Agenda item

The Council received a presentation from Councillor M McKeon, Chair of the East Durham Rural Corridor AAP and Jane Bellis, AAP Coordinator (for presentation see file of Minutes).

The Council were informed that the AAP operated a joint priorities task group to develop projects around the themes of Activities for Children, Young People and Families, Older People and Health and Wellbeing.

The AAP was a geographically diverse area made up of a number of settlements, including Bowburn, Tursdale, Quarrington Hill, Cassop, Kelloe, the Trimdons, Fishburn, Sedgefield, Bradbury and Mordon.  It aimed to spread funding to ensure that area-wide projects were funded, or pilots were carried out which could be rolled out to other parts of the area in future years.

Details of Projects the AAP had recently been involved with were then provided.

Participatory Budgeting

The AAP had carried out a Participatory Budgeting scheme in partnership with Investing in Children.  This involved a school roadshow where only children and young people were allowed to vote on projects, and all of the projects benefitted that age group.

Youth Forum and Cyber Crime Project

The importance of children and young people having a voice was recognised and the AAP continued to engage with them through its Youth Forum led by Investing in Children.  Members of the Youth Forum from Trimdon Station along with Sergeant Alex Clarke had recently attended a Board meeting.  The members of the Youth Forum were full of questions and indicated they would like to be involved with some work with the police.  From this work the Youth Forum had been encouraged to work in partnership with the police to develop the Youth Forum and Cyber Crime Project.

The project had been specifically designed for the area on the back of the Youth Forums interest in working with the police.  Although it had been agreed, the application is yet to be processed as it was held up due to Purdah and the Christmas break.

ATOMS Education Project

The ATOMS Education project was in the process of being appraised. Neighbourhood Budget from Councillors within the East Durham AAP had helped with the initial set up of resources and equipment and this was match funded via different methods including parent contributions and in kind for the provision of various sessions such as after school and holiday clubs, a walking bus, and a healthy breakfast café at Hesleden Methodist Church.   Following the success of this it had been agreed within the Rural Corridor and would be tailored to meet the needs of it’s community.

Mixed Fitness with Bowburn Youth Club.

The aim of the project was to increase confidence in young people, get more young people engaged in fitness, for young people to become confident in mixed age fitness and provide issue based sessions.

The group met once a week to attend a structured fitness session delivered by a qualified instructor.  Each session started with registration followed by a group warm up game, and then a Bootcamp Style fitness class.  The session ended with a group discussion focusing on health and wellbeing, and an evaluation and each young person was then offered a piece of fruit.  Every session was well structured and planned, based on the ability of the group, taking into account individual needs.

The evaluation carried out with young people helped to shape future sessions taking into account their views.

Social Isolation

The AAP had carried out work in relation to social isolation and older people.  Having previously funded the Social Car Scheme the Board felt there was a need to fund it again this year.  Targets had been exceeded on the previous scheme.  The target for the the number of voluntary and community groups supported was 1, but 7 were actually supported.  There was a target of 20 people to be engaged in voluntary work, but the actual was 24.  There were 484 journeys, for 22 clients; the majority of which used the service on a weekly basis to get to activities at community centres, lunch clubs, and visit family in care homes.  This project supported others such as the Helping Hands project by ensuring people had a means of transport to activities.

The project did not just benefit those needing transport, it also had a positive impact on the volunteer drivers.

The Cornforth Partnership had worked with families and partner organisations to develop a programme of initiatives designed to combat isolation and improve the health and wellbeing of the most vulnerable.

Other Projects

The AAP had been involved in many other projects.  Projects with schools such as Tunnel of Light led by Durham Cathedral into Lumiere, Plastic Fantastic which promoted the reduction of single use plastic and fitted with the Councils policy on this, as well as including intergenerational work as well as many Neighbourhood Budget projects that helped to improve the quality of life of people living within the AAP area.

The Chair thanked the AAP Chair and Coordinator for their presentation.