As a term-time worker, Helen will be taking a break in the school holidays over the summer. In September and the Autumn, Helen will be focusing on delivering advice sessions in Slough and West Berkshire, at Children’s Centres, Homestart Groups, and other venues. If you run a group with high numbers of low-income families attending, please get in touch by phoning CCB on 0118 961 200, or emailing Helen at helen.dean@ccberks.org.uk.

Connecting Communities in Berkshire are running a short course on Community-led housing on Thursday 19th September.

We are aware that development and new houses are currently being built throughout Berkshire on a large scale but are they really affordable or accessible to people growing up or working in your village or community?

Community-led housing is housing built on a not-for-profit basis by a community to meet its own needs. There are a number of different approaches to community-led housing, all resulting in homes built for the community but with different processes and levels of involvement.

This short course will enable participants to understand the differences between the various models of community-led housing. It is aimed at Parish & Town Councillors, land owners and anyone from both rural and urban communities interested in exploring the options for providing affordable housing for people with a connection to their community. The options of rural exception sites is now quite well-known but at this session we will examine the details of this as well as delving into other options including community land trusts and housing co-operatives.

Please do feel free to share this with colleagues or friends that you believe it may be of interest to. Places must be booked, to book your place please complete this form: https://ccberks.wufoo.com/forms/community-led-housing/

Our Community Buildings Advise Service (CBAS) Kate Meads delivered two training courses in Effective Chairperson training in June at Chieveley and Wokingham.

Both courses were well booked up with delegates from wide range of backgrounds. Parish Councillors, Village Halls, WI’s, Citizens Advice and Council Tennant Groups. The course was highly interactive and covered both practical planning of meetings and how to manage committees. In all 32 people attended the workshops.

July saw the last Adult Community Learning Event in this academic year.

A workshop was delivered to Parish Councils, Village Halls and Recreation Ground Trustees on understanding their different Governance structures and how to work together more effectively. This course was well attended by 20 Parish Councillors, Village Hall and Recreation Ground Trustees. We learned how complex and varying Charity Trusts can be and how Parish Councils can support these community focused Charities with funding. Training also looked at how Village Halls and Recreation grounds can support the local Parish Council with facilities for events, volunteers and office spaces etc.

We thank out funders at Wokingham Borough & West Berkshire Council Adult Community Learning for supporting and helping to fund our training programme. If there are any courses that you would like to attend or see run in the new academic year please get in touch – Gemma.Pearce@ccberks.org.uk