This was an email from Christine Rothnie from NGHA on behalf of Fraser Stewart. It was sent out to the emailing list which has been circulating information regards the development of the Thriving Places. It is a statement of clarification and is helpful to set a bit more of the context of how things have developed and are developing. Many thanks to Fraser for this. I feel it is quite helpful and will assist the discussions as we go along.
"Dear All
Further to the meeting held in our office on 10th April I’d now like to set out New Gorbals Housing Association’s (NGHA) understanding of what was discussed and agreed :
1. The Asset Mapping exercise being carried out by ODS Consulting on the instruction of NGHA is only a prosaic and comprehensive mapping of all of the organisations, groups, agencies and businesses, the services they provide and their physical and human resources in the Gorbals. When completed it will be, at the very least, a useful and informative directory and, on this basis, all of the Voluntary Groups present agreed to provide the information being requested.
2. The Asset Mapping exercise should not be confused with an asset based approach to community development.
3. There are three key strands of work ongoing or imminent – the Asset Mapping, Inter Agency Collaboration and Community Engagement.
4. The inter agency collaboration has, to date, focussed exclusively on the public sector delivering services in a more co-ordinated and efficient manner and has been limited in its scope.
5. The Community Engagement has not been embarked upon and the process has not been defined by the Gorbals Regeneration Group.
6. The Gorbals Voluntary Sector will form their views on how the community engagement (and, ultimately, community development) should be formed and implemented by August (please also see first bullet point below)
7. The Gorbals Voluntary Sector will consider and seek to agree how it should be represented on the Gorbals Regeneration Group and also how it might be configured into sub groups and / or appoint representatives to respond to issues (like community engagement) and themes (e.g., youth, health, employment, welfare “reform” – all of which inevitably overlap, to one extent or another).
8. The Thriving Places initiative must maintain a focus on developing individual and community resilience, confidence and wellbeing. It must support the Gorbals community to develop itself.
In addition to these points I would like to add the following from NGHA’s perspective:
· The Voluntary Sector leading on Community Engagement, initially at least, is entirely appropriate given the experience the groups collectively have. However, the community engagement strategy will need to be developed into a final proposal in collaboration (and, ultimately, agreement) with key agencies, particularly the CHP and Glasgow Life who will have a particularly close interest in this issue.
· Improved service delivery through agency joint working and collaboration and consistent with the communities stated priorities and expectations is an express objective of Thriving Places. The voluntary sector have not been engaged in the collaborations to date and it is essential that the Voluntary Sector are engaged and informed so that they can judge the extent to which they can / wish / are able to contribute. It should be noted that the collaborations to date have been limited and that little has meaningfully progressed on the big issues such as youth employment, welfare reform and elderly care.
· NGHA wish to set up a process whereby the effect of what we collectively propose and implement is measured (as far as that is possible). We believe that agency collaboration, an enhanced role for the voluntary sector and community involvement / co-production / consultation / control / development can have a dramatic effect for the better and if we don’t measure the effect then the approach will not continue to be funded or promoted as a model of good practice.
I hope that this, and the information my colleague Chris Rothnie is sending you, is useful and helps take things forward.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you wish to discuss any point in relation to these issues.
Kind Regards
Fraser"
: From Fraser Stewart NGHA via Christine Rothnie ( 4029 )