Strengthening Communities

Ryburgh in North Norfolk

-An example of how

it can be done

The Challenges that Ryburgh faced

• Primary school closed

• Village shop closed

• Post mistresses retired

• Limited activities for young people

• Youth club closed some anti-social behaviour on the playing field.

What did the community do?

• Launched Community owned shop including Post Office sold community shares to value of £25,000

• Community car scheme supported by Parish Council

• Short-listed for Pride in Norfolk Village of the Year 2009

• Working to improve play facilities in village

• Community newsletter launches 2009 ‘Ryburgh People’ (Pictured on the right)

So what next?

• Access4Life : Community Shop Car Scheme – planned With the support of Ryburgh Community shop, we hope to offer a community shop car scheme to the residents of three surrounding villages.

•Good Neighbours Project – plannedJoint project between Victory housing and Norfolk RCC to encourage support within community for most vulnerable individuals through volunteer assistance.

Good Neighbour Project

What is it?

• Voluntary local initiative run by group of local people

• Groups respond to need of local people i.e. giving a lift to doctors surgery, shopping, befriending/home visiting,

gardening etc

• Similar projects running successfully in Bedfordshire, Wiltshire and Suffolk for past ten years.

Who will benefit?

• Community as a whole- more cohesive.

• Project is flexible-each community can determine what tasks they will assist with

• Support may range from assisting a parent with young children to taking an older person to a Drs appointment.

• Volunteer benefits-Feel part of their village.

How will it work?

• Each project will have a mobile phone• Steering committee members alternate having

phone.• When they receive call for help they will assess

request and contact available volunteer. • Volunteer will visit client and assist.• Steering committee will keep log of tasks

completed.• Average number of calls per scheme 24 per

month ( Suffolk ACRE- Good Neighbours scheme)

Access4Life

• Access4Life is a Norfolk County Council funded project that looks at areas of the county with poor access to services.

• Through consultation with communities and working with a project steering group made up of local partners, Access4Life aims to find out what the real issues are and deliver solutions.

Colkirk Village

•Consultation carried out in the village of Colkirk showed that the local area had difficulty accessing a local food shop.

•The Access4Life steering group agreed to find a solution that would not only solve the problem for those residents who had difficulty accessing a local food shop/Post office but that would also support the sustainability of an existing community shop.

•Its good to talk…

Work with your neighbouring communities!

Further Consultation

• Through further consultation with the villages of Colkirk, Stibbard and Great Ryburgh, we found nine people who said they would like to use a transport scheme to take them to Ryburgh Community Shop

How it works

• Obtaining CRB checks for all the volunteer drivers –

All volunteer drivers of the scheme have completed a CRB form and we are now waiting for these to be returned.

• Insurance confirmation Confirmation should be obtained from the volunteer

driver’s insurance companies.

• Co-ordination of clients and volunteer journeys – Ryburgh community shop will be co-ordinating the calls.

The Future

• By the end of October 2009, Ryburgh community transport scheme and Good Neighbour scheme should be running.

• Ryburgh community shop continues to go from strength to strength.