News
Carnegie Festival - book now
The Carnegie UK Trust is a key partner in this year’s Carnegie Festival, being held in Scotland from 21 August - 6 September. It has an eclectic programme, covering politics, film, innovation and enterprise that is designed to entertain, inform, inspire and challenge.
The festival of politics will be looking at issues including power, who has it and how to get it, ‘the special relationship' between the UK and the USA, and the new politics of giving. It draws to a close with the exploration of the colourful political career of George Galloway in an interview by BBC Economics Editor, Evan Davis.
Matthew Taylor Review recognises potential of Community Land Trusts
Carnegie UK Trust has championed Community Land Trusts as an effective mechanism for the provision of affordable housing in rural areas. This support has been achieved through funding pilot schemes through the National CLT Demonstration Project.
We are delighted therefore that the Matthew Taylor Review of Rural Economy and Affordable Housing, commissioned by Gordon Brown and published on the 23 July contains the following recommendation:
Recommendation 20:
The Government should anticipate increased interest in Community Land Trusts (CLTs) as a model for affordable housing delivery and draw up guidance on how best to implement the model following the recent review of the CLT pilots, in particular addressing the need for a clear definition of what CLTs are, and broad rules on how they operate, without removing the structural flexibility that they currently enjoy which allows specific arrangements to be responsive to the needs of particular areas.
Matthew Taylor Review recognises potential of Community Land Trusts
Carnegie UK Trust has championed Community Land Trusts as an effective mechanism for the provision of affordable housing in rural areas. This support has been achieved through funding pilot schemes through the National CLT Demonstration Project.
We are delighted therefore that the Matthew Taylor Review of Rural Economy and Affordable Housing, commissioned by Gordon Brown and published on the 23 July contains the following recommendation:
Recommendation 20:
The Government should anticipate increased interest in Community Land Trusts (CLTs) as a model for affordable housing delivery and draw up guidance on how best to implement the model following the recent review of the CLT pilots, in particular addressing the need for a clear definition of what CLTs are, and broad rules on how they operate, without removing the structural flexibility that they currently enjoy which allows specific arrangements to be responsive to the needs of particular areas.
Carnegie: Empowerment White Paper Ignores Community Action
An influential coalition led by the Carnegie UK Trust has criticised the Empowerment White Paper, published this week (9 July 2008), for ignoring the power of community action. Carnegie, along with four partner organisations, believes that community action is fundamental to empowerment, but that the Government’s White Paper focuses too much on devolving power to individual citizens, bypassing the potential strengths of community groups.
Carnegie joined forces with the National Association of Local Councils (NALC); Urban Forum; Action for Market Towns (AMT) and Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE) to urge Government to back ‘Community Led Planning’. Community Led Planning is about local people and community groups coming together to develop a plan for the future of an area, to tackle local problems and influence local services. The group made a detailed submission to the Empowerment White Paper consultation, setting out the case for Community Led Planning. They argue that:
Welsh Assembly Government Take up the Carnegie Challenge!
Carnegie UK Trust was pleased to sponsor the ‘Realising Rural Assets Conference’ on 19th June at the Royal Welsh Showground, Builth Wells. The event, organised by WCVO welcomed Elin Jones, Rural Affairs Minister and Leighton Andrews, Deputy Minister for Regeneration as guest speakers. Mr Andrews said that the Welsh Assembly Government was taking up the Carnegie challenge about the role of asset building and that community ownership of public buildings can have a positive effect in rural communities. He announced that he was looking to establish a community asset fund to allow communities to take over public buildings.
The Deputy Minister said:
Welsh Assembly Government Take up the Carnegie Challenge!
Carnegie UK Trust was pleased to sponsor the ‘Realising Rural Assets Conference’ on 19th June at the Royal Welsh Showground, Builth Wells. The event, organised by WCVO welcomed Elin Jones, Rural Affairs Minister and Leighton Andrews, Deputy Minister for Regeneration as guest speakers. Mr Andrews said that the Welsh Assembly Government was taking up the Carnegie challenge about the role of asset building and that community ownership of public buildings can have a positive effect in rural communities. He announced that he was looking to establish a community asset fund to allow communities to take over public buildings.
The Deputy Minister said:
Young people given chance to change the world
4 July: An online poll was launched today which will give young people across Scotland the chance to determine which global issue Scotland should take action on. The poll is an advanced part of the process for a Youth Politics event at this year’s Festival of Politics and will lead to guaranteed action at the Scottish Parliament based on the outcomes of the event.
The entire process is youth-led, beginning with young people involved at the CIVICUS Youth Assembly in mid-June, taking in the online poll and eventually finalised at the one-day event taking place on Saturday 23rd August.
The poll is hosted at www.syp.org.uk, www.sccyp.org.uk and www.youngscot.org with all results combined to give the Youth Politics Festival its shortlist of 4 topics. The poll will be live from 4 - 14 July.
The Youth Politics Festival: Think Global; Speak Local (Saturday 23 August 10:30-16:00) will be a dual-campus event, hosted concurrently in Carnegie College in Dunfermline and in the Scottish Parliament, joined together by video-link technology. To register an interest in attending the event, young people should contact info@carnegiefestival.com.
The poll and the event are strongly supported by the Scottish Parliament’s Presiding Officer, Alex Fergusson MSP. Speaking on Friday as the poll went live, the Presiding Officer said: “This is an exciting opportunity for young people to put the issues that matter to them to the top of the political agenda. Festivals are about new ideas and new experiences and I would encourage as many young people as possible to log on and join in the debate.”
More Than Just Transport – How a social audit can prove your organisation contributes to a stronger community
This month’s Community Transport Association Journal runs a feature on social accounting and auditing highlighting the action research CTA has been carrying out for Carnegie’s Rural Action Research Programme.
‘In the past 18 months, the CTA has helped 12 organisations across the UK and Ireland to carry out their first social audit. Funding of £36,000 from the Carnegie UK Trust and a further £1,500 from the Community Transport Association Ireland (CTAI) has put community transport managers through training, supported organisations during the process and produced an informative handbook about social auditing for other community transport organisations to draw upon.’
Live & Local - ruralnet/2008: A fresh take for our rural areas
How can rural areas respond to these challenges? And are our rural communities robust enough to meet the structural changes that lie ahead?
To help debate some of these questions, The Soil Association, Land for People community land trust, Little Red Bus Network and The Plunkett Foundation (ViRSA) will all be facilitating workshops at ruralnet|2008. These interactive workshops will stimulate delegates to explore how rural communities can respond to a changing future by embracing the opportunities that lie in re-invigorating localism within our rural areas; Local Food, Local Ownership, Local Transport and Local Retail will all be discussed, along with further workshops on Local Energy and Local ICT.
Seminar - Social capital and dimensions of equality
The second in the joint seminar series held by NCVO and the Carnegie Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society is now open for bookings.
This seminar on 'Social capital and dimensions of equality' will look at the relevance and limitations of the social capital concept around issues of equality and diversity.
Chair: Tim Joss (Rayne Foundation)
Speaker: Sughra Ahmed (Islamic Foundation)
Seminar: Social capital and dimensions of equality
The second in the joint seminar series held by NCVO and the Carnegie Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society is now open for bookings.
This seminar on 'Social capital and dimensions of equality' will look at the relevance and limitations of the social capital concept around issues of equality and diversity. The seminar seeks:
- to explore the interdependence of bonding, bridging and linking for enabling/inhibiting voice and empowerment.
- to identify how various communities, organisations and groups have successfully been able to enable various sub-groups to bond, bridge and link both within and between community/organisation/group.
Chair: Tim Joss (Rayne Foundation)
Rural Action Research Programme partners network events
2008 sees the last in a series of networking events for our Big Lottery co-funded RARP partners. Over the last few months each theme group has met to exchange ideas and progress and also to examine closely the aim of the RARP - to influence policy and practice.
The hill farming group in Cumbria hosted the remote and peripheral partners in March. The theme of this meeting was ‘Finding your way in the Fells: cultural landscape guiding communities communicating about their assets.’ The hill farming group used this meeting to gather thoughts from the other partners, the Celtic Neighbours project and the Eden Foundation on the sustainability of hill farming. An informal dinner was organised with local hill farmers from the Borrowdale valley to encourage a general discussion and then our RARP partners were given the opportunity to visit the farms and conduct more in depth interviews with the farmers themselves. Many interesting issues were raised and some suggestions put forward by the group. The main issue raised and tackled was how to retain young people in this type of farming in the face of increasing challenges. This RARP work continues until 2009 and the feedback from this visit will be fed into the research gathered.
We were back in Cumbria again in April with our Service Provision group in a gathering hosted by Cybermoor Ltd in Alston. Cybermoor, who are near completion of their action research work, presented their preliminary findings to the group. This action research has examined the ways in which rural community members and public sector service providers can be encouraged to contribute content to community websites. It has also explored opportunities for public sector agencies to use community websites as a means of engagement and assessment of rural needs and to influence delivery. The final report will be published here in due course. The group were also given the opportunity to visit some of the other Alston Moor social enterprises delivering community led service provision including the Mines Heritage Centre and community shop in Nenthead. The final part of the gathering saw the group work in depth with the Carnegie Commission Petal model and the address the issue of policy influence and shared messages.
Carnegie supports 'Realising Rural Assets' conference in Wales
Kate Braithwaite invited onto the Scottish Rural Development Council
Kate Braithwaite is delighted to be part of a new group which will help shape a prosperous future for rural Scotland.
Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs Richard Lochhead chaired the inaugural meeting of the Rural Development Council in Dunkeld on the 2nd of June.
The council includes a number of individuals who will bring a broad range of expertise on rural matters to the table with the aim of developing policy and advising the Scottish Government on how rural communities can contribute to Scotland's sustainable economic growth.
Rural Programme Community of Practice – announcement of ‘host’ organisations/ communities
One of the most successful elements of Carnegie’s rural work to date has been the fact that all our conclusions have been built upon authentic evidence from pioneering rural communities working on the ground to directly inform policy makers. Our partners have told us that the single most effective action for the Trust to take is the continued creation and structuring of opportunities for people to add value to their work by networking, communicating, mentoring, and learning from each other. The Community of Practice will assist this process but we also believe that face-to-face encounters are also important.
Community of Practice – announcement of ‘host’ organisations/ communities
One of the most successful elements of Carnegie’s rural work to date has been the fact that all our conclusions have been built upon authentic evidence from pioneering rural communities working on the ground to directly inform policy makers. Our partners have told us that the single most effective action for the Trust to take is the continued creation and structuring of opportunities for people to add value to their work by networking, communicating, mentoring, and learning from each other. The Community of Practice will assist this process but we also believe that face-to-face encounters are also important.
Rural Action Research Programme partners network events
2008 sees the last in a series of networking events for our RARP partners. Over the last few months each theme group has met to exchange ideas and progress and also to examine closely the aim of the RARP - to influence policy and practice.
The hill farming group in Cumbria hosted the remote and peripheral partners in March. The theme of this meeting was ‘Finding your way in the Fells: cultural landscape guiding communities communicating about their assets.’ The hill farming group used this meeting to gather thoughts from the other partners, the Celtic Neighbours project and the Eden Foundation on the sustainability of hill farming. An informal dinner was organised with local hill farmers from the Borrowdale valley to encourage a general discussion and then our RARP partners were given the opportunity to visit the farms and conduct more in depth interviews with the farmers themselves. Many interesting issues were raised and some suggestions put forward by the group. The main issue raised and tackled was how to retain young people in this type of farming in the face of increasing challenges. This RARP work continues until 2009 and the feedback from this visit will be fed into the research gathered.
We were back in Cumbria again in April with our Service Provision group in a gathering hosted by Cybermoor Ltd in Alston. Cybermoor, who are near completion of their action research work, presented their preliminary findings to the group. This action research has examined the ways in which rural community members and public sector service providers can be encouraged to contribute content to community websites. It has also explored opportunities for public sector agencies to use community websites as a means of engagement and assessment of rural needs and to influence delivery. The final report will be published here in due course. The group were also given the opportunity to visit some of the other Alston Moor social enterprises delivering community led service provision including the Mines Heritage Centre and community shop in Nenthead. The final part of the gathering saw the group work in depth with the Carnegie Commission Petal model and the address the issue of policy influence and shared messages.
Kate Braithwaite invited onto the Scottish Rural Development Council
Kate Braithwaite is delighted to be part of a new group which will help shape a prosperous future for rural Scotland.
Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs Richard Lochhead chaired the inaugural meeting of the Rural Development Council in Dunkeld on the 2nd of June.
The council includes a number of individuals who will bring a broad range of expertise on rural matters to the table with the aim of developing policy and advising the Scottish Government on how rural communities can contribute to Scotland's sustainable economic growth.
Community Land Trusts Conference and Report ‘Then We Will Do It Ourselves.’
The Community Land Trust movement is making waves. At their conference in London at the end of April, Iain Wright - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Communities and Local Government - confirmed that CLTs are now firmly on the government's agenda as a way to bring the affordable housing and community engagement agendas together. The event showcased work undertaken in partnership with Carnegie Rural Programme, including a DVD 'Then we will do it ourselves' which is now available from Jennifer Aird (J.Aird@salford.ac.uk). The buzz in the room was palpable - it is clear that Community Land Trusts may be at a tipping point, as the solid work of creating enabling institutional and policy frameworks continues. But there is no substitute for living, breathing examples of success and the seven case stories of rural CLTs that comprise the film (and how to guide, also launched during the day), offer just that. A full copy of the report and case studies is attached below.
Carnegie partner, WildWorks, V & A Museum Design Acclaim
WildWorks has been invited to create the special display at the centre of the current Collaborators: UK Design for Performance 2003 – 2007 exhibition at the Victoria & Albert (V&A) Museum London.