The Urban Forum is a national charity and a membership organisation that supports communities to have a greater say over decisions that affect them. The Forum work with members to influence government policy and support them to influence decision-making locally. It is now free to join for voluntary & community groups. Click here to view web site.
New Handy Guide to Community Resilience published
The new Urban Forum Guide To Community Resilience is an invaluable resource for any community. With the era of austerity upon us and the public spending cuts bringing greater challenges, this handy guide, which has expert contributions from many organisations, is a timely, practical way to strengthen your community and make the best use of its assets. We're offering the guide, which offers a score or more practical ways to strengthen your community, at a special introductory price of £7.95. There are extra discounts for Urban Forum members and bulk purchases.
Urban Forum gives evidence to regeneration inquiry . . .
Urban Forum has provided written evidence to the parliamentary inquiry into regeneration being carried out by the CLG Select Committee and gave evidence in person at the committee's hearing on 20th June. Our evidence raised our concerns over the Coalition's lack of clarity or coherence around regeneration, and called for a far greater degree of economic localism to support regeneration, for an ‘open government' approach to regeneration companies (far from transparent in the past), and for present policies around neighbourhood planning and local incentives to be designed to work for deprived neighbourhoods. See Urban Forum's Toby Blume in action at the committee hearing.
. . . and the Localism Inquiry
The CLG Select Committee's inquiry into Localism was actually in carried out in Autumn 2010 but it has now published its final report. Urban Forum joined forced with Voice4Change England to submit evidence to this inquiry that highlighted the tensions to be resolved between the direction of policy on public service reform and localism, the need to do more to improve democratic accountability, and the risks of an exacerbation of inequality.
Community Rights Made Real in Dudley
Urban Forum is delighted to have started an exciting action research project with Dudley CVS and Dudley Community Partnership to assess the needs of local community groups in relation to the community rights (right to build, right to buy, and right to challenge) expected to be introduced with the Localism Bill, and to develop a joint action plan to support the take-up of rights in the area. The project started in May and will continue for 12 months. A national survey of community activists on community rights has also been conducted. Watch out for the findings, which will be published on our website in the next few days.
Everything we have . . . for free!
Our free membership offer to voluntary and community groups is now permanent. So it's a real no brainer! If you are a VCS group, come and join us and feel the benefit of becoming a member of Urban Forum.
URBAN FORUM EVENTS
For more information on all Urban Forum events, go to the Urban Forum Events Page.
Community Rights Made Real workshops
Getting to grips with the Localism Bill
OTHER ORGANISATIONS EVENTS
Information about other events can be found on the Urban Forum Other Organisations' Events Page.
Leadership In Localism - Make Localism Work For You
7th July 2011, Reading
Planning for Low Carbon Living
7th July 2011, Ipswich
29th July 2011, Kendal
8th September 2011, Truro
6th October 2011, Maidstone
FREE one-day training workshops from the Centre for Sustainable Energy for those working with communities on community led planning for a sustainable future.
OTHER STUFF
Get Involved: how are YOU surviving the #afterthecuts?
CDF is running a campaign to highlight the experience of community groups struggling to survive after the cuts while continuing to delivering services.
The ‘After the cuts' campaign was launched at an event held on 11th May 2011 and there's a blog from chief executive, Alison Seabrooke, exploring how groups can make better use of social enterprise to generate income. The campaign includes an online debate to help community groups link up and share ideas about how to survive the reality of fewer resources and increased competition for funding.
On Twitter (@tweetcdf) using #afterthecuts or email us how you've been affected by the cuts and how you're responding at
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Collaborative Doctoral Award
The Glass-House Community Led Design and Bureau - Design + Research (a research unit within the School of Architecture, University of Sheffield) have been successful in securing an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded Collaborative Doctoral Award. The topic of the research will be community-led design.
They are are looking for the right person, with an enthusiasm for community inclusion in the design process, to take up the award. The candidate could come from a range of fields, and would be creative and passionate about the future, as well as the history and impact of community led-design.
The Award funds UK/EU tuition fees and a maintenance stipend of approx. £14k for one person to undertake a three-year PhD, with both the University and The Glass-House overseeing the research.
Further information about the award can be found here and the Postgraduate Application Form can be found here. Interviews will be at the end of July for an October start (application deadline 15th July 2011).
Human rights in the community
BIHR is running another year of its human rights in the community project. Year 1 was a great year to lay foundations. We ran three learning events with voluntary community organisations in Manchester, Newcastle and London, chose three great pilots (Arcadea, N-compass and Capacity Global) and have been working with them to bring rights to life in their organisations and communities. For information about the project contact Sonia, the BIHR VCS Officer, on 0207 549 0563 or email
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