Community groups weave threads of health and wellbeing across their communities, building connections and enhancing the lives of the people who attend their activities. The groups have told Well Together that they also value meeting up with other local groups, to weave more connections and to share good practice. With this in mind, Jane, Lisa and Vicki from Well Together worked with Cathie and Suzi from South & Vale District Council to organise a get-together for funded groups. The Caldecott Collaboration Event was held in Abbey House, Abingdon.
All the community groups who attended are funded by Well Together and the Community Insight Profile to run activities in and around the Caldecott area.
The event began with optional ‘ABCD’ community development training – Asset-Based Community Development, a powerful set of principles that focus on “starting with what’s strong, rather than what’s wrong”. “It was enjoyable, and well-pitched,” said one participant. That was followed by a picnic lunch, providing a chance for general chatting, eating and connecting. An example of the connections made is two groups who had never met before, a farming and a woodwork group, who told us that many of their own participants could benefit from a collaboration between their groups, and they were going to follow this up.
The final part of the event was a group discussion, starting with individual introductions followed by a discussion of existing collaborations and potential collaborations in and around the Caldecott area. Space was given to the group to talk about any aspect of working in the area they wished to discuss, and many fruitful ideas came forward. Part of the discussion was given to the idea of restarting the South Abingdon Partnership as a vehicle for connections and collaborations.
“What a great event – really well put together! It was so wonderful to connect with such amazing people and organisations. Looking forward to future collaborations!”
“A big thank you for hosting the Caldecott Collaboration event. It was excellent. It was wonderful to connect with other grantees. I’m looking forward to cascading what I’ve learned to our team, and discussing how we can apply it to the people and communities we serve. Not to mention the next steps with conversations started this morning.”
Thanks to everyone who came, and to our fellow organisers who collaborated with Well Together on running the collaboration event. The Well Together team are organising further collaboration events around Oxfordshire so watch this space for details.
Jane Gallagher, Well Together team