 Active Learning for Active Citizens
The Take Part programme was established by the Department for Communities and Local Government from 2008 to 2011, with a total investment of £8.7m.
Of this, a total of £4.3 million was committed over three years for local Take Part pathfinders to support community leadership and active citizenship learning in a number of areas across England.
The pathfinders aimed to:
- build the skills and confidence of local people to enable them to pursue civic and civil activism, community leadership and lay governance roles (including that of local councillor)
- support people and organisations in developing an understanding of barriers to participation, how to overcome them and how to influence decisions
- provide a range of information about local opportunities to become involved
- provide accreditation of learning where appropriate
The lead organisation for the South West Pathfinder was Exeter CVS and GAVCA was one of its local delivery partners.
The interim evaluation of the Take Part programme took place in summer 2010. This found that the programme has had a wide reach, and in 2009-10 approximately 6,569 people benefited from pathfinders' work, either through their involvement in workshops, one-off sessions, pathfinder organised events or informal and formal learning activities. Many have reported significant benefits from their involvement. Download the full report or a summary report.
The final evaluation of the Take Part programme has now taken place. Read the final report here.
For more information about Take Part go to www.takepart.org
GAVCA is a member of the Take Part Network, an independent membership organisation for practitioners delivering learning using the Take Part approach, and others with a professional interest in the development and delivery of lifelong community-based learning. The Take Part Network is self-funded, and does not rely on central government grants.
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What are the principles of Take Part?
Active Citizenship
Take Part is encouraging people to take ownership of issues that affect them, their communities and their lives. It is a route to enabling people to become effective, active citizens, and put them at the very heart of democracy, to help to create a stronger and fairer society.
Helping Communities to Help Themselves
Take Part is about giving citizens and communities the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to make a contribution - regardless of their background or education. Take Part builds the capacity of individuals and empowers people by tailoring training to be based on their needs and aspirations.
Building a Fairer Society
This is an approach which aims to redistribute power and decision making from the government and return it to local communities. Take Part aims to re-engage communities with democracy, encourage individuals to participate and find their voice. It allows communities to mature and take responsibility for the issues and decisions that are important to them.
Addressing Inequality
Take Part is about encouraging everyone to embrace citizenship and participate in decision making. Tailored support is provided for individuals and groups who might not usually find it easy to get involved, enabling them to recognise the value of their contributions and to have a role within the wider community.
Social Responsibility
Take Part inspires people to take responsibility for the things that affect their lives. It does this by empowering and incentivising individuals to take an interest in the issues that are important to them and encouraging communities to identify and advance their goals together.
Playing a Part
Take Part gives individuals a voice and promotes a sense of ownerships and responsibility about what happens in their community. It encourages people to influence decisions about the policies or services that affect them and their families, and in turn make a difference to their community. Take Part prompts people to give their time freely to help build a better society for all.
Take Part in Gloucestershire
The aim of Take Part is to increase the skills of and confidence of people to enable them to become more active and engaged in local decision-making and "civic life".
We have been working with the local authorities in the county to ensure that this work supports their priorities around increasing people's ability to influence decision making, increasing participation in volunteering, and people's satisfaction with their local area, and their ability to take voluntary action in order to create more vibrant and thriving communities.
With the new emphasis on Big Society and Localism these priorities have never been more important.
Over the past year, GAVCA has been delivering a programme of activities that focus specifically on active learning to develop the skills and knowledge needed to be an active citizen. This has included a mix of short "taster sessions" , one day training courses, bespoke workshops designed for individual organisations, conferences, and also an intensive programme of mentoring that complimented our Making Change personal leadership development course.
In 2010-11 we ran a total of 21 courses, covering:
- Voice and Influence: including how the planning system works, what is the VCS Assembly , a Democracy day and a session by the Parliamentary Outreach Team
- Communication and campaigning : including courses on using social media to get your message across
- Running a community organisation: including several events and courses for trustees, workshops on fundraising, business planning, chairing meetings and organising events.
We also worked with Tewkesbury Borough Council to run a joint learning event for community group members and borough councillors where they found out more about eachother's work and responsibilities
Finally, we were able to provide a mentoring/ shadowing scheme to compliment our Leadership Programme, 'Making Change' (link to Making change information) that was funded by CLG under its Connecting Communities Programme. This involved pairing 10 learners up with 'movers and shakers' in the Community, Voluntary and Public Sectors to inspire and support them to develop their own personal project for making change in their community. (see case study here)
In all, 217 learners took part in the programme, from all across the county and all ages and walks of life. Evaluation showed that many felt the courses had
"made them feel more valued as an active citizen", given them "the confidence to speak up" and to become "more involved". Furthermore 71% said that they now felt able to influence decisions in their local area.
For more information about training available from GAVCA, go to our training programme here.
Download our series of Take Part "how to" guides, below.
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Glos how to apply for funding.pdf
Training & Learning 
