Blackpool on Wikipedia

Wikipedia is the world’s largest online encyclopedia. It is a Wiki- (a collaborative website) -Encyclopedia and is therefore written collaboratively. The content is created by volunteers from around the world.

The entry for Blackpool is no exception with dozens of people contributing to the article! And there is still work to do – you can register with Wikipedia free of charge and play your part in writing the definitive version of Blackpool’s history, people, charcteristics, facets… and anything else that is definitive and qualifiable about the town.

Question: Would readers agree that the Regeneration section of Blackpool – Wikipedia needs ‘development’ !?

Interested in Schools Blogging Project?

This article has been reproduced from Blogging Blackpool. It has been done so with a very clear proposal: Are there any schools locally that would like to establish a version of  the project outlined here? Please leave a comment or e-mail blackpoolcommunitnews@gmx.com

Lend Your Voice is one of those truly remarkable blogs that you discover during your internet browsing treks that makes you forget what you were looking for in the first place!  But this blog written by and featuring young people’s thoughts, views and experiences was well worth the break in journey.

Lend Your Voice has been established ‘to let every young person from Northern Ireland express their ideas and opinions, whatever their background.’

Despite being Belfast based, the Blog attracts posts from young people from all over the UK (and possibly internationally – still reading!). It has obviously engaged with schools for blogging news and poetry projects. It also benefits from the support of Youth News agency Headliners.

This Blog is surely an inspirational use of Blogging…. so are there any inspired Fylde Coast readers out there who would care to inspire such a venture locally!?

Mereside Gala – 2nd August

HAVE A GREAT DAY OUT! Come to Mereside Gala on the 2nd August.

Includes ‘Bonny baby’ competition and Mereside Gardening Competition – £1 per entry. Hip-Hop Artist Evileyz also performs.

02 Aug 2008, 01:00
MERESIDE SCHOOL FIELD, LANGADALE ROAD, MERESIDE, BLACKPOOL.

Reminder: Grange Park neighbourhood mural project

Do you live on Grange Park? If so, you can take part in brightening up the neighbourhood through designing and painting a new neighbourhood mural.  This Art Project for All organised by the Grange Park Open Door project will welcome any resident, of any age at all to get involved.  No artistic skill is necessary just bags of enthusiasm.

You can give as little or as much time as you like to the project which takes place over 4 – days from Mon 21st July to Thursday 24th July.

Booking is essential. Contact Judith on 01253 763146.

Tackling Substance Misuse Practitioner Course

NOCN Level 3 Award in Tackling Substance Misuse Practitioner.

National Accreditation No. 100/5307/4 – Full DANOS Compliance

A Qualification that develops the skills and knowledge to support adult workers in the drug and alcohol sector.

Academic course running every Monday Evening 6 till 9.

Covering:

• Principles of Tackling Substance Misuse. 6 credits (mandatory)

• Providing Harm Minimisation to Drug Users. 3 credits (core)

• Responding to Substance Misuse. 6 credits (mandatory)

• Health & Safety Management 3 credits (stand alone qualification)

Academic course best suited to new and existing workers within Drug/Alcohol and supporting services wishing for a formal qualification.

Course also open to non substance misuse workers, who can provide an organisational placement throughout the course.

Course runs from Sept 2008 until July 2009

In Blackpool

Cost –£630.

For further information contact;

Shughie Morrison on

Blackpool 01253-304143

Or email ………… shugs_blackpool@yahoo.co.uk

Debate on Future of Compact – but what is it?

Sir Bert Massie CBE, Commissioner for the Compact, has called for a major debate to take place on the future of the Compact after 10 years of its existence.

Many local groups in the town have joined Compact but many more are probably ’signed up’ in principle if not in practice.  For those who still want to get their heads around the Compact – then you can’t go far wrong then downloading this little gem of a document Local Compact Implementation Plan – MiniGuide.

The MiniGuide is a condensed version of a larger document both of which are available from the National Compact website or by getting in touch with Helen Kay at the Blackpool Compact.

Open Spaces Network – new Federation launched!

The Worshipful the Mayor of Blackpool, Councillor Mrs Mary Smith (pictured) was present and gave her support at the launch of the new OSN Federation on

Monday 7th July.  The OSN brings together Friends of Parks groups, allotment and other community groups with an interest in a public open space.

An eight strong Committee was elected which will ensure a productive relationship is maintained between the OSN’s 21 member groups and Blackpool Council’s Parks and Green Environment Services.  The Federation itself will aim to meet every quarter. Members were keen to keep the OSN’s distinctive informal and enjoyable style of meetings.

Issue 9 of Blackpool Community News

This is Blackpool Community News – The interactive version!

You can read and make comments on what you have read.  You can give your ideas on where readers should go for further information. You can explore the links to the various websites full of information.  Let us know what you think about Blackpool Community News and this interactive version.

For a ‘hard copy’ contact Blackpool SURF or download from the Previous Issues section of this site.

Issue 9 Contains:

Blackpool Zoo support for Orangutans

New service from Wyre and Blackpool Citizens Advice

Fylde Coast Mental Health Hub Awareness Day

New sensory garden opened

SURF/Barnardo’s bid to manage Third Sector Strategic Forum

Appeal for SURF and CVS Collaboration

Commissioning and Procurement Unit

Blackpool Compact and Conferences

Guide to Participatory Budgeting

MIND – In the Red: Debt and Mental Health

Skilling up for LSPs

Spotlight Magazine

GASP: Seeking New Trustees

LGBT: Awards for All Workshop

Mereside Gala Notice

Open Spaces News

Housing Merger Sealed with Celebration

Facts you should know – From Blackpool Alcohol Team

Churches Protest over water charges

What do you think about the new look Blackpool Community News

Informal help with your website

Firefox, Thunderbird and their Community friends

Bsafe on Facebook

Blackpool4Me – pick of the bunch

Blackpool History

Blackpool Zoo support for Orangutans

orangutan picture

STAFF AT BLACKPOOL ZOO are supporting endangered orangutans by collecting their used postage stamps and encouraging visitors and friends of the zoo to do the same. The initiative has been organized by The Orangutan Foundation who are asking people to send in their used postage stamps to help raise funds for endangered orangutans.

Jude Rothwell, Communications Manager at Blackpool Zoo, said: “We started the initiative with staff at the zoo and had a great response, so we thought it would be a good idea to get our visitors involved.  It’s such a simple way to help these wonderful animals.

“All our visitors need to do is cut out their postage stamps, leaving approximately 1cm of paper around the stamp, and put them in the collection box at the zoo’s reception and we’ll send them off to The Orangutan Foundation.”

The Orangutan Foundation UK is part of the Orangutan Foundation International (OFI), which is recognized as the world’s leading expert on orangutans.

New advice service from Citizens Advice Bureau

A NEW SERVICE TO improve access to advice and information for the communities in Blackpool and Wyre District has been launched. It will target areas where services are limited or inaccessible due to low income levels, Health, Disability and Mobility or Transport difficulties.

The two independent bureaux of Blackpool Citizens Advice Bureau and Wyre District Citizens Advice Bureau are working together to help people get better access to advice. Anyone can call us for advice, especially those who have trouble getting to a bureau.

To do this a new telephone advice service is now available. Using a single telephone number people will now be able to get advice from anywhere in Blackpool or Wyre by ringing 01253 308400.

Besides normal office hours the service will operate extended hours for two nights a week and Saturday mornings. Full advice will be provided by trained advisers and volunteers.

Our call lines are open:
Monday, Wednesday & Friday     10am – 5pm
Tuesday & Thursday                     10am – 6pm
Saturdays                                     10am -12.30pm

The telephone advice service will primarily benefit clients living in rural areas, those with physical or mental impairment, older people, single parents, ethnic minorities, the socially isolated and those who are at work during normal office opening hours. In essence, people who have limited or non-existent access to advice currently.

To speak to an adviser on the new CAB advice line please ring
01253 308400 (local call rates apply).
If you want to know about becoming a volunteer with CAB then please contact your local bureau.

If you require further information please contact:
Andy Gillett,
Project Manager,
Citizens Advice Bureau
Tel: 01253 308421
E-mail: andy.gillett@blackpoolcab.org.uk

Seasiders Sensory Garden Opened

Waterloo Methodist Church is the site of a new  sensory garden created by volunteers from the Blackpool Seasider’s Childminding group.  The garden funded through SURF’s Cleaner, Safer, Grants scheme was officially opened by SURF Chairman Gary Pretty.

Gary paid tribute to the principal volunteers Osborne, Lloyd and Carol who had made the garden possible.

Appeal: The group still need more flagstones, vegetable and salad seeds, plants and cuttings. They particularly require a water butt and stand to recycle rainwater and a compost bin would come in very handy.  If you can help, contact SURF and we will pass the good news on.  The Seasider’s Group also needs more Committee members – particularly those who have experience – although any help is welcome.

Blackpool MP, Gordon Marsden, who originally had intended to open the event, but could not make the start, came to offer his support and speak to the volunteers and group supporters.

BLACKPOOL FORWARD

A COLLABORATIVE BID TO MANAGE THE BLACKPOOL THIRD SECTOR STRATEGIC FORUM
BLACKPOOL FORWARD is a unique collaboration between Barnardo’s Blackpool Project and Blackpool SURF building on the expertise of each to establish and support the town’s Third Sector Strategic Forum.

It will be a proactive ‘connector’ enabling third sector groups to work together for the benefit of Blackpool.  It will be the hub around which a “network-of-networks” will form. Robust agreements and protocols will underwrite representation, engagement and joint activity.

It will build on what already exists  and focus on what works, while reaching out to those who have not been previously engaged.  It will glue the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ together through the mutual adoption of a set of aspirational vision statements.

Creative professionals will work in partnership with others to pool resources, time and effort to create a larger networked team.

Blackpool Forward will not only create a physical network, but an ongoing ‘virtual network’ of groups.  It will facilitate a greater access to information than has previously been possible.

It will establish transparent and accountable representation as the ‘norm’ in Blackpool.

The brokerage of better relationships between groups, will improve relationships between sectors.  Effective partnership working will increase as a result.

It will support and create leaders of the third sector, who will work as respected partners with leaders from other sectors.

The town’s leaders and decision-makers will recognise, appreciate and value the unique role and contribution of the third sector in Blackpool’s revival.  A climate will be created where the town’s third sector can thrive.  A thriving and vibrant third sector, working with an enterprising private sector, and an enlightened public sector, will be able to drive Blackpool Forward.

Collaboration rather than competition between Blackpool SURF and the CVS

STATEMENT FROM BLACKPOOL SURF

On July 14th Blackpool Council is expected to announce which organisation has won the tender to deliver the new Third Sector Strategic Forum or Assembly for the town.  It is a two-horse competition between Blackpool SURF/Barnardo’s and the CVS (Council for Voluntary Services).  The SURF Board of Trustees has declared that whatever the outcome of the tendering process, it will continue its efforts to work closely with the CVS.  This commitment stands, whether SURF manages the the Strategic Forum or is a participant in it. Collaboration is much more preferable to potentially damaging and draining competition.

Blackpool SURF has taken part in this competition with some regret. This competition was not necessary. If SURF and the CVS had worked together productively and consistently over the last three years, the Council would have been able to approach and intelligently commission services from both organisations according to the respective strengths of each.

During the tender process SURF has made it very clear that it would prefer one collaborative bid from  partners. This would be in the best interests of the town and its Third Sector.  Two bidders did come together in partnership. However, the CVS remained unresponsive to this collaboration.

During the last three years SURF has made many attempts to work closely with CVS.  Two meetings were held with representatives of the two Boards in May and September 2007, brokered by the Council.  SURF tabled specific proposals to collaborate with CVS (see box).  The SURF Board has never formally received a response to these.

• holding occasional joint meetings building on the success of the SURF Network and the CVS Voluntary Sector Forum, with the aim of combining members’ meetings into one Assembly for the town;

• to pool resources and produce one joint newsletter for The Fylde coast incorporating Blackpool Community News and the CVS Newsletter;

• to hold occasional joint staff meetings to help coordination, co-operation and collaboration. The intention was that staff would eventually strive to work as one team representing our common interests and those of the third sector;

• to share office equipment, space, and facilities;

• to offer one hire service “a common treasury of equipment” to our joint memberships.

In response to comments below:

With respect….article on community volunteering and activism.

Blackpool Compact and Conferences

The Blackpool Compact has gone from strength to strength recently.  Membership is steadily increasing, with 60 public sector and voluntary & community organisations currently signed up and more in the pipeline.  There is a high level of awareness of Compact principles in Blackpool organisations involved in cross-sector partnership working, and member groups are doing a great job of promoting the agreement wherever possible.  Any plans or policies being developed by statutory agencies around such topics as community engagement and public sector commissioning now take the Compact into account.

Community & voluntary groups are increasingly looking to the agreement to ensure that they play a full and equal role in partnership work, and to the Blackpool Compact Network as an avenue for provision of training and support.

Evidence of this success was seen at the Blackpool Compact Conference held in March this year. Nearly one hundred people from across the Fylde Coast attended the event, hosted by Blackpool Council, which looked at the past, present and future of the Blackpool Compact.  The Conference was organised by the Compact Development Group, an independent body made up of representatives from public and voluntary & community sector organisations, with the assistance of the Council’s Compact & Communications Officer, Helen Kay.

Further proof of interest in the Compact was in evidence at the the Fylde Coast 3rd Sector First event held in Fleetwood on June 12th.  Over 120 people attended the Marine Hall to find out more about procurement and commissioning.  Mike Kirkman gave a perspective from Blackpool Council’s point of view and there were presentations of good practice from the YMCA and Age Concern.

For further information see Blackpool Compact.

PUT YOURSELF IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Blackpool Spotlight magazine is a newly formed Community Interest Company founded by Roger Tretton. The magazine will act as an ambassador for Blackpool promoting the town and its people. It has a strong community focus to benefit the local community.

We have creative flair and an independent outlook. We generate income through advertisements. The magazine is professional, friendly, amusing and stimulating. Readers will have the opportunity to give their views and share their experiences.

We will highlight people who are doing good work in the Fylde area; fundraisers, business people and workers. We will provide advice and information on community issues by gaining access to the voluntary, community and faith sectors for editorial.

The magazine will help promote health and well-being to local people by covering human-interest success stories.

It will also strive to bring hope to people who are fighting cancer.

Fundraising: There is no other company in this area fundraising for NWCFF (North West Cancer Research Fund), which is a local charity. Five per cent of magazine sales will be donated to NWCRF. The committee has raised at £15,000. The disease and illness cause much distress; we want to help provide funds for the research to finf the causes. Events will be organised involving the community to raise funds and awareness of the charity.