Harrogate district strategic partnership

Projects

Harrogate District Strategic Partnership (HDSP)Projects

Below are examples of projects that the Partnership are either leading on or have endorsed.

Harrogate District Minority Ethnic Development Project 

Harrogate District Actively Involving Children & Young People Project

 

 

Harrogate District Minority Ethnic Development Project

 A key aim of this innovative, HDSP sponsored project was to develop a multi-agency forum for Harrogate that enables organisations to develop a shared understanding of the issues relating to minority ethnic communities so that appropriate local solutions can be developed and delivered.
 
The Forum's key objectives are to provide an opportunity for dialogue between strategic organisations in order to ensure that agencies are working together to avoid duplication and to provide timely and appropriate services for minority ethnic groups and individuals by:
 
  • Facilitating awareness raising on minority ethnic community issues
  •   Identify gaps in services;
  • Share good practice;
  • Share opportunities for training;
  •   Share opportunities for joint action;
  •   Develop and monitor delivery of a Forum Action Plan;
  • Facilitate two way communications between Harrogate Minority Ethnic Forum members and the North Yorkshire Strategic Partnership Equality Forum and other sub regional groups;
  • Explore how support for minority ethnic development work can be sustained in the Harrogate district including the mainstreaming of equality issues in the work of the Local Strategic Partnership and partner organisations.
 
Achievements to date 2007-2010
 
The Minority Ethnic Project Development Worker post was funded by the key partners of Harrogate District Strategic Partnership for the period December 2007 May 2010.  This report reflects the progress made to date in delivering this innovative partnership investment.
 
A Project Steering Group comprising CVS staff and the key partners of the Harrogate District Strategic Partnership ensure support for the Project Worker (18.5 hours per week) and now continue to meet regularly.  From 1st May 2009, thanks to the support of the North Yorkshire Community Fund the workers hours will boost to 24.5 per week to work in Ripon and the rural areas. Below is a summary of the purpose of the project, its aims and the progress made to date:
 
The purpose of the project is to ensure that agencies are working together to avoid duplication and to provide timely and appropriate services for minority ethnic groups and individuals by:
 
Purpose :
Summary Progress Report : December 2007 -  30th April 2010
1)
Establishing a Minority Ethnic Forum;
 
Established has met quarterly, over 100 individuals from 25 organisations are forum members.  Over 200 people from ME communities have benefited from the work of the project to date in terms of improved access to language classes, home fire safety checks, safety plug adaptors, health advice, child care improvement via focus groups, developed a Welcome Pack for all communities available via http://www.nysp.org.uk/
During 2009 support was also given to the Ripon BME Forum in ensuring that BME work in the rural areas progressed.
2)
Facilitating regular forum meetings;
 
Themes for meetings include:  Employment issues; North Yorkshire's Review on Inward Migration (Health and Housing) and (Education/Training/Employment); Strategic Review of Migrant Worker Housing Needs, Advice services for all our communities (including CAB and the new NY Credit Union; Regular updates from Fire and Rescue, Police and Ripon BME Forum; Understanding Islam, the Regional Public Interpreters Project and local employers.
3)
Overseeing delivery of the Forum's Action Plan;
The Forum has completed a number of actions under the following headings: Cultural Awareness and Understanding; Safer Communities; Healthier Communities; and Stronger Communities.
 
4)
Seeking ongoing resources to carry out projects / tasks as identified by the Forum members
Sponsorship for projects has been secured from Thompsons the Solicitors, the TUC, NHS North Yorkshire and York, the Safer Communities Partnership, Harrogate District NHS Foundation Trust Hospital, North Yorkshire County Council, Harrogate Borough Council and Harrogate College.
 
5)
Linking into the NYSP Equality Forum and other sub-regional groups
 
Links have been made with the North Yorkshire Strategic Partnership; the Yorkshire and Humber Migration Partnership; and the Regional BME Health Network.
6)
Developing a sustainability strategy for MEDP work in Harrogate
 
A successful application has been made (via the North Yorkshire Strategic Partnership) to the government's Migrant Impacts Fund to help the ME Forum develop a more confident and integrated migrant worker community connecting new arrivals with early access to preventative interventions.  Project outputs include: home fire safety checks, community health information events, alcohol awareness sessions, road safety events, recruitment of migrant volunteers and the establishment o migrant worker self help groups.  This will provide funding for the project to continue to March 2011.  During 2010 we shall evaluate the project to ascertain what partnership interventions and resources are required to help deliver the community cohesion elements of the adopted Sustainable Community Strategy in the Harrogate District.
 
 
For further information on the Harrogate and District Minority Ethnic Development Project or to join the forum please contact Helen Jillings at Harrogate CVS

Tel: 01423 504074 Email: Helen@Harrogatecvs.org.uk

 

Harrogate District Actively Involving Children & Young People Project

This is a multi-agency partnership project, originally endorsed by the HDSP in 2007, to support all public and voluntary organisations in the district to improve the engagement of children and young people in the provision of public services. Every organisation that provides a service to children and young people has a duty to involve them in the planning and evaluation of the service.  By doing this, organisations will find that services become more relevant and accessible to children and young people.
 
In year 1 (2008-2009) funding was provided by NYCC (Integrated Services) and Harrogate Borough Council; the fund was used to recruit a Youth Participation to support the development of this work.  An end of year report was submitted to HDSP in June 2009.
 
Following the success of year 1, £20k was provided by 4 HDSP partners (Harrogate Borough Council, North Yorkshire County Council Integrated Services, North Yorkshire Police and Harrogate District Safer Communities Partnership), this money provided for a second year of the partnership (2009-2010).  In year 2 the steering group made the decision not to repeat the focus of year one but to concentrate on building youth practitioner capacity through skills development, whilst providing on-going coordination and support to the established Children and Young People's network of youth practitioners.  North Yorkshire Youth and Harrogate and Area CVS were commissioned to execute the details of the project plan objectives.
 
The Actively Involving Children and Young People Partnership Project during 2009-2010 achieved the following:
Harrogate and Area CVS raised the profile of the network, encouraging new membership and providing information and support; for example:
 
  • The network of practitioners working to involve children and young people increased in number from 70 in July 2009 to 110 as at April 2010.
  • A dedicated web page to support the project www.harrogate.org/AICYP
  •   Two network events were organised, in October 2009 and January 2010, jointly facilitated by North Yorkshire Youth (total attendance 56).  The events provided an opportunity to share examples of local good practice (for example the development of youth councils and the Harrogate Library redevelopment).
  • Regular e-newsletters issued to all network members.
  •   Network e-survey carried out March 2010 to assist with the planning for year 3.
  • Promotion of the training and support sessions offered by North Yorkshire Youth.
  • North Yorkshire Youth worked alongside Harrogate CVS supporting and providing information to the network; for example:
    • Network events organised in partnership; these events provided training in the use of HyBRid self assessment tool (to gauge progress on engaging with children and young people).
  • Conducting a training needs analysis using interactive activities and the report of findings and recommendations to the steering group.
  • Four training events developed; two training sessions run for 16 members of the youth network.
  • Two drop in sessions offered for HyBRid support.
  • Youth Participation toolkit revamped and distributed.
As well as successfully bringing together a comprehensive youth network of practitioners from a variety of partnerships the network has also provided a best practice example of joint partnership working and cooperation to achieve common goals.  The success of the project is demonstrated by the fact that the youth network has achieved status as a path-finding VIP (Voice Influence and Participation) network for North Yorkshire, and is an example for other councils to follow. 
 
Funding for a 3rd year of project has been secured from Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council Children and Young People's Service (Integrated Services).  A project plan is currently being developed by the steering group with a new focus on funding and mentoring specific projects to achieve best practice examples that will in turn be showcased for the network and partners.
 
For more information about the Actively Involving Children and Young People Partnership Project contact Fiona Friday at Harrogate Borough Council Email: Fiona.Friday@Harrogate.gov.uk or Tel: 556068.