular meetings to monitor progress and plan the final outputs. Being able to feed into our Policy work is a part of my job I really value, as it helps us advocate for community organisations with funders as well as national and local government.
Wednesday
Spent the morning finalising and submitting a bid to the university to work alongside them on research to investigate the impact of community anchor organisations. My role involves conversations with colleagues, partners and community organisation, and lots of collaboration!
In the afternoon I ran a session at a community led housing event in Bristol. I have worked with the local community led housing hub over the last 2 years to help develop their strategy and work plan including bringing community anchors into the conversation
At the end of the day I attended a national Locality team meeting – we meet weekly online to check in with everyone, hear the latest updates from our national and local policy and programmes work and share good news. Like the smaller team meetings, it’s great to connect with others and get help and support and remind ourselves of all the great work Locality does nationally for members.
Thursday
Morning spent assessing our work on Equality Diversity and Inclusion with colleagues from across the country – At Locality you have the opportunity to get involved in developing policy AND rolling out the resulting action plan.
In the afternoon I was interviewed on the local community radio station around some work I’m doing supporting a regeneration initiative in the south of the city including developing a local residents charter to help negotiations with planners and urban design teams keen to ensure community spaces and buildings are a key part of any development
Friday
In the morning I met with my colleague who I am working on a local grant and support project with. We’ve been able to support 14 local community groups with a small grant and they have all registered for the support workshops. We discussed another local group that has shown interest and what needs to be done to support their application and then planned our 7 workshops that we will be delivering – feels exciting to get to this stage after working to get this project ‘live’ for over 2 years!
In the afternoon I met with the policy team to update progress on our Health and Wellbeing project. We’re in the final stages of drafting the report so it’s really important we align our findings. I’ve got a few bits to finish off including a writing a blog based on our health and wellbeing workshop at Convention – again this was a real piece of collaboration with team and Locality members and was even hosted by one of our academic partners.