Levi Roots speaks at the Celebrating Communities reception

February 2010

Take Part Cornwall was one of a number of community projects from across England represented at a reception  that took place at Number 10 Downing Street this month. This was a celebration of the work being done in communities. Both the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, John Denham, thanked community activist, teachers and local government officers for their day to day work. (more…)

Speaker of the House of Commons visits Cornwall

Please find below Link to Your Voice Booking Form

http://takepart.cornwallvsf.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Your-Voice-flyer-and-booking-form-11th-Feb1.pdf

Take Part Cornwall is organizing an event titled ‘Your Voice’, jointly with Parliamentary Outreach Office, on 11.02.2010 at Kingsley Village, Fraddon. 

The agenda of the day includes

• An interactive question and answer session by the Speaker of House of Commons,
• A ‘soapbox session’ whereby participants/beneficiaries of HE sessions on Active Citizenship (a Take Part Cornwall activity) will discuss their experience, and (more…)

The Speaker of the House of Commons is due to visit Cornwall as part of a day exploring how citizens can get more involved in informing and influencing decision makers.

Take Part Cornwall and the Parliamentary Outreach service are organising this FREE event at Kingsley Village, Fraddon, on Thursday February 11th 2009 (more…)

Learning about Parliament

A group of more than twenty residents from across Cornwall visited the Palace of Westminster in November.

The group are studying Democracy, Power and Governance with Cornwall Neighbourhoods for Change and Cornwall College, supported by Take Part Cornwall. Their visit included a tour of the House of Commons and the House of Lords as well as a presentation about the work of Parliament by the Parliamentary Outreach office. (more…)

CAPACITY BUILDING TRAINING.

Effective Meetings.

From this training I pick one particular learner to demonstrate how the training can help active citizens to be more involved within their communities:

One of the learners was a lady who had been ‘hand picked’ by a National Government department to be a trustee of a charity connected to a local prison.  She had not volunteered as such and had not met the other trustees before her first board meeting.  She had been picked because of her previous experience but this did not include  meeting skills training or any training on group dynamics. (more…)

The Government is aiming at widening civic participation in statutory bodies and third sector organisations. This document sets out how the Government is working towards increasing the number and broadening
the diversity of people who sit on decision making bodies and the boards of charities to ensure that they are representative of the communities that they serve.

Read the document here:

Government response (PDF)

Please find attached to this post the September 2009 edition of Wecan! – a quarterly magazine for people interested in getting involved in and influencing the delivery of services in their local area. This issue focuses on strengthening local democracy and the role of local councils in democratic renewal and also features articles on the Duty to Involve, scrutiny and social enterprises. Please let us know if you have any comments or queries on this issue. You can download the september issue here: WeCan September_09
You can also find this magazine online at: http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/communities/wecansep2009 .