AGENDA ITEM

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Area Committee Meeting - East Community Development Service Report

As part of the Community Development Service’s commitment to improving communication, each area committee will now receive a report on the service as a whole, as well as specialised items of their particular area.

The Community Development Service (CDS) - Management /Staffing Information: Cllr. Ashraf is the port-folio holder for The CDS, which is part of the Housing and Community Living Department of the Council, managed by Penny Furness-Smith. The CDS comes under the direct line management of Mike McMahon(Head of Housing Strategy & Private Sector) whilst The CDS team is headed up by Sandra Hayes (Community Development Service Manager), supported by an Area Operations manager and 4 area managers (UDMs) and Centre staff; a Neighbourhood Governance Team (Manager and assistant - who are working exclusively in Luton West on the Neighbourhood Governance Project); 2 Project Managers (one specialising in group work and the other in communications) and a Service Support Team.

Community Development Service Partnership Day- This was held on 28th July at Chaul End. CDS invited partners both- internal and external – to an event to learn about current work in the section and discuss future plans. More than 30 partners participated and a Compact Disk Report of the presentations is now available.

Luton’s Community Centres: CDS manages and runs 11 community centres across Luton: 1 2 3 Chaul End 4 Farley 5 6 Jubilee 7 8 9 Park Town 10 Raynham Way 11 Saints

We also support two independent Trusts to manage their own centres in and , as well as Sylam Hall in , which is a small community building, used mainly by the local school working with young people who have been excluded from school.

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The local Community Centre plays an important part in supporting and building local communities as can be seen from attached programme as well as the major cross town initiatives i.e.:

Community Hubs- CDS is working with partners across town to explore options to improve and develop our existing model of community centre facilities and community development based upon a Community Hubs approach. No decisions have been taken on any revised approach; this is exploratory work at this stage . However the existing infrastructure of community centres and the improvement to school sites through the BSF programme presents a foundation which has the potential to enable and support such a development proposal that a community hub programme would present. .

A Community Hub approach could provide the potential to create modern, accessible, flexible buildings that have the potential to be shared with partners and give communities access to a wider range of services than most of the existing premises currently can offer .

The approach to designing Community Hubs is to start with the needs of the community within which it is located,. However, they could have the potential to host a number of features and functions which could include:

• Delivery of agreed frontline services such as day activities , youth services , or community health services and support ; • Flexible community space that could be used for and by different activity groups . • Office accommodation which would support moving existing services and staff closer to the communities they support • If appropriate there could be the potential to provide customer Access points supporting access a range of services through a local one-stop shop approach or virtually.

Opportunities for social enterprise e.g. Cafes, training, support, advice/ advocacy, health related activities.

Community Cohesion

Community Centres across the town contribute to the cross Luton work with the communities to help reduce tension.

During activity around the town and in the Bury Park area, Community Centre staff made a significant contribution to maintain communities sense of pride and provided positive working solutions whilst working with groups like “Hear My Voice Project” (a national Charity) and “Developing Brighter Future” (a local community organisation) . All of which create opportunities for sharing information; networking and promoting the good work.

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Emergency Evacuation Centres - Community Centres are called upon in times of emergencies as Evacuation Centres as in the case of a fire in the centre of Luton on a Sunday evening, which led to staff being called in to open up Bushmead Centre as part of the Town’s evacuation procedures

Playschemes Project- Summer Playschemes were delivered through all Community Centres this year. A programme booklet was produced which included involving children in design work from last year’s playschemes to help promote the activities and make it appealing to all communities. The booklet was widely available in local schools, libraries etc..

Play-work Training up to NVQ L3 was organised through CDS and provided via Train-2-Gain for CDS staff and volunteers. 15 applicants have been registered for the training.

Swine Flu- Jubilee Community Centre became Luton’s first and only anti- viral distribution centre during July 09. All the groups who operate out of Jubilee were satisfactorily re-located locally during the period.

CDS continued to manage the centre but the service was managed and supported by NHS staff distributing “Tammi Flu”. The NHS were pleased with the organisation and running of the centre during the period.

CDS Projects Neighbourhood Governance Pilot Scheme: This project is now up and running in West Luton and has so far helped organise and run Community Festivals at the Chaul End Centre (for Residents) and Hockwell Ring Centre (for Residents) and The Lewsey Festival which attracted approx. 2000 people, 10% of whom agreed to take part in future Neighbourhood Governance activities.

The first Local SCS (Strategic Community Strategy) community planning morning was held in Hockwell Ring on 5th Sept with others being planned for Lewsey (26th Sept) ad Challney (3rd October).

Health Projects CDS is working with partners across town, in wards selected by the NHS, supporting Health Checks Steering group to raise awareness of the NHS LifeCheck, which is an online health service that will help citizens in Luton assess and manage their own health.

Luton Generations Together project CDS joined with partners in successfully securing funding for the Luton Generations Together project. This partnership involves: • Social Inclusion team • Community Development • Planning and Partnership team (Older People) • Integrated Youth Service • Police • Luton Cultural Services Trust

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Luton Generations Together project will work with all 11 LBC community centres in Luton where there is potential to create and develop intergenerational work of linking all age groups to work together. This will mobilise the statutory and voluntary sectors to work in partnership to celebrate community cohesion and promote diversity of Luton communities by organising community festivals in , Bushmead, Farley, Hockwell, Marsh Farm, , Limbury, Parktown, Rynhamway, Saints, Sundon Park neighbourhoods in 2010 – 11.

Luton Migrant Project

CDS was also part of the successful application led by Bren McGowan (Local Strategic Partnership Manager) which hopes to help newly arrived and arriving migrants settle into Luton.

East Area Committee-Responsible Unit Development Manager – Cathy Hackett

• Play-schemes were held at Raynham Way Community Centre during the summer holidays. Children aged 5 -10 yrs enthusiastically turned up everyday for this very popular and much needed activity, which was run by the staff and supported by volunteers. . • Raynham Way held its Family Fun day on Saturday 27th June. The pre- school staff & children as well as local boxer Graham Earl performed the official opening. This year the staff felt that they wanted to make the day more family and community oriented, and to keep costs as low as possible on the day, especially in light of the current recession. There was great success with two “bird of prey” displays which kept everyone enthralled. Over 800 people attended, a real testament to the vibrancy of the day and the weather was very good to us too. The day was a great success and this was mostly due to the hard work and efforts of the staff, Raynham Way User’s Association and our wonderful volunteers. The feedback that we have had from the Community has also been very positive, with a lot saying it was the best one yet.

• The Community Sports night that runs on a Monday evening is proving to be a success. We now have 15+ young people attending, both Boys and Girls, who are enjoying the Football and Basket Ball Coaching. This is run by staff in partnership with the Police and the East Safer Luton Partnership team.

• Raynham Way User’s Association are looking to develop and expand their committee to include members of the Community, and other outside partners e.g. Police, Schools, Churches etc, as well as members. If anyone is interested in joining us then please contact the Centre on 01582 402034 for further details.

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