Category: funding

camelon, coach, collaboration, community, development, funding, Our Place, resilience, Support, tamfourhill

How you can make a difference

Our Place Camelon and Tamfourhill

Hi. Welcome to my second Community Coach blog. This week, to further highlight why my role exists, I’m going to talk about how I can help you or your organisation to make a positive difference in the area. Before I say more, please take 3 minutes to watch this TED talk from musician and entrepreneur, Derek Sivers.

I love this video because it shows how simple it can be to get a group of people together to work towards a common goal. Okay, the people in this video are just dancing on a hillside (nothing wrong in that of course!) but as the speaker points out, it teaches us some important lessons about how groups of people work. This can really help us as we look to bring more positive change to Camelon and Tamfourhill. So, which type of person described in the video are you? Or which would you like to be but don’t know where to start? Let’s explore further.

Leader
The person running the group or cause – the maverick – the lone nut – the one with the vision – the one who can’t sit back and do nothing – the one who’s often frustrated at the lack of action – the one needing others to get involved but not knowing where to find them.

Is this you? Are you running something that’s going pretty well but needs a fresh injection of life? Are you plodding away with something that’s been going a while but just seem to go over the same ground all the time? Are you trying to get something started but can’t get others to join you? Or do you simply have a dream of something that could be, but don’t know where to start?

How can I help you to make your dream a reality? What do you need? People – funding – general guidance – a venue – visibility – training? I can help you with all of this so just get in touch.

First Follower
Often just one person joining in on the journey can make life easier. Are you that person? You saw in the video how just one person joining in slowly started a flood of helpers. Is there a cause that you want to get involved with and you’ve either seen/heard of someone wanting to do something about it but don’t know how to make the first move? Or are you passionate about something like the leader above, but would rather not be the one to lead it? Maybe you want to be that first follower but don’t think you’ve got the necessary skills or abilities to do so. I can help! You may be the key that unlocks the potential of someone’s dream!

The Crowd
Are you waiting for the momentum to get going on something before you jump on board? Will you jump once you’ve seen positive results? That’s all fair enough but you need to be ready to jump at some point! What do you need to help you do that? Self-confidence – skills based training – more information – networking skills – signposting? Again, I can help! Don’t be the one who sits back and just lets others jump forwards to help. The only barrier to you getting involved and being included in order to bring positive change, is you!

Why bother?
Its a fair point. You may have lived here for a huge part of your life and just see the same old things happening with the same results. You may be new into the area and finding it difficult to integrate or worried even that what you suggest has been tried before and failed – but has anyone asked why it failed?! Or you may be somewhere in the middle but still don’t know what to do, where to go, or even why to do it.

As people, we are made to live and work with others in a positive community where we can thrive. We are social beings that have evolved to exist within communities. American politician Paul Ryan said “every successful individual knows that his or her achievement depends on a community of persons working together.” To grow and develop, we need to create a working team around us that is not necessarily all in agreement all the time, but that will work together for a common goal. Stephanie Caldow says in her article ’10 Traits That Make a Good Community’ that: “Involvement in a positive and encouraging community has a tangible impact on individual self-awareness and fulfilment. Positive experiences with communities allow individuals to feel more connected to their environment and the people in it. This form of connection also provides a support system for people when they are in need of encouragement or sympathy. Strong feelings of connection to the group also work to combat any mental illness that can arise from alienation in the form of anxiety and depression. Positive community experiences provide members with a sense of belonging and the feeling of being able to express themselves without feeling judged. Communities that excel at promoting this feeling of belonging encourage members to speak up about their ideas and opinions, which, in turn, leads to members considering their positions from a deeper perspective.” *

I see so much great stuff that is being done already but there is still so much more that can be done. Some ideas start well and then fall down very quickly or just drag along – often because people don’t get involved, but also because people do get involved and are not fully embraced or included by the leaders or even by the first followers, so they drift away again. Let’s work together to continue making Camelon and Tamfourhill a thriving, positive and encouraging community for all people that live here and not just those that are visible.

Summary
I’ll leave you with some quotes from the video that started this piece off, but before I do, let me reiterate that I am here to coach you – to work with you. This is not like previous support activity when people do everything for you but equally you will not be left to struggle on your own. Let me work with you to support, train, encourage, guide or whatever! And so to these final words from Derek Sivers, taken from his video above:

“If you are the type [of person] that is standing alone, remember the importance of nurturing your first few followers as equals so it’s clearly about the [cause], not you.”

“Leadership is over glorified. Yes [someone has to be] first and they’ll get all the credit, but it was really the first follower that transformed the lone nut into a leader.”

“If you really care about starting [something], have the courage to follow and show others how to follow. And when you find the lone nut doing something great, have the guts to be the first one to stand up and join in.”

* Stephanie Caldow quote taken from https://positivepsychology.com/10-traits-positive-community/

camelon, coach, collaboration, community, development, funding, lottery, Our Place, resilience, safety, tamfourhill

Our Place Camelon and Tamfourhill begins next stage of support

Our Place Camelon and Tamfourhill

“Our Place” was a place-based initiative from the Big Lottery Fund (now the National Lottery Community Fund) that aimed to build stronger connections and relationships in communities, empowering local people and organisations to bring about positive and lasting changes in their neighbourhood.  The Camelon/Tamfourhill area of Falkirk was one of 7 areas in Scotland and the community has been working together on this vision since 2014.  Various projects were developed, funded and delivered through the scheme with £1.2m being distributed locally. 

The final successful application was for the Kemlin Kin project, established to support the community to create a legacy for the work that had taken place.  The project aimed to engage two development workers to lead two separate but linked workstreams, one around capacity-building to ensure that community groups in Camelon and Tamfourhill continue to flourish past the end of the Our Place programme, and one around the theme of Community Safety, which has been repeatedly highlighted as a local priority.

These two workers have now commenced in post with John Hosie taking on the role of Community Safety Engager and Dan Rous becoming the Community Coach.  They are employed and managed by Tamfourhill Tenants and Residents Organisation and the organisation will work closely with a  steering group made up of local people and organisations to enhance community empowerment and ensure local people have a voice within the local area.

Quote from John

My Post will ensure that Community Safety is put firmly onto the local agenda and my overarching aim will be to support the development of a community led strategy. The intended outcomes will be to achieve a community that feels safe, keeps safe and one which builds mutual respect and greater community cohesion.  The initial phase of this project will be concerned with highlighting and promoting both myself and my remit and to engage with  an active listening exercise, where the local community will be supported and encouraged to share their experiences and  views  about Community Safety.   Priorities require to be identified and agreed, which are relevant and appropriate to all interests within the community. This approach will necessitate implementing a multi-faceted approach and a consultation process that is inclusive and dynamic.

Quote from Dan

My post will ensure that people working with or for the communities of Camelon and Tamfourhill can be supported, developed and encouraged to make them stronger and resilient for the future.  I will be providing training and support for things that will help them in their roles, including how and where to access funding, operational issues, property matters, marketing, development and much more.  It’s an interesting time to start a new role but I will be using this time of lockdown to collate peoples needs and develop a programme of support that will be both individual and collective.  Through this project we aim to ensure that all local support will continue and grow in the future as well as encouraging new activities to take place as well.  This is a great area with so much potential and I am eager to do my part to harness and develop the potential within.

Quote from Tamfourhill Tenants and Residents Organisation

The Tamfourhill tenants and residents are delighted to be managing this project within our local area. The project was a long time in the development with a number of hurdles to overcome before the project could get off the ground. We are excited to be in the next steps of the project and look forward to the final piece of the  jigsaw which is to provide a capacity building support project within the area that will support local people to have more of a say in the delivery of future project activity and empower local people to be active in community safety projects.

Press Release Notes

  • Tamfourhill Tenants and Residents Organisation is a Scottish Registered Charity SC049783.  They are a group of local people who work together to represent the views of all tenants and homeowners within the area and help make the are they live in a better place.  They work in partnership with other community and statutory organisations to help create positive change within the local area.

More information is available from Shona Craig/Lynne Boslem at  ttra@live.co.uk

His background has been in detached youth work and community development work and he has been involved with supporting a wide array of local community-based Projects and initiatives.  The essential features have been to facilitate local ownership and empowerment and to ensure these projects have been developed in accordance with local people’s aspirations and vision.  John is new to this area and arrives with an open mind, a blank canvas, and an enthusiasm to have a positive and effective impact upon the local community.

His background is in Social Enterprise and Community Development and he specialises in developing projects that enable people and communities to be developed.  He has worked with numerous projects across Scotland for the last 17 years and has gathered a wide range of support and contacts to bring to the area to help people reach their potential.  Dan lives in the area but knows he still has much to find out about everything that is happening so that collectively the area can be made even better than it is.