Community action is about putting communities at the heart of their own local services. Involving communities in the design and delivery of services can help to achieve several objectives, including:
- building community and social capacity – helping the community to share knowledge, skills and ideas
- community resilience – helping the community to support itself
- prevention – a focus on early access to services or support, with engagement in their design
- cross-sector collaboration and partnerships that provide added value
- maintaining and creating wealth – for example helping people into employment or developing community enterprises.
Get involved
If you or a group you are involved with are thinking of starting a new project or initiative in the area in which you live, take a look at the case studies and workshops below to see what others have done and how they achieved their goals. H.A.Y. South Cambs also provide a list of groups and activities available in South Cambridgeshire.
Case studies
Below is a selection of community-led initiatives, which show how groups can connect and improve the areas in which they live. Such initiatives not only bring tangible, positive benefits to a community, but also can improve the wellbeing, both physical and mental, of those who participate.
What is a Good Neighbour Scheme?
Good Neighbour schemes are community run initiatives linking people who are in particular need, with community volunteers who are willing to help. They can be set up by a new or existing community organisation, such as a community group, voluntary organisation, residents group, or a Parish or Town Council.
Locally run schemes can help to reduce feelings of isolation and loneliness, creating an environment where people feel safe and secure. It’s about local people helping their neighbours to enjoy a better quality of life. Help might include things such as changing a light bulb, hanging a picture, offering some company, collecting prescriptions, help with filling in forms and much more. If there isn’t a Community transport scheme in your area, you may choose to offer this as part of the Good Neighbour scheme too.
Help given is free of charge, although a reasonable mileage charge is usually made if there is the provision of transport.
Good Neighbour schemes help to build local connections which can also be useful in an emergency, such as extreme weather events. Volunteers will be aware of residents who may need additional support or reassurance and may also choose to get involved in developing a Community-Led Plan.
How did they get started?
The idea for the Balsham Good Neighbour Scheme initially came from work that was done by Steve Jordan as he had been a Community Worker as part of the local Parish Nurse Scheme. The Parish Nurse was asking for people to assist her with her clients so that, when she had completed the medical aspect of the client’s needs, then there were other people available to support the client.
Further work was carried out to explore possible needs of local residents through an online survey, which was also published in the village magazine. As a result of this survey, an initial list of requested support was drawn up such as visiting or befriending residents, providing transport for appointments, form filling, reading to partially sighted or blind people, providing carers a break or preparing emergency meals, to name but a few.
Who helped with advice and guidance?
Research about good neighbour schemes was undertaken and a good model was found in the Rural Community Council of Essex. Steve also made contact with some other groups in Cambridgeshire so he could learn from their experience and duplicate their documentation, such as Health & Safety policy, registration forms, volunteer handbooks, as well as privacy and safeguarding policy. All of these documents are required for grant applications, so a little work to start with will be used in many positive fundraising ways, going forward.
More information on this can be obtained by emailing the Balsham Good Neighbour Scheme group
Setting up your own local Good Neighbour scheme
A package of support from Care Network Cambridgeshire can help get you started and includes advice and sample documentation.
They can also advise on:
- recruiting and retaining volunteers
- administration of the scheme
- running a committee
- insurance and Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks
- keeping people safe – safeguarding
- how to resolve problems
- producing publicity
- policy and procedures
- data protection and confidentiality
For more details, please contact Care Network Cambridgeshire on 01954 211919 or email the Care Network Cambridgeshire admin team
Funding
- Our Community Chest Grants also offer up to £2000 for projects which further improve quality of life for those living in South Cambridgeshire.
How did they get started?
Coton, Grantchester and Toft have all set up Community Internet Clubs. The first Community Internet Club was set up in response to council services moving increasingly online in around 2015. Long experience of teaching technical skills told the founding members of the Club that the community needed a regular group for peer support in problem-solving rather than a class. They lobbied for Wi-Fi in the Village Hall, bought a printer and paper/ink, and a couple of devices and asked around in the community for people to come to help and people to come for help. Technical experts were also lined up to help if they got stuck but so far have not been needed.
How is it funded?
A small grant from the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation was used to set up and cover running costs for the first year, and costs for the last 5 years have been covered by asking for donations of around £1 an hour.
Who helped with advice and guidance?
The group figured things out for themselves as they went along and decided that a place to discuss problems related to phones, devices and laptops would be useful…. five years later the club is going strong. Problems are worked out together and through online help.
‘We expected it to be useful, we didn’t expect it to be quite so enjoyable. It is not teaching; it is support to problem-solve in the company of peers and friends.’
Other useful information
The Community Internet Club Presentation can be viewed here at 8:10 into the recording.
Food hubs are a great way of distributing food to people in need whilst cutting back on waste from businesses and individual households. They have become more popular since the Pandemic with communities recognising the benefits, taking the initiative and setting them up. Across Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire there are several food hubs in place and recent additions include Gamlingay and Harston.
Besides providing much needed food to those who benefit from it, food hubs create a sense of community cohesion with people pulling together to help and support each other. They provide a positive atmosphere and focus for both volunteers and residents alike.
Food waste is a serious issue that is bad for the environment and the climate. According to Waste and Resource Action Programme (WRAP) key facts, a semi-governmental entity promoting sustainability, we waste about a third of all food produced for human consumption which would be associated with 36 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. The wasted food has taken a lot of fresh water, land and labour to produce and for it to go to waste is a waste of energy, resources and money. At the same time food prices are going up and a lot of people struggle with food poverty. The challenge is how we can avoid food waste and feed people in need rather than food spoiling.
The Gamlingay Food Hub is a community initiative and opened its doors to the public on the 6th September 2021. It has so far been a huge success diverting food away from landfill and since it started, over 1,439kg of food has been donated to people in need!
How did they get started?
The Gamlingay Food Hub is run by Reverend Adrian Semerene, who is the lead Pastor at the Gamlingay Baptist church where the hub is operating from. Adrian has taken the key role of running the food hub and oversees the whole project from recruiting volunteers, coordinating food deliveries and managing the budget.
How is it funded?
The food is donated from the local Co-operative, the M&S food shop as well as the local farm shop. Anyone can also donate non-perishable food to the hub such as tins, coffee, sugar, cereal etc. The hub is run by Volunteers from the local Community.
How does it work?
The donated food is delivered to the hub by volunteers between 9am and 10am Mondays to Friday and is then put out on display. The volunteers bag the food up into small parcels and dedicated drivers hand the parcels out to the wider community between 10am and 12pm. People can also walk into the hub to collect food parcels or specific items they want. A large number of volunteers work on the project 5 days a week which gives people a purposeful job to do that serves the community and the well-being of the volunteers themselves. The hub also has a community fridge and a freezer where food is kept fresh for longer.
Since operations commenced, the hub has only had to dispose of a food item once (liquidised salad) which was taken away for composting!
Other useful information
The hub also works in partnership with various organisations such as Cambridge Sustainable Food, The Need Project, South Cambridgeshire District Council and the local Churches.
If you are interested in setting up a food hub in your community then please email info@cambridgesustainablefood.org for more information or visit the Cambridge Sustainable Food website
The Well-brahams currently runs Welcome Mornings once a month, providing refreshments and games. Open to all age groups, these sessions attract around 40 attendees and aim to promote social cohesion, which has a positive impact on mental health.
Each year, during the last week of the school summer holidays, the group organises three full days of sports and mindfulness activities for children aged 5 to 11. This popular initiative supports around 40 children from the villages, helping them prepare for the return to school while promoting mental health and well-being.
In addition to these activities, the group organises talks, promotes and assists with outdoor activities in the village, and provides support to villagers seeking mental health advice or signposting to professional services.
How did they get started?
The group was founded by ten villagers who had attended a two-day Mental Health First Aid course.
How is it funded?
A core principle of The Well-brahams is that all activities are provided free of charge to ensure accessibility for all. The group regularly applies for and receives grants from various organisations, including the Council and the Co-op.
More information can be found on The Well-brahams website. They also have a Facebook page and are on X.
Melbourn is one of the largest Mobile Warden Schemes (sometimes known as Community Warden Schemes) operating in South Cambridgeshire.
The Melbourn scheme serves around 60 mobility impaired clients in Melbourn, Shepreth, Meldreth, Whaddon, Harston, Hauxton, Barrington, Orwell. It employs 10 wardens, and is operated by a local charity run by a committee of volunteer trustees
As well as making regular visits and phone calls to provide social contact and friendship, carrying out errands and helping clients access other support, the scheme also organises regular outings and activities including attending a weekly lunch club held at Melbourn Hub.
How did they get started?
The Melbourn Mobile Warden Scheme was taken over, in its current guise, in 2010 with the help of Cllr Jose Hales. At the time it was serving 17 people with only the 1 warden.
Funding was secured at the time from Cambridgeshire County Council, South Cambridgeshire District Council and their local Parish Council.
The scheme is registered as a Charity, this allows the scheme to access certain funding and gives security to ensure the scheme is compliant with rules and regulations.
The trustees marketed and modernised, growing the scheme using many local channels including the GP surgery, building society, local churches, leafleting and the Melbourn magazine. Latterly the use of social media has been introduced with great success. A small name change to Melbourn & District Warden Scheme (MDWS) now reflects the much wider number of villages covered. As already mentioned, they now have around 60 clients and have just recruited their tenth warden to the team. The scheme continues to grow.
How is it funded?
The costs in running the Melbourn & District Warden Scheme include:
- Insurance
- Warden Salaries
- Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks (previously CRB checks)
- Events
- Community transport
- A small amount of advertising and the costs of printing a newsletter
The scheme is now successfully funded by a combination of Client fees and grants from South Cambridgeshire District Council and local parish councils and a small amount of donations. For further information please see the Melbourn and District Warden Scheme website
How did they get started?
A small group of people came up with the idea of starting a Northstowe community group on sustainability, zero waste and other green issues. The initial ideas were a community-run refill station (household products, food, skincare/hygiene) & and non-plastic products, and a 'sustainability hub' to host a repair café & share library (for example, tools, toys, cookware), but after the first meeting in September 2020, they expanded to other topics such as recycling, toys/clothes/plant swaps and trees, wildlife and gardening. They held monthly online meetings until May when they had their first physical meeting where they became formally constituted.
How is it funded?
Grants and donations (none received/applied for yet). In addition, they receive a small amount from the pitch fees from monthly refill station and a stall with plastic-free household products.
Who helped with advice and guidance?
They received help and tips from our community development and Project Officers, Climate & Environment, Cambridge Council for Voluntary Service, Care Network, and other local groups in Northstowe (for example, Northstowe Foodies, Northstowe Social) and like-minded groups in neighbouring towns (Histon and Impington Sustainability Group, Sustainable Cottenham).
Other useful information
The group takes part in the Northstowe Community Networkers monthly meeting where community groups, churches, community developer officers and relevant stakeholders update each other co-ordinate events and actions. More information can be found on their Facebook page.