06

Digital Inclusion Wales: 2008 Conference Report

Alun Burge Project Manager Communities @One

To view the presentation from this session, click here

Alun Burge, Project Manager of Communities @One delivered a two-part presentation that looked back on the progress and achievements of the initiative so far, while looking forward to potential developments.

Alun started off by saying that the high level of demand for the conference (170 attendees, with many more showing an interest) showed that it was the right time to hold the event. He went on to thank those who had helped with the initiative, including members of the Advisory Group and Chris Gittins of the Communities Directorate and Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO) staff.

The audience was provided with details of the background of Communities @One, and was told how the initiative had reached more than 200 projects since it was launched in January 2006. An independent evaluation, conducted by Old Bell 3, shows that the

approach adopted by Communities @One approach has worked. (http://www.epractice.eu/cases/ communitiesatone)

After showing examples of the diverse range of projects that have been funded by Communities @One, Alun explained how the initiative has recently received recognition at a European level through publications, websites and events but pointed out that we all have much to learn beyond our boundaries through the mutual sharing of ideas and ‘best practice’. The initiative’s own website – www.communitiesatone.org – was launched by the Deputy Minister last December, and was highlighted as ‘an excellent resource that is worth using’.

From here, Alun began to outline the aims and ideas as they related to the proposed second phase of Communities @One, which was at the planning stage at the time of the conference.

Here are some of the key points from this part of the presentation:

• The focus of the initiative will remain with community and local voluntary groups.

• Through use of Convergence funding (former Objective One areas), the next phase of Communities @One will seek to marry the social justice agenda with economic focus of the ‘Lisbon agenda’. (http://europa.eu/scadplus/glos sary/lisbon_strategy_en.htm)

• The next phase of the project will provide a ‘tailored package of support’ to groups and individuals, rather than being primarily a grant fund.

• The initiative will work from a ‘long term development approach’ and will continue to start from ‘where people are at’, which has been the foundation for community engagement successfully employed in the first phase of Communities @One.