April: a month for Coproduction Network Events

[Joe Penny]

Dear All,

April looks set to be a busy month for coproduction, with several regional practitioner events taking place in Wales, London, Scotland and Birmingham.

Read on to find out more and sign up to one or all…

Following on from the success at their last In this Together event (the presentations of which can be seen here) Ruth Dineen and the Welsh network are hosting a second event on the 4^th of April at Cardiff City Hall. The agenda and line-up of speakers is looking really interesting;

• Nick Dixon, Commissioning Manager at Stockport BC, will give a presentation on Stockport’s People-powered Health project and how they have managed to transform their organisational culture, encouraging a creative, values-based, co-productive approach.
• Becky Booth, co-founder & Programme Director of Spice social enterprise, and Geoff Thomas, founder & Chief Executive of Time Banking Wales, will talk about the Welsh experience of time banking and co-production, and on the leading role that Wales is playing in this regard.
• Action Network group session: At the last meeting, participants identified 4 main strategic themes: communicating, collaborating, evidencing, advocacy & influencing. This session will be used to clarify the detail of each theme, and to discuss ways in which we might each contribute to a successful outcome.

Tickets are now available on eventbrite, so make sure you book yours! The last event “sold” out very quickly http://allinthistogether2.eventbrite.co.uk/?ebtv=C 

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The fourth London Coproduction Practitioners Meeting is taking place on the 18th of April, 2012 at Praxis in Bethnal Green between 10-12.30.

The agenda is looking really exciting, with three interesting topics:

• An introduction to Praxis and an action learning session, facilitated by Chris Geake of Praxis
• “What should the evidence for co-production look like? Thoughts towards a practitioners’ wiki” facilitated by nef
• “Developing a customer led induction”, facilitated by Look Ahead staff and customers

We are also always open to suggestions of topics people would like to discuss, so if you have any thoughts do get in touch with [e-mail] 

Everyone is welcome to attend, just sign up to this eventbrite so that we can be sure of numbers. If you have any questions about the day, the network or coproduction in general please do not hesitate to contact Joe

We look forward to seeing you there!

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For those of you living a bit further North, the next Scottish coproduction practitioner’s meeting meeting will take place on the afternoon of the 24th April in Glasgow. The address is;

Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services, Brunswick House,

 51 Wilson Street,

Glasgow, G1 1UZ

 

If you have any items for the agenda please send them to [e-mail], [e-mail]  and [e-mail]

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And last but not least, Governance International can also confirm that the next West Midlands Network meeting will be held in Birmingham on 26 April and will be hosted by Claire Farrell and Clare McLaughlin of EC-Arts.  They will be showcasing the 48 Sheet project at the meeting – replacing traditional advertising billboards with artistic installations – with a strong focus on involving the community, young people in particular.  The address of EC-Arts is The Mailbox, 61 Wharfside Street, Birmingham B1 1RE (which can be found on the ground floor at the left-hand side after entering through the main entrance (off Navigation Street and Suffolk Street Queensway)

There will also be input from Gill Phillips on the Whose Shoes? A tool that helps people explore different perspectives on citizen-centred social care. Rosie Edwards, Sandwell MBC, will also lead a discussion on how a problem solving approach can act as a means of asset building and local investment. And as always, there will be plenty of opportunity for you to network.

If you would like to attend, please sign up here http://www.govint.org/news/   

thanks!

joe