BBL moving on – 29th May 2014

Boston Big Local found new direction and energy tonight and the future is looking good. Tonight’s meeting followed on from 8th May when it was agreed that a group of residents who have had consistent involvement would meet to review progress and develop an action plan for the coming months.

Boston Big Local is a £1m over 10 years resident-led community programme seeking to invest and build capacity in a specific part of Boston, helping to make the area an even better place to live .

The group has now formed as a steering group, taking decisions on how things are run and what needs to be done. A chair, Ralph Pryke, has been elected and the Local Trusted Organisation, TaylorITEX CIC, has been reappointed. Rachel Lauberts again takes up her position as facilitator and Bill Badham is acting as the interim Big Local Rep until recruitment of a new Rep is undertaken. The steering group is considering draft terms of reference, establishing its core values, purpose, expectations on members and code of conduct.

The group then reviewed progress along what is called the Big Local Pathway – the milestones toward building and submitting a Big Local Plan to Local Trust to begin to draw on the £1m.  It is giving priority to increasing awareness of Big Local in the specific area of benefit and to building active interest among residents within the Boston Big Local area. At the same time, the plan is to build the community conversation around needs in the area through a series of focused meetings with particular groups, including those from Boston’s diverse communities (Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, and Portuguese to name a few), the Disability Forum, Age Concern and the Boston Youth Council.

These and other meetings will help to draw out emerging needs in the area. At the same time, work will continue on drawing these stories and the stats about the area together into a background document, or Profile. This will make sure that the vision and priorities for funding are rooted in a clear and public assessment of local need.

By the early autumn, the steering group anticipates having the Profile completed and be ready to hold a public event to share and explore findings to help draw out emerging themes and priorities for action that will best respond to help make the area an even better place to live. The plan is that the drafts of the Big Local Plan will be shared and discussed before Christmas and the final version submitted for approval by the end of January 2015.

Bill Badham – Big Local Rep.