Blog piece from Tara Hughes exploring the reciprocal connections in the community made during lockdown, and how we can facilitate benefits to both the people who need help and the people offering to help.

In this fabulous blog written by a citizen of Southwick in Wiltshire, we hear how with the support and encouragement of people including Local Area Coordinator Gemma Novis, she was able to galvanise the energy of her neighbours to ensure no one had to go through this crisis alone.

Blog piece by Nick Sinclair, exploring how Local Area Coordinators have had to turn on a sixpence and support local government-led efforts to respond.

In our series entitled ‘it’s all about’ we will explore some moving and incredible stories from the past year of people who have moved closer to their vision of a good life and started making their contribution in their community. This piece looks at ‘having no pre-defined agenda’.

In our series entitled ‘it’s all about’ we will explore some moving and incredible stories from the past year of people who have moved closer to their vision of a good life and started making their contribution in their community. This piece looks at ‘taking back control’.

In our series entitled ‘it’s all about’ we will explore some moving and incredible stories from the past year of people who have moved closer to their vision of a good life and started making their contribution in their community. This piece looks at ‘thinking whole’.

In our series entitled ‘it’s all about’ we will explore some moving and incredible stories from the past year of people who have moved closer to their vision of a good life and started making their contribution in their community. This piece looks at ‘being present, approachable and flexible’.

In a crossover of her work and studies, Tara Hughes has written this blog piece about Local Area Coordination in Wales in relation to the Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act (2014).

Blog piece by Jennie Cox, tentatively exploring whether the use of ‘mental health’ as a catch-all for the disruptions of human life may lead to problems which adversely impact on a person’s ability to navigate through the inevitable difficulties of living.

Jennie Cox (Senior Local Area Coordinator in York) and Christine Marmion (Project Manager of Ways to Wellbeing: the social prescribing service in the city) came together to address ‘the signposting question’ which they found their teams were frequently encountering.

Local Area Coordinators are on hand to help people build bridges between groups, identify funding, establish and sustain new groups, and support people to use their voice in order to co-design public services, as demonstrated by this example from the London Borough of Haringey.

In our recent report, ‘It’s Time for Local Area Coordination’, Neil Woodhead (Derby City Council’s Social Capital Development Manager) shared his insights from the last seven years of leading Local Area Coordination in Derby.  In this excerpt, Neil outlines the crucial role that relationships play in making Local Area Coordination work.