The Neath East Communities First Partnership
Partneriaeth Cymunedau Yn Gyntaf Dwyrain Castell Nedd
A key principle of the Communities First programme is that every Communities First area should have a Partnership. The Neath East Communities First Partnership enables local people to contribute, with partners, to the regeneration of the area.
The Communities First Partnership brings together local people and is complemented and supported by representatives from organisations in the statutory, voluntary and business sectors to help us achieve the desired transformation. The Welsh Assembly Government recommends that the make-up of a Communities First Partnership adheres to the 'three thirds' principle with one third of members drawn from the local community, one third from the statutory sector and one third from the voluntary/business sectors. The Neath East Communities First Partnership follows this recommendation. There is a broad range of representation on the Partnership. Members include local residents, representatives of local community organisations, churches and local county borough and town councillors.
The partnership aims:
• To improve, empower and regenerate, the Neath East Community, restoring pride, ownership, community spirit and participation.
• To lead in taking forward the Communities First programme in Neath East.
• To promote and support the involvement of all local people in developing local solutions to the problems in the area, both through and beyond the Communities First programme.
• To motivate the community to be involved.
• To promote partnership working between all organisations and agencies serving the Communities First area, in order to influence services in the area.
• To develop, implement, monitor and evaluate a Capacity Building Plan and Community Action Plan, in accordance with the guidance of the Communities First Programme.
There are 6 representatives of the voluntary sector: 8 for the community; 4 for business and 8 for the statutory sector. Average attendance at Partnership meetings around 20 with the community always well represented. Local people are also among the representatives of the statutory, voluntary and business sectors. Partnership meetings are published and are open to the community and are linked to the PACT meeting run by the police thereby increasing community involvement. Meeting take place on the 4th Monday of each month except for August and December. The Partnership links to the wider community through its members, their organisations and communication channels such as our community newsletter ‘Melin Matters’, the Melin Advice Centre and this our web-site. The MCC a grassroots community organisation works closely with the partnership. As a business it is able to act as a grant recipient body for funding applications and provides a delivery mechanism for many of the required actions identified through partnership working. The Partnership has developed a Partnership Agreement setting out how it will progress the Communities First Programme in the Neath East area, you may view the document here Return to homepage Communities First Themes here
The “three thirds” principle creates a good balance between the number of local people involved and the numbers giving professional support. The Partnership consists of 26 core members, 16 of which live in the Neath East Ward and most others have strong links with the area.