All good things come to an end… A goodbye to our Chief Executive

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Chair of trustees, David Sharp, shares our goodbye to our long-standing Chief Executive Leah Swain.

All good things come to an end. A phrase which I’m sure is used too often and out of context, but when I say this in terms of the departure of Leah Swain as Chief Executive of Community First Yorkshire, I think I have it right.

Leah is moving on to, in her words, her dream job. She is to be the Chief Executive of The Sirius Minerals Foundation and I wish her well in the new role.

I’ve known Leah for almost 10 years, initially as a colleague in the voluntary sector when she worked for Rural Action Yorkshire when we began the journey to create better partnerships across the county, along with North Yorkshire Sport and Rural Arts.

I then had the fortune of working more closely with her as Chair of The North Yorkshire and York Forum when we merged with Rural Action Yorkshire to form Community First Yorkshire. She took on the Chief Executive role and I took on the Chair’s role.

In that time Leah has done some brave, innovative and exceptional things. Pulling two organisations together is a challenge in itself but to then have to tender and begin a new contract at the same time really would challenge the best of us, but Leah just seemed to take it in her stride. Then there are the projects, funding and advocacy work Community First Yorkshire has been doing over the past few years. I certainly won’t forget the achievement of bringing in over £1 million from the Army Covenant Fund for the Aged Veterans programme. This had over 15 partners all doing different things to meet the needs of our aged veterans, and from the stories I heard at the time, it was not only appreciated but greatly loved as well.

As a result of work led by Leah, better representation is now standard at North Yorkshire County Council, improvements to rural communities continue to be made, better networking and partnerships are in place across the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector and so on – I could go on and on!

Her legacy is a well-respected, sustainable, well-resourced organisation with amazing staff all working towards the aim of creating inclusive, pro-active and resilient communities across Yorkshire.

So, from me personally but also the Board, thank you Leah for everything you achieved at Community First Yorkshire and we wish you well in your new role – they are incredibly lucky to have you.

Stand up to Youth Loneliness

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Stereotypically, when we are asked to consider loneliness we picture someone who is elderly, perhaps frail, trapped in their home and struggling to connect with others in the wider world. But loneliness is not just something which affects the elderly. Recent research by the Red Cross and Co-Op Foundation has shown that young people are feeling increasingly lonely and socially isolated in society.

Youth loneliness can be stigmatising, hidden and disregarded; after all, young people are often thought to be constantly in contact with their peers on their phones and through social media. But loneliness is not about how many people we have around us. Loneliness occurs when there is a gap between our actual and desired social relationships; when the quality or quantity of these relationships does not meet our expectations. For young people, this might occur for a variety of reasons including poor self-image, bullying, disability or caring responsibilities and can leave a lasting impact well into adulthood.

We have developed a youth campaign – Stand up to Youth Loneliness – to tackle the stigma around loneliness in young people across North Yorkshire and gives them a voice to talk about it.

As part of the campaign development, we held workshops with young people across North Yorkshire. We asked them what causes their feelings of loneliness. They gave us a range of responses including:

  • ‘The lack of public transport in my area means that I’m physically not able to go anywhere or do anything’
  • ‘Social media can also make you feel lonely, especially if people don’t answer straight away and you can see that they have read your message. Some people also don’t have social media and this is harder because you can’t get in touch with people.’
  • ‘I don’t feel like I fit in. Sometimes if I‘m by myself people will make comments. It’s hard not being understood by people your age or by older people like your parents’

Our youth loneliness campaign contains a range of resources including:

  • Posters for schools, organisations and youth groups,
  • A leaflet for young people
  • Resources for professionals
  • A page on The Go-To, a website dedicated to supporting young people with mental health and other issues

All our resources are available to download online or as hard copies here. Please get in touch via info@communityfirstyorkshire.org.uk to ask for hard copies to be sent to you.

 

Laura Thomas, Project Manager at Community First Yorkshire

Volunteering: A quick fix for social isolation or something more?

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Many of us know that volunteering and participating in local community life is good for us. It gives us a sense of purpose and connectivity to the area that we live in, can increase our well-being, increase confidence, improve our skills and can even buffer us from depression.

No one can deny that this year has been hard, full of challenges, worries and changes. However, throughout it we have seen communities, neighbourhoods and the voluntary sector as a whole pull together, giving their time and resources to help and support others. We have seen individuals who would not normally volunteer step up and offer to help with prescription collections, food deliveries and check-in calls. We have witnessed changes to the way existing, often long-standing, volunteers have had to pause their volunteering or take up new roles as services have changed and adapted to the time.

Volunteering is at the core of creating connected, sustainable communities, but what if individuals chose their volunteering roles with as much care as their working roles?  What if volunteering roles were viewed as being part of a community we can choose to join and engage with?

Many people volunteer to alleviate their own loneliness, citing that the increase in social connections and activity found in volunteering helps them feel less lonely, however brief or small that contribution might be. Rather than just a brief social contact, it gives them a sense of belonging to the wider community in which they live, and a feeling of achievement in impacting local issues and concerns.

Another group of volunteers may recognise, through their own experience, that loneliness and social isolation can be overwhelming and demoralising for an individual. They take their own experiences of loneliness and turn them into an opportunity to affect the lives of others through social connectivity and interaction.

Whatever the reason for volunteering in the first place, there is no doubt that volunteering is an ideal opportunity for breaking out of isolation and restoring meaning in our lives. Volunteering for something that has meaning to the individual, motivates and inspires action.

However, most importantly, volunteering within local contexts and organisations, and even your local street can create connections and networks which last many years; enabling local communities to thrive, grow and flourish.  So why not #DonateLocal and give some of your time to volunteering in your local community?

Stronger Together – how to build connected communities

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Living somewhere with a strong sense of community is of great importance to people in North Yorkshire; however, developing neighbourhoods that are resilient, cohesive and sustainable is not always easy. It can be difficult to start those small, local conversations and once started, will anyone else see the vision?

That is why, as part of The Loneliness Campaign, we have brought a collection of free online resources together in the Stronger Together toolkit, to help and support communities, parishes, villages and neighbourhoods think about their own settings, and to encourage those wider conversations and social actions. We want all residents in North Yorkshire to have the opportunity to engage with neighbours, build stronger connecting networks and create more sustainable communities.

Divided into four sections, the resources are free to access and can be shared with others within your community, neighbourhood or organisation. There is a section for use by parish councils, local neighbourhood and action groups, and anyone with a local interest in making their community better. There is also a section specifically for professionals, where community projects are required as part of wider work or there are larger funding requirements. The final two sections go into further detail on two types of approaches for tackling loneliness within communities – Making Every Contact Count and Asset-Based Community Development.

As part of the communities section, you can either download or request a hard copy from the office of the new Building Connected Communities poster.  Designed to offer some ideas and starting points, it brings together a range of ideas for local action to create connected communities. It ranges from the simple such as ‘Stop to talk’, to the more complex ‘Start a free fridge’!

Wouldn’t it would be great if, once we are able to come together again, communities across North Yorkshire, brought their sharpies out and scribbled their own ideas, commitments and notes all over it and worked towards communities which were Stronger Together!

If you have more ideas to share let us know!

Local government reorganisation: what might it all mean?

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There has been much talk recently about devolution and local government reorganisation, but what do these phrases mean and how might they impact on the residents, charities and community groups in North Yorkshire.

What is changing and why?

At the moment all major decisions about what happens across the country are made in London by central government. Devolution is the transfer of certain powers and funding away from London and given to local governments so decisions are made closer to the people, businesses and communities they serve. According to the Local Government Association, devolution provides increased flexibility and freedom for councils to more effectively improve public services for their local area.

The central government has indicated that in order for devolution to North Yorkshire to happen, the current two-tier system of a county council, seven district and borough councils and the City of York Council need to be simplified and turned into one new combined authority (a partnership of local authorities).

North Yorkshire County Council is submitting one proposed model and the district and borough councils are submitting another. City of York Council states on its website it wishes to remain a unitary council. Central government will make the final decision.

The proposed models

District and borough model

The seven district and borough councils are proposing two councils; dividing North Yorkshire into East and West.

West would incorporate Craven, Harrogate, Richmondshire and Hambleton.

East would incorporate Selby, York, Ryedale and Scarborough.

They say the main benefits of this model are:

  • The two new councils would be large enough for efficiency but small enough to keep connected to the communities
  • The model would give two unitary authorities with similar population size to ensure parity of influence in the combined authority
  • Savings of £33m – £56m
  • Greater alignment with transport infrastructure driving economic growth along the A1 (M) and A64 corridors
  • Ensures strong local leadership and democratic representation
  • Unlocks the potential of York, allowing it to address key challenges around housing delivery, capacity and improvement of children’s services

North Yorkshire County Council model

North Yorkshire County Council is putting forward a proposal to have a single council for North Yorkshire incorporating Harrogate, Craven, Ryedale, Scarborough, Richmondshire, Hambleton and Selby, with the existing separate smaller City of York Council staying as it is.

They say the main benefits of this model are:

  • Strengthen the county’s voice at national level, being able to compete with similar size combined authorities such as Sheffield, Leeds and Durham
  • Saving in excess of £25m
  • Working collaboratively on common issues affecting the whole county, e.g. rural, market towns, tourism
  • Won’t split up outstanding high-performing services such as children’s services
  • A “double devolution” offer to parish and town councils and communities – offering flexible opportunities to run services and assets currently managed by the county and district councils
  • Provide a single point of contact for people, voluntary and community organisations and businesses, replacing complex partnership arrangements

Both models propose savings in senior management and back office costs and say they won’t come from front-line delivery services.

What happens next and how to find out more

The proposals will be submitted to central government on receipt of a formal invitation to do so. The new structure is expected to be in place in spring 2022.

To see more information and keep updated with timelines and consultation opportunities visit their websites:

North Yorkshire County Council: Stronger Together

District and boroughs: Get Change Right