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HAWKINGE PARTNERSHIP REPORT

Hawkinge Partnership Report to the Annual Parish Meeting, Wednesday 26th April 2006

We are a Partnership of residents, public service providers and Councillors and are 1 of the 35 Neighbourhood Management Pathfinders nationally that work to improve people’s quality of life through enhancing public service delivery at a very local level. 

These are just some of the Partnership’s achievements of last year:

· The Partnership has now fully established a Neighbourhood Management Team to support their work.

· The Partnership Board has also been strengthened over the year and following elections at our AGM in March.  There are 10 residents who take part in decision-making and we also have a housing service provider o­n our Board from Coast & Countryside.

· The Partnership established a Community Office in Hawkinge, which has received 1,000 visitors since opening. Connexions, JobCentre Plus, the Children’s Centre, Social Services, PC Trevor Moody, Tanya Clarke and Coast & Countryside now provide services to Hawkinge from the Office.  It will shortly be the base for Councillor and Occupational Therapy surgeries.  Residents also use the Office as a source of information for local clubs, groups and services and many use the public computer for job searches and email.

· Earlier this year, the Partnership supported the Parish, District and County Councils by facilitating discussion between them regarding litter and dog bins.  The Team supported these partners by undertaking resident consultation to highlight areas of priority need and pathfinder funding was approved to help the Parish Council to purchase 20 bins for these areas.   The bins are due to be installed shortly and the Partnership will continue work with the Councils to monitor the success of this project.

· The Partnership supported a Hawkinge Youth Feasibility Study that was undertaken in December 2005.  The recommendations from this study are to be taken forward by a youth steering group, which Cllr Brisley has shown an interest in, and our Board have just given their approval to a youth provision proposal, which includes employing a full time Youth Worker for Hawkinge.

· The Partnership established a Youth Forum for Hawkinge. 11 young people regularly attend the weekly meetings and they have just come back from a residential weekend, where they learnt planning and communication skills to help support their work in the Forum. 

· The Community Chest supported 16 local clubs and groups over the year.  Over 1,250 residents benefited from community chest grants in various activities, from being able to set up the Hawkinge Angels, which is a new support group for parents of children with special needs, to enabling the Craft Group, Scouts and Yoga Group to purchase equipment.  This year,  £10,000 in Pathfinder funding has been allocated to the Community Chest for local projects, which will benefit the Hawkinge community.  Please contact the Community Office for more information o­n how to apply.

· The Partnership supported the Community Centre by helping to identify a source of funds and support to undertake a strategic review.  In February, the Centre benefited from Pathfinder funding to install a noise limiter and successfully renew their entertainments licence. 

· The Partnership established the Hawkinge Community Events Group, which put o­n a successful Fun Day last year and attracted 2,000 people to the Community Centre, Village Hall and green.  Many local clubs and groups had the opportunity to run a stall o­n the day and a number have reported an increase in their membership as a result.  The Group have just been granted Pathfinder funding to hold another Fun Day again this year, the date being 16th September 2006.

· The Partnership produced its new delivery plan for 2006-07 as a reader-friendly brochure and sets out all of our agreed actions for the year.  The brochure has been hand delivered to every address in Hawkinge and further copies are available from the Community Office.

The following are just some of the challenges ahead for this year:

· Partnership work will continue this year with the Community Centre to set up an IT café in the foyer.  The IT café steering group have agreed a phased approach to the work and is aiming for completion in September.

· The Partnership will take o­n new challenges of establishing a steering group to take forward actions from the Youth Feasibility Study and recruiting a Youth Worker. 

· Best Kept Street –we will be looking to our partners to lead o­n this action and will be approaching the Housing Forum for their support.

· Connecting Hawkinge – the steering group will continue to work with consultants to produce a realistic action plan for improving travel, access and safety around the village based o­n the resident consultation that was carried out earlier this year.  The group now needs to focus o­n finding solutions to the issues that were identified in the consultation.

· Community Buildings Improvement Fund – a newly formed group, which is currently setting criteria for the Fund and will soon be publicising it.  The group will meet to consider applications in September.

· Delivery plan 2007-08 – discussions will commence with service providers later o­n this year to determine our actions for 2007-08. 

Jenny Hanna, Acting Neighbourhood Manager, and Emily Barrett, Research & Monitoring Officer, for and o­n behalf of the Hawkinge Partnership

Tel. 01303 858663 Email info@hawkingepartnership.org.uk