1000 Lives Network Report
2013
to
2014
1000 Lives is about people and organisations in Stoke-on Trent
1000 lives is about communities
1000 lives is about sharing and working together
1000 lives is about better wellbeing and quality of life.
1000 lives brings people, skills, resources, opportunities and enthusiasm in
the city together to make it a better place to live for everyone.
1,000 Lives is based on community design, delivery and ownership.
Anyone who is or wants to get involved in helping their community and making
a difference to the lives of people around them can join the 1000 lives
network. However big or small – it all counts.
1000 Lives is set up to support social action for health and wellbeing.
Stoke on Trent City Council Public Health team are the funders of the 1000
Lives Network. They fund Changes to manage the budget for the project.
The public health team asked the 1000 Lives Network to work this way:
 bring people together to solve problems and find solutions
 work with people and their strengths
 make the most of existing resources
 be led by and focussed on what community champions want and need
 involve Champions in all areas of the design and delivery of the 1000
Lives Network
 make sure that people from every neighbourhood, community, group
and culture can take part.
1000 Lives works this way to support
 people who are already community champions
 people who are new to social action and
 people who have not started yet but want to get involved in their
community as a volunteer.
What is a community champion?
In 2011 a local group of community champions identified the following key
characteristics of their role and ways of working.
• Willing to get hands dirty and do things.
• Approachable and humble.
• Does what the community wants.
• Believes that people can change and
can be a positive influence.
• Give back to the community.
• Catalyst for positive change.
• Persistence.
• Accepts people for who and what they are.
• Sees the good in their community not
just the problems.
• Will reach out to all members of the community.
• Will have fun!
Supporting people who are already Champions
Partnerships
We work in partnership with agencies across the city to support community
champions. The support champions need is sometimes specific to the type of
voluntary activity they are doing and sometimes more general. We help to coordinate effort so that the same general support is not provided by more than
one organisation if it does not have to be.
We have held two partners meetings in 2013 – the first with a focus on
resource sharing and the second on sharing good practice in supporting
volunteers and community champions.
Our main partners are listed below.
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Brighter Futures
Changes
WEA Stoke on Trent
Stoke on Trent City Council
Staffordshire Housing Group
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Closer to Home Walks
Healthwatch
Staffordshire University
Midland Heart
Stoke CAB
We have either given or been invited to give talks to a number of organisations
staff and/ or champions (volunteers) including:
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Green Door
VAST Lifestyle Programme
Changes
Adult and Community Learning
LGBT Older People’s Group
Connects Coffee Lounge (Burslem Business group)
Hanley Stroke Support Group
We are in discussion with the following organisations about automatic
membership to 1000 Lives for their volunteers:
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Brighter Futures (currently piloting the process)
EngAGE 50+ Forum
 Changes
My Community Matters
 Healthwatch
WEA Stoke on Trent
 Home Start
 Green Door
Networking
We facilitate a Champions’ Network meeting three times per year and one
annual celebration.
The current team has been facilitating the 1000 Lives Network since May
2013. These are the events we have held since then.
July 2013
Rowan Village
Community Champions Celebration & Awards
December 2013
February 2014
April 2014
SOT Foodbank
Applying for charitable funding
Birches Head Academy
OCIS Community Café
Young People’s Champions
Awards
Becoming 1000 Lives Ambassadors &
applying for 1000 Lives funding
June 2014
Stoke Baptist Centre
How to run a successful community event
Resource Sharing
At most of our Network events we have had a Got It Want It wall. We will have
one at every future event.
Everyone is invited to post up their
requests for support, information or
equipment and also what they are
able to offer to others. All of these are
added to the 1000 Lives website and
Facebook group.
Community Champions and partners
have benefited from exchanging
gardening and events equipment and
helping each other with advice, for
example.
Training
We promote training opportunities and run a 1000 Lives training programme.
The programme includes two courses from Staffordshire University that give a
qualification at level 3 to learners who choose to be assessed.
The Speaking Up course ran
between January and April 2014.
14 people took part in at least
one of the five workshops and 6
people completed their
workbooks and gained a
qualification.
Learners included four people with mobility difficulties, two people with
enduring mental health difficulties and four from BAME communities. They
thought about their own values and strengths. They found out about their own
community and who speaks for them as elected representatives.
They said they learned:
 To be positive and to give it a go and don’t give up
 To respect people a lot more
 My views are important
 It’s great to accept compliments, I have earned this
 About how the council and government have an impact on our lives
 Mini mapping of my area
 More about how our communities are governed and who by.
 How I can become more involved
 What is community, how we can involve and change it
 Understand more about local issues
 To interact with others more, join in with debates etc
 How to be more confident and more assertive
The Taking Part course
involved 10 learners, 6 of
whom completed their
assessed presentation and
gained a qualification.
Learners included one
homeless person, three
people recovering from drug
or alcohol dependency and
two people with mobility
difficulties.
They thought about their own
role as a community leader,
their skills and areas for
development.
They found out about what
makes a sustainable
community and how they can
work with other people to
make a difference in their
community. They planned a
community project.
They said they learned:
 About communities
 How to deliver a presentation with confidence
 How to Chair a meeting
 The Ladder of Participation
 Has given me the knowledge of what is involved in planning a project
 How to interact with others confidently, speak out and participate without
feeling awkward
 Value of working in the community with others
 Skills of communication, icebreakers etc
 Types of communities
 To focus on one task/ issue rather than be overwhelmed by many
 Other theories
 Information about myself and other communities
Feedback from participants was overwhelming positive with some very helpful
suggestions for improvements.
I can’t see how it
can be improved
Excellent really helpful teachers
showed lots of understanding
Liked meeting such a good
mix of people from so many
different communities
I liked the tasks where
we participated
I would have liked access to a computer
to type out work instead of writing
I liked the personal attention
and listening skills of tutors
The learning materials were
easy to understand, clear to
read and easy to follow
It was a long walk from
the car park to the room
at the University
Liked the way I was
taught to speak up
It could be better if the people on the
course were communicating during the
course time and away from the course
I liked the effectiveness of support to
allow people to go out and make a
difference in their community
Many learners have agreed to become “super” Champions for 1000 Lives and
get involved in the development of the Network. We call these people
Community Connectors.
Identifying and supporting new champions
Partnerships
We identify gaps in existing community champion activity by working with our
partners and existing community champions.
Community Funding
We provide funding to community groups and organisations to set up new
areas of community champion activity.
Funding applications are assessed by a panel of Community Champions.
We have had 2 rounds of funding so far (February and May 2014). A third
round of funding will be made available in the Autumn 2014.
We have provided money for 7
new projects.
Each of these groups has
committed to engaging new
people as community
champions and making sure
that those people become
members of the 1000 Lives
Network.
This will be a total of 90 new
champions.
SCIPE
Community
Cultural
Awareness –
practical hair and
skin care
Go Outdoors
OCIS Cafe
Scrabble meets
Chess
Closer to Homes
Walking Network
Volunteer support
The Hub Fenton
Grow it, Cook it,
Eat it
Whitfield Valley
Centre
Chameleon WM
CIC
Fun for Kids
Job Fest
Communication
We make sure community members are aware of the opportunities available
for community action. We also make sure that agencies are aware of
opportunities to work with the Network. We have a website which has a News
section and includes details of all previous events and training, funding,
resource sharing and information for champions and partners.
www.1000lives.org.uk
We currently have 260 members of our facebook group, 296 members on the
database and 81 followers on Twitter. We send out a quarterly
newsletter.
Our target is to be in contact with 1,000 community champions taking action to
improve health and wellbeing across Stoke-on-Trent by the end of March
2016.
Securing the future of 1000 Lives
The original funding for 1000 Lives was for three years starting in April 2012.
The Public Health team have agreed to fund 1000 Lives for an extra year.
We are looking for funding from other places and sharing resources so that
this way of working should last when the current funding ends.
Each of our partners is asked what they can offer to support the Network. So
far we have been given premises free of charge for all of our Network events.
We have been offered funding for the food and refreshments at a future event
by one partner.
We are setting up a new Steering Group for the 1000 Lives Network. Members
of the steering group will be “Super” Champions who work alongside the
facilitators to make development, funding and recruitment decisions.
1000 Lives has been given extra funding from Public Health at Stoke on Trent
City Council to take on a new team member. We are going to recruit a
Community Champion Support Worker in September 2014, Champions will
take part in the shortlisting and interviewing.
The 1000 Lives Network is developing new marketing and publicity materials
(leaflets and posters) which will show what the 1000 Lives Network does.
These will be designed by a group of Champions working with a professional
designer.
We are exploring the possibility of joining some of the Community Organisers
in Stoke on Trent who are setting up a new Community Interest Company
(CiC). Becoming a CiC would enable 1000 Lives to be an independent
organisation, led by Champions and able to apply for funding.
Evaluation
We keep track of these things to show what difference 1000 Lives is making:
 the skills, knowledge and “stuff” people have
that they will share with each other
 the learning people do and the difference this
makes to them and their communities
 the action people are taking in their own
communities, in groups, to do things which
help people have better health and wellbeing
 the decisions people are taking part in which affect their quality of life
 how people are getting to know people they would not usually meet without
1000 Lives and what they get from these connections
 how people feel about their lives since they were part of the Network
We have already filmed four community champions telling their stories. You
can watch the three videos here http://1000lives.org.uk/?p=539 We plan to
support another three champions to make digital stories this year.
The 1000 Lives team:
Facilitators of the Network - Adrian Ball, Iona Jones and Penny Vincent
Accountable body - Changes
Chief Executive Dave Wheat, Finance Manager Irene Altham, IT development
Chris Altham, Project support Kris Kinsella
Community Connectors (“super” Champions)
 Shiya Mohan helps keep the 1000 Lives Facebook group up to date
 Eileen Allman and John Forster took part in our training review
 Candida Chetwyn was a learning support worker for the Speaking Up
course
 Eileen Allman, Mehwish Javid, Derrick Wallace and Carole Burt have been
on the Funding panel for the 1000 Lives Community Fund
 All learners on training courses have contributed to ongoing review of the
training and shared ideas for development of the Network
 Mike Oliver helped organise our June 2014 event
 Debbie Ball was our first Community Connector. She was a 1000 Lives
events organiser and also managed our Twitter account. She has now
found full time work at ARCH North Staffs.
If you have any questions or you would like to share your ideas please
contact 1000 Lives
Write to us at: 1000 Lives, Changes Wellbeing Centre, Victoria
Court, Booth Street, Stoke, ST4 4AL
Phone and leave a message on: 01782 411 433
Email us at hello @ 1000lives.org.uk
Join our Facebook group “1000 Lives Community Champions”
Follow us on Twitter “1000 Lives”
Visit our website www.1000lives.org.uk