Whilst jobs are being cut nationwide the volunteer status in and around Great Yarmouth is thriving or that was my impression from the Great Yarmouth communities network meeting held at the Kings centre Great Yarmouth on Friday the 2nd of July.
This was the second meeting held by the community network and 26 people attended from all type's of sectors.
Simon O Leary From Voluntary Norfolk opened the meeting and then handed the morning session over to Tim Leonard from the GYLSP . The topics for the morning were based on and around the columns below and as you can see it seems to leave nothing out.
Economic Delivery Partnership
Safer Communities Delivery Partnership
Reducing Violent crime including Domestic Violence
Reducing hate crime
Reducing anti-social behaviour
Tackling criminal damage
Reducing adverse effects of repeat offending
Community involvement
Improving public confidence & satisfaction
Stronger Communities Delivery Partnership
Reducing inequalities and tackling worklessness
community engagement and participation
Social cohesion
Locality working
Health and independent Living Delivery Partnership
Life Style changes(smoking, alcohol,drugs and diet)
Mental health and well-being
Independent living
Older people
Sexual health/ teenage pregnancy
Children and Young People Delivery Partnership
Effectiveness of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)
Health including reducing obesity
School attainment & attendance
Raising aspirations
Every Child Matters
Environmental Delivery Partnership
Sustainability
- Encourage recycling and sustainable energy use
Liveability / the physical environment
- Reduction of fly tipping, graffiti, litter and detritus
Reducing the carbon footprint
Most of us, if not all will be able to relate to something listed above and that is the reason I included it. Some of the things I had never heard of, yet I found myself relating to most of the topics as the day went on and participating in some of the debates.
We all have views on hows things should be done, like ending the rewards for the youths that do wrong and actively punishing them, reducing fly tipping by working with the community and supplying skips every 3 months on estates. Yes the cost would have to be met, yet is the cost not already met with the council paying for the collections of legally dumped items. People find it hard to dispose of items such as fridges as not many people will take them, yet the council will pick them up for a small fee. You could take them to the recycling centre in Caister if you have a car, or we could all see the problem and provide help and make it easier for people to dispose of large bulky items instead of collecting it from under trees, hedges or lay-bys.
Someone brought up the fact that you need to earn around 13.500 to make it worth while coming off income support or job seekers yet being on income support I find the job centre will help you every way they can to get you back into work. They will help with your housing, carry on paying you for the first month till you get your feet on the ground and give you 40 a week for the first year so all we need now are the jobs and they will help with the rest. I was only informed within the last few weeks that you could even earn extra money by going to the job centre to gain further education but like most things not a lot of people know about it, if your interested ask at your local job center..
After lunch there was an introduction from Rob Gregory with regards to the Big Society and the Big Society agenda
What Big Society Agenda I was thinking yet again by the end of the session I was well aware of the point they were trying to get over. More information on the Big Society can be found at http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/407789/building-big-society.pdf
Having to leave the meeting early to attend a school function I missed out on open discussions in the afternoon and how we could move forward with the ideas, yet having sat there all morning listening to some of the ideas I feel that it was in good hands. Whilst many of us are not aware of these meeting its nice to know that they do happen.
As a volunteer myself I would like to say thank you to all the other volunteers out there in our schools, victim support offices, youth clubs and all the other places, some of us may be out of work but we are trying to put something back into the community.
I would also like to thank Simon O Leary and his team for making me feel welcome at short notice and to all those that attended the Great Yarmouth Communities Network meeting. I look forward to the next one.
Darren Wheeler
96ktalkback community reporter
If you have any news or events coming up email me on darren@96ktalkback.co.uk
