Devolution: some thoughts in July 2015
“If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
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My role is to lead Macc, developing the role we play in the life of our city. I keep a watch on policy issues, speak up on behalf of our diverse, passionate and fantastic local voluntary, community and social enterprise sector and I am always working to build creative, collaborative relationships with a wide range of partners. I support our Trustees in ensuring Macc leads by example, lives by our values and, along with the rest of the VCSE sector, makes a real difference for all the communities of Manchester.
“If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
A short (5 min) video blog on why Macc decided to develop a policy on Open Data and how we chose what data to share.
You can find Macc's Open Data releases (updated quarterly) here:
https://www.manchestercommunitycentral.org/policy-and-influence/open-data
As the General Election draws nearer, I've been mulling over what's happened to the voluntary and community sector during the last five years. Below is a piece originally written back in summer 2011. This was, for me, the moment where I pulled together a lot of ideas and impressions and started to move towards the work which eventually became our Civil Economy for Manchester work with CLES.
Tonight is the “manVcam” rally in on Albert Square in Manchester. Some local voluntary and community groups have been wondering about whether it’s appropriate to go along, so here's my take on it.
As I write this, the team are just about to head over to the Mechanics Institute for today's Emergency Voluntary Sector Assembly event to discuss the impact of Council budget proposals on the work of the voluntary and community groups in Manchester.
A lot of people in the local voluntary sector are going to be very angry today. They’re going to feel threatened, undervalued, rejected and hopeless. The Council’s budget proposals will make horrible reading for many people who’ve been working very hard for a long time to make a difference in the city. For some groups this will mean cuts to services and activities. For many it will mean many job losses – the sector is an employer too, after all. For some this may be the last straw and we may see the end of a number of organisations that have made a great contribution to the city.
Four weeks to go and the Spirit of Manchester Festival is building up nicely.
One of the things I love most about working in the voluntary sector is that if you have a really good idea you can generally find a way to make it happen. It might take a while – things like our State of the Sector and Civil Economy work were on my wishlist for years before we were finally able to publish the finished work. But sometimes you can be taken by surprise at how fast you can go from the idea to it actually happening.
In the last few weeks, we’ve seen announcements of the Queens Award for Voluntary Service and the Birthday Honours. Of course I always check these to see if any local people or groups have won recognition for their work and it’s been great to see Manchester well represented. Here’s a quick list
Queens Award for Voluntary Service 2014
I’ve just come back from being on the BBC Breakfast sofa talking about volunteering. As is always the case with these things, it’s all very rushed and last minute and it’s over in a flash. Actually that’s one of good things in a sense because it gives you less time to panic! It was a great opportunity to fly the flag for volunteering in the middle of Volunteers Week and to talk about the sheer wealth of volunteering which happens in Manchester, as one exampleof the amazing work of volunteers across the whole country.