York Guildhall and Mansion House

A major conference exploring how  Social Action and Active Citizens strengthen democracy in Yorkshire.

There will be a wide range of participative workshops with contributions from innovative projects around parent power, community champions, campaigning, community research and many more.

The afternoon will be an opportunity to identify your ideas for actions and explore how we can work together to increase effective social action.

Who is it for?

Venue: St Mary's Centre, Sheffield

An unmissable conference!

Big Society may be the defining idea of the Coalition government. It looks certain to affect the way the voluntary and community sector works, is funded, how it's structured, and the way it delivers services. This is a unique opportunity to find out the very latest news and thinking, and to tell one of the key people in the design of Big Society how you think it will affect the lives of the VCS and of communities in Yorkshire and the Humber.

A series of seminars exploring the relevance and importance of community ownership and mangement of assets for society today. 

The Participatory Budgeting Unit is holding a one-day conference on 9 November 2010, Westminster Central Hall exploring how PB can be taken forward in the new political and economic climate.  Topics covered will include how PB enhances commissioning co-production and Total Place. 

The aim of this on-line resource is to give you a basic understanding of why representation and having a 'voice' is essential for the sustainability of your group.

It explores:

• the principles of representation
• the benefits of representation for the third sector and for local authorities and LSP partners
• engaging your community
• roles and responsibilities of representation
• an introduction to the skills needed for effective representation.

You can access the resource from this link:

This collection of 15 case studies will highlight real examples of good practice between public sector bodies and VCS organisations and groups in rural communities.  The profiles will detail how the partners from the two sectors collaborate effectively and gain a collective value from their shared expertise and activities.

Launched in 2008, Altogether Better is a five year programme designed to deliver innovative evidenced based models of engaging and empowering communities to improve their health and well-being.

The Programme, hosted by NHS Yorkshire and the Humber, is a regional-local collaborative partnership. There is a project
within every Primary Care Trust locality across Yorkshire and the Humber

Yorkshire and the Humber  - shifting power to communities
 This briefing paper seeks to provide a record of  'what we know' works at community level, and 'how we know it' through a range of illustrated activities in Yorkshire & Humber.

It has been sent to government ministers and civil servants as a contribution to the Big Society discussions and includes an invitation to come and see some of this activity in action.

'Making the Case'  for community development

was a key feature of a recent event organised by the Yorkshire and Humber Community Development Network. Participants explored the ways in which occupational standards could be used to demonstrate the skills and knowledge of CD workers. They also identified a huge range of areas where community develop can contribute to improved outcomes  such as community cohesion, improving services and increasing civic participation.

Four sub-regional workshops were held earlier this year exploring the results of the Comprehensive Area Assessments (CAA) on empowerment and engagement focusing on the involvement of the voluntary and community sectors. A brief summary of the key points that were raised is now available