Lucie Stephens's Blog (77)

In 2001 a Gloucestershire GP, Dr Opher developed ‘Artlift’ with local arts and cultural organizations (Create Gloucestershire).  Artlift gives people access to 10 weeks of arts activity on prescription.  After a successful pilot in Dr Ophers practice it is now available in eight surgeries across Gloucestershire (one in each district). Patients are prescribed Artlift for a wide range of reasons including to reduce stress, anxiety or…

News from Catherine Wilton that this excellent programme is recruiting for people who want to make co-production happen in their areas..................

This programme explores the leadership skills that are needed in order to grow and nurture local social capital, build stronger communities and improve health and well-being.  We are looking to recruit leaders who want to be part of a movement for change and to think radically about the challenges and opportunities of an…

People might be interested in this forthcoming event.............

Time banking has made a more visible appearance in policy documents since 2010, yet its development and application has been built around two contradictory sets of values. On the one hand, it offers a means by which self-help, within a neo-liberal agenda can be fostered as part of the scaling back of the welfare state. On the other, it offers the hope of salvation for society beleaguered by global neo-liberal forces by…

Not sure how 'co-production friendly' this fund is, but they do say 'we love hearing about something completely new and different'.......

Blurb from RBS below, good luck if you go for it. Lucie 

Young people have great ideas. Sometimes they just need a little help to turn those ideas into reality. RBS want to help.

We are looking for not-for-profit organisations that share our desire to help young people aged up to 30 years to explore their enterprise potential. Funding…

nef is currently delivering a project for the Cabinet Office with funding from Sciencewise. Specific policy issues will be explored with members of the public through a well-being lens.  What does the evidence from well-being science have to say about these specific policy issues, how do the public interpret the evidence, and what specific policy recommendations can be drawn? 

We want to commission a/ some public dialogue experts to help wiht this work. An ITT for the…

The Cultural Commissioning Programme (CCP) is a new three year programme funded by the Arts Council to work with the arts and cultural sector and public service commissioners. It will be delivered in partnership by NCVO, nef and NPC. Practice in commissioning arts and cultural organisations to deliver public service outcomes is relatively new but evidence suggests that commissioning in this way can improve the effectiveness of services and generate great outcomes for the people…

this might be a source of future funding for some of you.....

Investing for Good and Cabinet Office are developing a new social investment fund for the arts sector. The Arts Ventures Fund will open in 2014 and aims to increase access to and participation in arts and culture amongst older people, establish education projects for young people and support projects in the wider community.

Arts Ventures Fund

To support the new Arts Ventures Fund, Investing for Good,…

Today nef publishes a new report, Co-production in mental health: A literature review.

We found that when mental health services were co-produced, those services were more effective for the people using them and they experienced:

• An improved sense of belonging to local groups and networks.
• Reduced stigma.
• Increased skills…

The Vulnerable and Disengaged Young People Fund, a new funding stream through the Cabinet Office Centre for Social Action, has up to £2m to help grow…

Turning Point are recruiting for someone to provide maternity cover as Head of Community Engagement, Co-production and Research. They're after someone who can:

- Provide leadership for Connected Care projects Turning Point have been commissioned to deliver (projects variously involve delivery of community peer research, stakeholder engagement across the statutory and community sectors, development of service redesign proposals and associated business cases, working with groups of…

The Centre for Social Action Innovation Fund is a £14m fund run by Nesta, the UK's Innovation Foundation, working in partnership with the Cabinet Office.

They will provide financial and non-financial support to help grow the impact and reach of innovations that mobilise people's energy and talents to help each other, working alongside public services.

Current Priorities

They are currently looking for innovative ventures and programmes that use social…

Skillnet group in Kent are running a workshop on Wednesday 16th October between 11.30 and 2.30.

Hear inspirational stories from Skillnet Group and Diversity House.  Find out about Women Empowering Women.  Learn about co-production.

For more information contact Louise Allen, Project Lead - Community Sustainability, Skillnet Group CIC
louise.allen@skillnetgroup.co.uk  or 07780985245

The Post Office and DCLG have grants of up to 10,000 available to fund closer working between community groups and local post offices.

Find out more here

The closing date is Friday 18th October.  

It's been my experience that many people involved in developing co-production work are linking to community currencies to support their work. If you are this conference might be of interest!

The 2^nd International Conference on Complementary Currency Systems will be held from the 19^th to the…

Details of a 'stakeholder consultation event' which might offer opportunities to better co-produce drug and alcohol recovery services.  

'North Yorkshire are in the process of a major reconfiguration/transformation of services for adults who misuse substances (drugs and alcohol). The purpose of the transformation is to develop a more recovery-orientated system for the county, rooted in realising the assets of local communities. This will be achieved by a full,…

These might be of interest to people interested in using community currencies to underpin their co-production activities.

John Rogers is running a series of three introductory webinars on the subject of local currencies in March and April.



Full details and booking instructions for "Let's Make Money" at Eventbrite:…

 Saturday 16 March 2013

The SOCIAL SCULPTURE RESEARCH UNIT at Oxford Brookes University

invites you to participate in a one day programme with international commons activist and author, Silke Helfrich to facilitate and share new thinking and practices on the commons, commoning and commons creation in all areas of our lives: our communities, organisations, networks, disciplines.

‘We are poised between an old world that no longer works and a new one…