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Update on The Prince’s Charities Place Regeneration Summit Burnley, 16 May 2012 Making a Difference-The Prince’s Charities Working Together The Prince’s Charities Working Together to Make A Difference in a Place On the occasion of the visit of HM The Queen and The Built on the learning from the four-year Burnley Duke of Edinburgh’s Diamond Jubilee visit to Burnley in partnership, the event was attended by 107 delegates May 2012, The Prince of Wales’ Charities convened a Place convened in the six Place teams where The Prince of Wales’ Regeneration Summit to highlight the issues, challenges Charities are currently engaged in a collaborative project and successes of the ‘Place’ Regeneration Strategy that has on the Burnley model. The event was facilitated by staff been in development since 2008. from the combined Charities. The venue for the event was Victoria Mill and Slaters The independent evaluation of the Burnley Project by Cass Terrace in Burnley – currently part of a major regeneration Business School (www.princeofwales.gov.uk) highlighted project in the heart of The Weavers’ Triangle. HM The that “No other group of Charities could have played the Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh were accompanied by same role or achieved as much as The Prince’s Charities”. HRH The Prince of Wales. Baroness Andrews of English Working with local stakeholders, the combined resources Heritage chaired the Summit at which HRH The Prince of of sixteen Charities can have significant impact on Wales also spoke. regeneration. Speech by HM The Queen, Burnley 16 May 2012 “I have been interested to learn today about the work undertaken by The Prince’s Charities to transform lives and build sustainable communities. By joining forces with local groups here in Burnley they have helped to make a considerable difference to the town and its people. ..The leadership and interest of The Prince of Wales has encouraged and enthused communities to come together to improve their neighbourhoods, their towns and cities and their countryside, and ensuring that The Prince’s Charities focus on the right areas, such as the quality of the built environment and opportunities for young people... The result of your determination to make changes for the better, in a wide range of areas, across the country and further afield, is an ongoing legacy which is present for all to see and understand today.” The Prince’s Charities are listed below: • Business in the Community • Scottish Business in the Community • In Kind Direct The following is a synopsis of the discussions and • The Prince’s Initiative for Mature Enterprise action plans arising from the 16 May Regeneration • Prime Cymru Summit which will be supported by The Prince’s • The Prince’s Youth Business International Charities in the six Places involved: • The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment • The Prince’s Regeneration Trust • Burnley • The Great Steward of Scotland’s Dumfries House Trust • The Prince’s Trust • Burslem / Stoke on Trent • The Prince’s Drawing School • Redcar and Middlesbrough • The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts • The Prince’s Teaching Institute • Tottenham • The Prince’s Foundation for Children and the Arts • Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership • East Ayrshire • The British Asian Trust • Llandovery BURNLEY Place Regeneration - Transfering ‘The event was a huge success - a great Learning From Burnley group of people gathered together, really interesting insights gained, and some very Overall in the last few years, Burnley has really useful contacts established. And as always, improved. There is less friction and the community immaculate organisation!’ groups which survived the recession are stronger. A lot Helen Gopshill – HR Director Aircelle of new investment has been created in the form of a new University campus, 5 new schools, a new sixth form college, The University College of Football Business • We now have ways to access and reach young people (UCFB), a new health centre and the forthcoming with whom we previously could not connect – we Todmorden Curve and University Technical College can now assist them to make solid change, as a result (UTC) of having established these communication routes. Aspirations are improving - there is a context now • Much more joined-up thinking in what is being done in which young people can imagine a future role for now. We have taken advantage of opportunities we could themselves in the town. see, and leaders are coming together and being bold in executing what needs to be done. We “dared to dream” • The need to let the change flow both bottom-up and that things would be different top-down. Bottom-up is key as people in the community need to see their role in the change, and we also • We accepted we had issues, and addressed many of them need strong leadership in a town to ensure the right in a connected way. The will exists now to make some infrastructure/ frameworks for the future are put in very real differences - this will is seen in the schools, place. community groups, businesses, and in the public sector. People say “yes” to each other now! • Recognition that perceptions vary but we must be honest about change and our genuine progress – we • We have shown tenacity and resilience in how we have cannot pretend to have achieved change when it is too dealt with the changes required – people have stayed early to be visible to most people. We must carefully the course and driven change consistently – it will not manage this to ensure perception and reality is managed happen overnight closely together. • Leaders in the town need to set key priorities, with the genuine involvement of partners from across all aspects of the community – especially including business. Action, not talking, is seen as key to how Burnley has changed in recent years. Be pragmatic and focus on what changes can actually be delivered. • In order to bring people on board it is important not to patronise them and not to be seen as parachuting in with external ideas. Also important not to raise expectations we cannot deliver and to be clear about the priorities. • Allow your good work to start to spread virally – let it infect other areas of the country and locality, create an interest in what you do by ensuring you communicate widely about it and its positive impacts. We need to Action: I Look forward to developing a pre- ensure that people are bought into the vision. One of the apprenticeship programme in partnership key ways of doing this is to make sure our impact is felt with The Prince’s Charities widely. Making a Difference - 3 Action: I will continue to work hard with partners to lift the aspirations of local young people • Public perception in Burnley is that there are no jobs or opportunities. But local businesses are crying out for local people to apply for jobs. The role of schools is to raise aspirations. There are not enough apprenticeships in the area. We need to encourage more businesses to scale up their apprenticeship programmes. • Building new infrastructure is key but do young people • In addition to ensuring that people are motivated in Burnley recognise the opportunities of the physical towards the vision, we need to make sure that regeneration? e.g. Travelling to Manchester for jobs? opportunities are provided for them - important to ensure that we provide local jobs and local training • Nurturing young people is important but equally opportunities. important is supporting families. We need more organisations like the Fraser Street Project who take a • Programmes such as Teach First, Business Class and holistic view and support the whole family. Building the Work Inspiration have been integral in helping schools to capacity of small local projects is far more sustainable raise achievement and provided quality frameworks for as they already have the connection and the trust of the businesses to engage with schools. community. I think bringing groups from other areas of the country together helps us to see what other people are doing and that there are others out there with passion for their communities and action for change’. Fran Monk – Fraser Street Project Burnley – Continuing Challenges and Opportunities • To attract funding and money, Burnley had to play up negative elements and its deprivation. Press and media reporting doesn’t always help Burnley’s image • Burnley still has very “tight” communities and the challenge is to integrate these different communities. • Education – overall standards are improving but there Action: to work in partnership with schools are short term challenges faced by schools which fuel and education to provide a holistic approach unhelpful competition e.g. declining pupil numbers. with children and their families 4 - Making a Difference BURSLEM / STOKE ON TRENT Place Regeneration – Progress • We need to bridge the geography between Middleport and Burslem and engage with all for Burslem communities including the Asian community • It is always easier to engage with larger groups or organisations but much harder to do so with smaller businesses or organisations. The recent successful revival of the local business group means they are now meeting regularly and articulating a ‘voice’ for business in the town • The historic nature of the Stoke on Trent is seen too regularly as a constraint to creating vision. We must encourage the communities in Burslem to see that they are part of and can contribute to the ‘whole’. There is a constraint in that the other 5 towns would see Burslem benefitting and complain that they were not. The issue is how you sell and communicate the • Provides a positive opportunity to bring together message public and private interests and through ‘exemplary coordination’ make success greater than the sum of “Thanks all involved for such a wonderful the parts.

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