Big Lottery Wellbeing Portfolios in the North

Date of the event: 13/10/10
Organised by: Gillian from the NW Healthy Living Network
Venue: Stockport MBC
Report by: Maggie Moody, Portfolio Manager

Rhiannon, Lawrence and I went to a meeting of the four BIG Lottery Fund funded wellbeing portfolios in the North of England last week.

Represented at the meeting were:
North West Healthy Living Network (NW),
Altogether Better (Yorks and Humberside),
New Leaf New Life (NE),
and, of course, Target: Well-being (also NW).

The opportunity to share experiences, challenges and solutions was invaluable, and the openness of the discussions and willingness to share information was very refreshing. Networking at its best!

Whilst the portfolios are all working towards the same objectives to increase physical activity, increase healthy eating and improve mental wellbeing, the diversity of the portfolios and their projects is amazing. There's also huge innovation around evaluation and communications, just to mention a couple of examples, and the Altogether Better work with Health Champions is an inspiration.

I will endeavour to highlight forthcoming events and opportunities, but I encourage you to visit their websites (links above) and sign up to their newsletters, etc. to find out more.

Listen, Value, Invest Conference

Subject: Listen, Value, Invest conference
Date of event: 3 weeks ago
Organised by: VSNW
Venue: Manchester Conference Centre
Report by: Rob Squires

This conference was attended by lots of emminent people from the Voluntary and Community Sector. One of the main objectives of the day was about how the profile of the sector
can be raised in these difficult times.

During the day I gate crashed the ED's workshop, which was jammed with EDs and other gate crashers like me. The main topic of conversation was EDs expressing dismay at the "Big Society", and the various threats it presents for their organisations.

However, at the end of the day, Neil McInroy from CLES really stole the show with a very witty, relevant and ultimately optimistic presentation on the role the Voluntary and Community Sector has to play.

All the presentations from the day are available here.

Places Training Preparation Event

Date of the event: 14.10.10
Organised by: Target: Wellbeing and Mark Ellison from GONW
Venue: Foxton Centre, Preston (a Target: Wellbeing project)
Report by: Nancy Brown

This session was to develop the information we need to tell the story of
the Foxton Centre for the training on place based data we're running on 22nd November.

It was a session involving local service users, volunteers, workers, and
staff to look at how the Foxton Centre has worked within the local
community.

We'll use this to provide a case study for our training in November all
about how our projects contribute to neighbourhoods and how to use data to
show this. The highlights were learning about the work in the centre and the way
people see their neighbourhood.

You can find out more on the training on the events section of our website!

Fit as a Fiddle Conference

Date: 5th October 2010
Organised by: Age Concern
Venue: Burnley Football Club

A week or so ago I was lucky enough to attend the Fit as a Fiddle
Conference in Burnley. This programme, like Target: Wellbeing is funded by
the BIG Lottery Fund, and is currently in its 4th year.

It was really interesting to find out more about their projects that are helping older
people to be more active, eat healthily and to feel positive and engaged
with their community. From food tasting and cooking sessions to tai chi,
the range of activities was impressive! There was a lot of synergy with
Target: Wellbeing, and there were opportunities for me to "borrow" some
great ideas around activities and evaluation too!

Halton Celebration Event

Date of Event: 8th Sept 2010
Organised by: Target: Wellbeing's Halton Programme, Halton and St Helens PCT
Venue
Report by: Lawrence Milner

Why was the event held?
A celebration event providing to find out more about Target: Wellbeing projects funded through the Halton programme. There were displays and presentations from projects, and a chance to learn first hand how people had benefited from the projects being funded. The event also included a range of useful speakers such as Debbie Dolby from Halton CVS who spoke about the challenges and opportunities of the Spending Review for the voluntary and community sector in Halton.

Who else was there?
Representatives from Target: Wellbeing Halton projects, Local Authorities, PCTs and other partner organisations.

What was the relevance for Target: Wellbeing?
The opportunity to find out how projects were making a real difference to the people and communities in Halton.

Find out more about projects taking place in Halton on our website.