The Network supports, connects and advocates for Third Sector organisations within the North West of Glasgow so they have the funding, capacity and power to provide the best possible services. Our aim is to promote and enable effective information sharing, good communications and the exchange of ideas within the voluntary sector and all relevant decision making structures locally at Council level and nationally.
Community Planning Area Partnership Representatives
The Networ
k is a conduit between the Community Planning Partnership in the North West of the City, supporting the Voluntary Sector Reps to fully participate in the Community Planning area partnership meetings.
We have regular Rep meetings, and a Network and Voluntary Sector report is submitted to the 8 Area partnerships. Network staff support Reps by collating the report and attending Area Partnership meetings with Reps.
Plugged In – our IT Recycling Project
Our IT recycling project has been running since the pandemic. We gave our first recycled IT package out in May 2020. At the beginning of the pandemic, our members told us that people they worked with were struggling to work, live and teach their families as they had no or limited IT and internet. From this, the project was born. We asked members, families and friends to donate unwanted IT equipment and members to refer people to receive them.
Today, Plugged In continues to take donations of IT equipment and referrals, from member organisations and partners in North West Glasgow, for FREE refurbished IT equipment and wifi for people and families you work with in your community in North West Glasgow.
Local Networks
We attend local member Networks in Dumbarton Road Corridor covering Victoria Park and Garscadden Scotstounhill, Drumchapel Breakfast & Blether and set up Maryhill Together. We also attend networking meetings in the Canal area, led by North West Health Improvement teams.
Community Engagement
The Network had started a series of local engagement events in the community, at the request of Anderston/City/Yorkhill Community Planning Partnership at the end of 2019/20. We looked at developing new priorities for the partnership and to find out what local communities really thought about the area they lived and worked in. The pandemic meant this work stopped face-to-face. We are currently working on some online community engagement events for communities in the North West.
We recently completed a Community Engagement project for Whiteinch Community Centre and Love Milton. Get in touch if this is something you want us to work with you on.
Past Projects
Mentor Project Pilot 2018
There is a wealth of knowledge, experience and skill within the network, in recognition of this, we created a mentor project to provide an opportunity for members to receive or provide support for their member colleagues.
We recruited 5 members who felt they were able to reflect on their work and could support people to reach identified goals. We provided training and a set of paper work to help mentors provide appropriate support. We then recruited a group of 6 participants who had felt they could benefit from a mentor relationship. We matched up the mentors and participants supporting the relationships as they progressed.
Initial findings are very positive where participants have made great progress with most reaching their agreed goals. Mentors have also reported they have learned a lot from the experience, gaining skills that they will take into their wider work.
Participatory Budgeting: 3c Community Choices Canal 2018
The Network Manager was approached by Glasgow City Council to support the development of a citizen’s panel in Canal Ward, as part of a wider Participatory Budgeting initiative that will see £1 million allocated to 4 geographical areas and 1 community of interest, for citizens to make decisions about how a council budget is spent.
The network saw this a good opportunity to engage with more members in the North of the city as well as be part of this new council initiative. During Summer 2018, the network had a presence at local gala day and fun days in Canal ward meeting with local people to let them know about more about Participatory budgeting and how they could get involved. We also visited projects and worked with our existing members to make sure those people who don’t usually get the chance to be heard got the opportunity to get involved.
In total we engaged with 750 people and now have a panel of 14 people who will undertake training and lead the next stage of the process.