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What have we been up to? - Dave Whitfield Neighbourhood Manager
At the end of March the Neighbourhood Management Pilot that has been running in Sharrow for the last three
and a half years, comes to an end. It has been better known as the Sharrow Partnership and it always was
intended that it would complete its work this year. It was suggested at the beginning of the project that
I ought to use the ‘So What?’ test when I looked at whether it had been successful so lets have a try. The idea behind the project (funded through a Government grant) was to get more people involved
in making decisions about what kind of services local people wanted and how they might be delivered. It was also hoped that
there might be a bit of learning and that the City as a whole might get some benefit from the project. This was a sort of grand plan, but
as part of the process of making it happen there were a number of practical successes along the way. To give you a flavour
of some of them: - 6 full time jobs have been created that will continue after the project
finishes
- 123 people take up lifelong learning opportunities
- 32 new learners for ESOL classes (English
for speakers of other languages)
- 92 development opportunities for local people e.g. How Your Neighbourhood
Works, Health and Beauty course, graffiti removal
- 1200 smartwater kits distributed
to help prevent burglary
- 104 service boxes target hardened (painted with anti graffiti paint)
- 247 trees
planted
- 32 Shine on Sharrow grants allocated (average award £516)
- 12 banners erected brightening
up London Rd.
- Concrete planters removed from outside Lloyds Pharmacy
- 3 notice boards erected
- 500 tea towels
distributed – Community Safety information
- 26 garden frontages tidied
- 9085 people
attended sport Sharrow events
- £4.5 million of capital investment secured e.g. Lowfield Youth Provision
- The local economy has benefited by a ‘buy local’ policy.
There were also a number of agreements with the people that were providing services that resulted in changes
to the way things are done such as: - A ‘parky’ for Mount Pleasant
- Matt
- local
street cleaning – Richard.
- Wardens working with the Police – Mo, Vicky, Donna, Paul and Lisa
- Parks refurbished – Mount Pleasant,
Lowfield, Broadfield, Duchess Rd.
Most
of this would not have happened without the project but it’s also true that most of it would not have happened without
a number of people agencies and organisations working together. This is particularly true of Sharrow Community
Forums role in involving more local people in the life of the community. There are literally hundreds of more people involved
in the community than when we started. The whole of the project was externally evaluated last year because we wanted
the opportunity to change things and also to identify where the challenges were. We ran a conference and even made a film
and all of this helped to get people talking about what might be learned and what might be done better. As a result a number
of things are going to be carried forward after the Pilot has finished, such as issues around street cleaning and the ‘Parky’
which the community assembly is going to oversee as well as the Shine on Sharrow grant which will be kept going through Sharrow
Community Forum. So you might not have taken too much notice that a Pilot was happening in the area, but if you have
visited a local park, met a warden, seen the transformation of John St, participated in a street party, noticed that the street
drinkers have moved from Lloyd’s corner, or been touched by other bits of the Pilot’s activity then hopefully
you have benefited in some way.
March
2010
click here to download the full evaluation report
Wardens Report
Sharrow Partnership has funded a neighbourhood
warden service over the last 2 years. This service requested by local people has covered both private and tenancy
housing and has been managed by Sheffield Homes. We recently undertook an evaulation of this service. Click on the
below link to download the full report and appendices.
Click here to download the Neighbourhood Warden Report
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Appendix 3
Appendix 4
Appendix 5
Appendix 6
Shine on Sharrow
The Shine on Sharrow grant set up and funded by Sharrow Partnership has been a real success in helping small
projects and activities in Sharrow develop a stronger Sharrow community. Click on the link below to download the full evaluation
report on Shine on Sharrow.
Click here to download the Shine on Sharrow Evaluation Report
Partnership talking
One of the recommendations
within the 'Sustainability Report' suggested a series of workshops to look at the various roles Sharrow
Partnership helps to fund and support and to explore how these positions could be sustained after the partnership ends
in March 2010.
The Neighbourhood Wardens, Community Park Ranger, Sports Sharrow Worker, Street
Cleaner and Community Forrester are just some of the roles currently funded by Sharrow Partnership and managed by a range
of different service providers. Click on the link below to read the summary report from these crucial workshops that
involved representatives from the community, Sharrow Partnership Board members, Councillors and Heads of service.
December
2009
click here to download the workshops' findings
Sustaining the change
Following on from the evaluation findings and support
from the Sharrow Partnership Board, Dave Whitfield, Neighbourhood Manager has written a Sustainability Action Plan outlining
the activities that the Sharrow Partnership would focus on in the remaining months, with the focus of trying to sustain as
much of the work of the Sharrow Partnership as possible. Please click on this link to find out more…
September 2009
click here to download the Sustainability Action Plan
Evaluation
We thought it would be a good idea, as part of the pilot’s development, to
evaluate the work of the Sharrow Partnership so far and assess the impact on both local people and service providers, so that
we can shape how we deliver our work in the final year of the pilot. We brought in community and regeneration experts ‘The
Lasting Change’ (www.thelastingchange.com) to lead on this external evaluation and through a
range of interviews and focus groups with the community, agencies and Sharrow Partnership Board; their findings produced a
series of reports. Click on the links below to see some of these reports…..
July 2009
click here to download the Neighbourhood Warden Report
click here to download the Community Engagement Report
click here to download the Lloyd's Corner Report
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