Our Big Society

Our Big Society

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Shelley Community Association wins Prime Minister’s Big Society Award

Shelley Community Association, a voluntary organisation that represents and brings together residents of the Yorkshire village of Shelley – is the latest winner of the Prime Minister’s Big Society Award.

Shelley Community Association runs the village hall, promotes networking between different village groups, residents and public bodies and supports the village in numerous ways including a village magazine and web site, arranging for the Post Office to operate from the village hall, establishing a village green and organising a host of community events.

Congratulating Shelley Community Association, the Prime Minister said:

  1. “Shelley Community Association has given its residents something very special – the chance to become more involved in their village, strengthen their community and improve life for them and their fellow villagers. With its numerous clubs and social events, this strong, active community, is an excellent example of the Big Society.

    “Congratulations to all those involved in the Association for making Shelley the thriving village that it is.”

  2. Ann Priestman from Shelley Community Association said:

  3. “Our visitors call us ‘The Friendly village’ – that’ll do for us! We have total inclusion, and this is a stimulating and invigorating environment where talents as well as issues surface and are utilised to enhance the well-being of everyone in this village. In fact in this village you need an hourly diary! How many other 80 year olds complain of being double booked most days! And they are often the volunteers!

    “You will never have been in a village which is so co-operative in such a personal way, across generations, groups, public services, and out to our businesses. It is astounding how beneficial that personal network is.

    “We are delighted to win this award – we all knew we were the Big Society in practice – and for the Prime Minister to appreciate us in this way recognises the dynamism of our volunteers in every capacity and their commitment to improve the lives and environment of themselves and their neighbours, work which is not done for achievement but for satisfaction. We are very satisfied!”

  4. Shelley Community Association:
  5. Shelley Community Association is the umbrella organisation for a number of groups in Shelley village, including an Over 60s group, an environmental group, sports, art and drama clubs and much more.
  6. The Association also runs its own events including a biennial Garden Festival, concerts, plays, dances and a New Years Day Welly Walk.
  7. Shelley won Yorkshire and Northern Village of the Year in 2004.

Read more: Shelly Community Association

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What we mean by the Big Society
The Big Society is about much more than volunteering and social action. At its heart, the Big Society is about putting more power in people's hands - a massive transfer of power from Whitehall to local communities.
There are three key parts of the Big Society policy agenda:
1.     Community empowerment: giving local councils and neighbourhoods more power to take decisions and shape their area. For example, our planning reforms will replace the old top-down planning system with real power for neighbourhoods to decide the future of their area.
2.     Opening up public services: our public service reforms will enable charities, social enterprises, private companies and employee-owned co-operatives to compete to offer people high quality services. For example, our welfare to work programme will enable a wide range of organisations to help get Britain off welfare and into work.
3.     Social action: encouraging and enabling people to play a more active part in society. For example, the National Citizen Service will give teenagers a sense of belonging and purpose. 

Here in Halifax we fully understand as during the Election David visited a very good example in Illingworth and Mixenden Ward, the Parents and Childrens Centre, run by Voiunteers including members of our local party.

Our General Election Candidate Philip Allott and Halifax Campaign Team cleaning up and improving the gardens at the Centre.
[ see picture attached ]

Follow on Pages to see details of Halifax Association BIG SOCIETY Projects

By Jonathan Isaby on ConservativeHome

WARSI-BARONESS I have felt for some time that the Government has failed properly and succintly to define what is meant by the concept of the "Big Society".

So I was heartened to see during Question Time in the House of Lords yesterday that Baroness Warsi made rather a good fist of doing just that, in the following 51 words:

 

"The big society is defined by many in this House as being what most of them have done for most of their lives. It is a volunteering, social action, philanthropic approach to life, but it is also about the opening up of public services to local control and devolution of power."

The Big Society is here to stay. We don't want the story of this government to be just an economic recovery. We want it to be a social recovery too. Because for all the action we've taken on pulling our economy from the brink, our society still hangs there. Our society is broken and we need to fix it - and the Big Society will help us do that.

The Big Society is how we'll fix our broken society, how we'll strengthen families, how we'll bring communities together. And the big question we have to ask ourselves is this: do we want a country where politicians, bureaucrats and the powers-that-be treat everyone like children who are incapable of taking their own decisions and taking responsibility for their lives? Or do we want a country where we treat adults like adults, and give them more power and more responsibility over their lives? The Big Society is not a government initiative. It's about giving you the initiative - to take control of your life and work with friends, neighbours and colleagues to improve things around you.

Today we are announcing the first payments to charities from the £100 million transition fund; this extra funding will help charities to prepare for the new opportunities opened up by the Big Society.