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Our Society in Dudley Borough

Information

A place for anyone to talk about things going on in Dudley Borough and with our neighbours and friends, from the fantastic activity of volunteers and local groups to shaping how we respond together to changes the government is making.

Location: Dudley Borough
Members: 18
Latest Activity: Jan 4

1 member likes this

A few links to relevant information and activity in Dudley

Reports, video, blogs and pictures from the Take Part Pathfinder event in Wolverhampton on 24th March

Dosti's special edition newsletter - The Big Society

Voluntary Sector Network Big Society event report, handouts and photos

Dudley Community Partnership Big Society pages

Map of Inspiring Black Country Take Part Projects

View Inspiring Black Country Take Part Projects in a larger map

Discussion Forum

Community Rights Made Real

Started by Lorna Prescott. Last reply by Lorna Prescott Dec 28, 2011. 2 Replies 1 Like

The new Localism and Decentralisation Bill contains a number of new community rights: the Right to Build,…Continue

Round up of activity in Dudley

Started by Lorna Prescott. Last reply by Joanne Weston Dec 1, 2011. 2 Replies 5 Likes

Time for a round up, as I haven’t managed to post here lately – which is all about to change as we launch in to lots of exciting activity. Here’s what the Our Society Planning Group have been working…Continue

Tags: Dudley

October update (cross posted from forum)

Started by Lorna Prescott Oct 7, 2011. 0 Replies 2 Likes

As I've just about got www.oursocietydudley.org.uk ready for visitors and contributors I thought I'd briefly post here what's going on in Dudley.- We…Continue

Tags: Urban Forum, Dudley Council, localism, Dudley

Videos from networking event: localism and Our Society

Started by Lorna Prescott. Last reply by Joanne Weston Jul 8, 2011. 1 Reply 1 Like

The following clips are from a Community Engagement Network event in June attended by around 40 voluntary, community and public sector officers and volunteers. Andy Gray from Dudley CVS explains key…Continue

Tags: Our Society, community rights made real, Lorna Prescott, localism, Dudley

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Comment Wall

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Comment by Lorna Prescott on January 28, 2011 at 18:09: Hi David

It's official - Dudley's Local Strategic Partnership Board have adopted Our Society as the branding for our Big society work. They like it for the same reasons that people joining this network do - we value many of the ideas advocated under the Big Society label, but recognise that social action has already been taking place and will continue to, and we should celebrate and support what arer communities are already doing and aspiring to achieve.

Comment by Lorna Prescott on January 25, 2011 at 21:30: Hi David

Thank you for your supportive comments. The Our Society branding was welcomed by colleagues who I was working with to plan a Big Society event, but I'm not convinced that many other people will have noticed it, or thought much about what is behind it. I've been asked to present on Big Society to our Local Strategic Partnership Board on Friday, perhaps I should ask them what they think?

I don't know of any others taking this approach, but I've started talking about it with colleagues in Wolverhampton who I work closely with on our Take Part Pathfinder. Dudley and Wolverhampton have both evolved what we refer to as a whole area approach to community engagement and influence, and I think Our Society nestles in there comfortably, but I'm not sure what the conversation is around Big Society in Wolverhampton. (See Wolverhampton Partnership's Community Engagement pages and Dudley's in it together work - our pages to be added to in early Feb (promise!))

I was reading the Solace Big Society publication this morning and am starting to have worrying thoughts that Big Society at a local level runs the risk of being the public sector claiming the credit for the actions of citizens in their locality. At which point the purpose and aims of Our Society become hugely important to me.

Comment by David Wilcox on January 23, 2011 at 15:03: Presenting social action as "Our Society - Big Society in action" looks like a smart way of making the most of the Big Society opportunities while not pushing people to adopt the BS label. It strikes me as one way to bridge the gap between the best-intentioned BS advocates and the not-wholly-sceptical activists. How has it gone down in Dudley? Do you know of others taking this approach?