With libraries & archives Creating Communities: working with local people to achieve our common...

with libraries & archives

Creating Communities:

working with local people to achieve our common goals

Cath Anley – Head of Libraries & Archives, Kent County Council

The Edge Conference – March 2011

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Libraries & Archives


My presentation today:

• Some general thoughts about how we can support the development of communities through the ways we engage and work with local people

•Some scene setting about our Time2Give (volunteering) project and how this fits in

• Some brief facts and figures

• The challenges we have faced in Kent and our future direction

• My personal conclusions

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Together by Henry Hemmings – what the publisher says!Together is about the extraordinary revival of small groups in Britain today. What happens when a room full of people decide to work towards the same dream? Why is it that when we come together in small groups we are so much more than the sum of our parts? From druids to bingo-clubbers, eco-warriors to flash-mobbers, historical re-enactors to bee-

keepers, books groups and knitting circles, W. I. s, Young Farmers and the fan-owners of a football club, Together reveals the true story of modern Britain. The country we live in is in fact an extraordinary composition of small groups powered by shared interests and common ideals. Hemming reveals a different way of seeing society, one that recognizes the massive, untapped potential of these hundreds of thousands of small groups, how they work and what they enable us to do that we can't do alone.

http://www.johnmurray.co.uk/Book-Together--113684.htm


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citizen control degrees of citizen powerdelegated power

partnership

placation degrees of tokenism

consultation

informing

therapy non-participation

manipulation

Sherry Arnstein’s “ladder of participation”


Where does volunteering fit in?

To volunteer is:

1. To perform or offer to perform a service of one’s own free will

2. To do charitable or helpful work without pay

But they don’t talk about community….so I’m starting to think that the word “volunteer” is part of the problem……

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Our programme is called:

Time2Give

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How can people give their time to support the goals that we share with them?

1. By becoming involved in the work that public libraries do

2. By choosing to carry out activity independently that supports the same objectives – the “devolved” model

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For many the first stage below is their way to contribute to and engage with their own community better……the second stage is when they join with others to take “citizen control”

1. By becoming involved in the work that public libraries do

2. By choosing to carry out activity independently that supports the same objectives – the “devolved” model

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Kent County Council Library Service scene setting:

• Pre 2000 - existing volunteering roles – primarily the Home Library Service but some volunteer run “library access points”

• The main focus was on finding a cheap way to add value to or extend the reach of the library service

• I think we (and most library authorities at the time) had failed to understand the real benefits

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Drivers for culture change in Kent Libraries:

• Lending Time Pilot Project 2002-2004

• Best Value Inspection (summer 2002)

• Transforming Kent Libraries – our strategic change programme

initiated winter 2002

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Transforming Kent Libraries:

• Structured around 8 themes, we called one of these public involvement:

– public consultation

– community engagement and involvement

– volunteering

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Now I recognise that we probably shouldn’t be talking about “public involvement” – that just sounds like us letting the public play with our toys…

We need to turn the concept round and talk about the library service and the public working towards shared goals…

In partnership or separately – whichever is most appropriate.

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Trying Hard Isn’t Good Enough by Mark Friedman:

A case study…..

• Tillamook County, Oregon – teen pregnancy rates at 24 per 1,000 in 1990

• Partners acknowledged a common problem and committed themselves to doing what they could to change the situation

• Each did something different and independent

• Teen pregnancy rate fell to 7.1 in a 1,000 in 1994

• After 1994 they stopped focusing on this issue and rates rebounded

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A few slides about Time2Give in Kent:

• Focused predominantly on the “involving” model

• But building capacity, confidence and skills for people to use to achieve independent objectives – the “devolved” model

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Facts and figures:

• Kent population: 1,411,100 (2009)

• Active volunteers: 1,639 (31st Mar 2010)

• Hours of volunteering: 28,343 (2009/10)

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Cost benefit:

• We contract CSV to manage our programme at a cost of £81,100 (including volunteer expenses)

• 28,343 hours costed at entry level salary for customer service staff equates to £317,612

• Net benefit: £236,612

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But that’s not the only reason for doing it……

• Advocacy

• Community engagement

• Public consultation

• Staff development

• Benefit to the volunteer

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There’s a huge range of placements:

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The rewards:


So where next:

• this has never been more relevant

• we need to be much more open as a profession to the opportunities, and less precious in

allowing the public to share their skills with us for the benefit of local people – the “involving” model

• and we need to be more open to the public making their own decisions about how they want to pursue the shared goals – the “devolved”

model

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Some case studies of projects where volunteers have and will be making a big difference in Kent…..

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Folkestone Forward

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• multi-disciplinary team

• tackling significant disadvantage

• working to develop community

capacity

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Gardening Project

• resident led

• supported by libraries

• seeds and bulbs donated

• “taste what you grow” session at the library

• residents more active, proud of achievements, saving money and eating better

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Kent Approach to Literacy and Reading

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• Kent’s strategy emerging from National Year of Reading

• It’s not just about libraries – it’s a strategy for Kent (although led by libraries)

• It aims to:

– Raise awareness of literacy needs

– Promote the benefits of reading

– Raise awareness of the excellent good practice that already exists

– Involve more people to help us to raise standards - we believe that everyone has a role

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Some case studies:


Kent Schools Reading to Dogs Scheme

Currently being piloted in 1 Kent school and is based on, and registered with, a well-established American model. Basically the scheme uses therapy dogs and trained volunteers to listen to children read aloud. Data from America and Canada demonstrate that it is guaranteed to get even the most reluctant reader excited. It is a fun approach to children practicing reading.

"My daughter is one of the children involved. She is nearly 8 years old and has only recently been able to read perfectly. When she came home yesterday all she went on about was how wonderful it was and that she knew she couldn’t ask for help from the dog so had to work the words out for herself.” (Parent of child at READ event)

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'A' level reader - volunteer reading reference books to visually impaired student

• Volunteer said:

'I learnt a lot about being blind and I look forward to these sessions'

• Feedback from Catherine Westbrook who is visually impaired and who was read aloud to in Deal Library by Volunteer Stephen du Sautoy throughout her ‘A’ level studies

"Absolutely invaluable. It gives an outlet to a genre of writing which cannot be accessed otherwise. Non fiction books are not widely available in Braille/audio. The choice of the book THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR is perfect as it gives factual dates together with the emotions of the participants. Thank you."

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Seashells Doorstep Library in Sheerness

Targets families who are registered with the Children’s Centre but have never used its services. Volunteers and a Bookworker visit families each week offering to read a story and the opportunity to borrow books. They seek to create an atmosphere for the children to feel confident around books and to build a trusting relationship with the families to help them use other services. Many of the families now attend groups and activities at the Children’s Centre and have joined the library. Parents have been inspired to become more interested and involved in their child’s literacy.

‘’One single parent was scared to use the Children’s Centre. Her son was 3 years old, had behavioural issues and had never mixed with

other children. With our help she came to trust us, and he began to wait by the door each week for his storytime. We encouraged her to enrol him at our nursery as he was missing out on his entitlement to 3 sessions per week. The Bookworker accompanied her to drop him

off at his first session. She reports that he is now a different child, happy and confident, and she is loving having some time to herself’’

(Bookworker, Seashells Children’s Centre).

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How can this all fit together?

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core, local authority funded library service

service that meets statutory

responsibilities

services delivered by community groups and partners that support common goals

projects or initiatives that support our objectives

The Big Society Debate:• Debate is hotting up about what “Big Society” is• Recent government statements don’t mention much about volunteering• This shouldn’t mean that we stop exploiting our opportunities to support community capacity building and working with communities to achieve common goals



So my conclusions:

• Working with local people to achieve our shared goals must involve accepting that they will have their own views about what will work (and they may well be right)

• Accepting community involvement in or delivery of services doesn’t undermine the value of real professional expertise and knowledge, but you need to recognise that everyone – including the volunteer – has their own area of expertise to share

• To reap the real rewards we need to think of volunteering as part of a wider community engagement and community capacity building agenda

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Contacts:

• My contact details – [email protected]

• For information about the one day seminar we run for organisations thinking of setting up their own volunteer programme – [email protected]

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mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


Follow up information:

• Our own web page including some videos of volunteers talking about their experiences - http://www.kent.gov.uk/leisure_and_cuture/libraries/services_for_everyone/volunteering.aspx

• MLA case study and research paper - http://www.mla.gov.uk/what/raising_standards/best_practice/Community%20Engagement/Kent%20libraries

• CILIP/Libraries Change Lives web page including a video about our programme – http://www.cilip.org.uk/about-us/medalsandawards/libraries-change-lives/pages/lclfinalists2008.aspx

• Kent Messenger video about the reading dogs scheme - http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kentonline/news/2010/march/30/reading_dogs.aspx

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http://www.kent.gov.uk/leisure_and_cuture/libraries/services_for_everyone/volunteering.aspx

http://www.kent.gov.uk/leisure_and_cuture/libraries/services_for_everyone/volunteering.aspx

http://www.mla.gov.uk/what/raising_standards/best_practice/Community%20Engagement/Kent%20libraries

http://www.mla.gov.uk/what/raising_standards/best_practice/Community%20Engagement/Kent%20libraries

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kentonline/news/2010/march/30/reading_dogs.aspx

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kentonline/news/2010/march/30/reading_dogs.aspx


Many thanks for your attention

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