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From Norfolk RCC

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This page is currently being developed the contents of this page may be incomplete or inaccurate

The aim of the Community Buildings Services Project was to support community buildings in developing services that reflect the needs of their community. In doing this it is hoped that the community benefit through improved services but also the building’s sustainability is improved through greater use. A service can be anything that will benefit the community and has throughout the project ranged from exercise classes right through to community run shops.

This toolkit is intended to bring together the lessons learnt, information and materials used in the project to assist other community buildings in developing services.

It is accompanied by a report that takes a more general view as to the feasibility and usage of community buildings in delivering services. It also presents two models for service delivery within community buildings: community hubs and services2gether.

Starting Points

Throughout the project one barrier was most the significant in developing projects. It was not a lack of skills, information or even funding. It was attitude.

The type of projects being developed looked at using community buildings in ways that they had not been used before and that was often very different to what had gone before. This requires a willingness and openness to “doing different” and not being averse to the risk of being in unknown territory. Where this attitude came from in the successful projects varied; the result of newcomers to a group bringing new ideas, particularly innovative community champions or the fruit of a seed sown some time ago now reaching majority. However it is a requirement of a successful project and is the first hurdle and perhaps the most difficult hurdle to overcome.

What comes below is a document providing a guide for community buildings looking to develop their services as well as a number of different information sheets looking at particular problem areas in terms of skills that were identified during the project.