Neil Morris writes –

'OPEN HEARTS, OPEN MINDS' PROMOTING AN UNDERSTANDING

OF SOCIAL INCLUSION
by Alistair Macintosh (Director of Exeter Community Initiatives)

Background to the Project: The LINKS project was set up in 2000 as a joint initiative between statutory and voluntary organisations in Exeter, including the Primary Care Trust, City and County Councils, and Exeter Council for Voluntary Service. It aimed to co-ordinate and integrate services in disadvantaged areas, provide funding to support small neighbourhood-based projects, and to promote more understanding of issues which cause social exclusion.
 

Exeter Community Initiatives (ECI), a local social inclusion and development charity, was given the contract to manage the project, working to a Steering Group made up of representatives from all the
key partner agencies. 

Purpose of Handbook: In order to implement the third strand of the LINKS Project's work, the handbook, 'Open Hearts, Open Minds' was produced by local consultants, Sam Magne and Angela McTiernan. It has been designed as a self-assessment handbook for front-line workers (whether paid or working on a voluntary basis) to assess their professional development needs in the following areas:

" their understanding of social inclusion and its importance to the organisation " their ability to reach excluded groups/communities " their ability to work in partnership with others. From local research, it was clear that organisations were developing social inclusion policies but needed help to translate these policies into a more inclusive way of working. It was also recognised that many frontline workers already worked very inclusively or wanted to work that way but were hampered by decisions made higher up in their organisations.

The handbook was produced following a series of workshops with front-line staff and their managers, to look at how organisations currently identify training needs, and how they might use the proposed handbook. The first draft was then piloted with a range of both statutory and voluntary organisations, and re-written in the light of comments made.

Contents of Handbook
The handbook has four parts:
Part A gives an introduction to social inclusion and contains a couple of exercises for personal use
Part B is for personal self-assessment and development with 11 exercises to provoke thinking about the individual's role and ideas to make their work more inclusive
Part C is about their organisation and includes 4 exercises for the frontline worker and their line manager
Part D is for both personal use and joint discussion. It helps workers review their attitudes and to assess their training needs. It also contains some valuable information on 21 frequently excluded groups e.g. people with learning difficulties, looked after children leaving care etc.

How it can be used by local groups: Although it has arisen out of the context of both Exeter and Devon  based organisations, it has been designed so that it can be used in any part of the country. For paid staff or volunteers (including those on Management Committees) from local groups, it will be particularly helpful at two levels. Firstly, for frontline staff/volunteers to think about your individual practice in terms of working with people who may be experiencing social exclusion; and secondly, at an organisational level, for members of Management Committees or paid managers, in your role of managing the overall policy and direction of your group, to enable it to work in a more socially-inclusive way.

The handbook is available in two versions: as a spiral bound book for individual use, which enables workers to photocopy exercises or sections for personal use, and as a loose-leaf ring binder version
for organisational use. The ring binder version comes with a licence to photocopy as many copies as needed by an organisation.

Further Information: If you would like to obtain a copy of the handbook, please contact ECI on 01392 205800 or e-mail eileen@ecix.fsnet.co.uk to get hold of an order form. For more detailed discussion about the work of the LINKS Project or how we hope to take its work forward, please  contact Alistair Macintosh on 01392 205806.

Neil also draws readers attention to the Choice Forum www.choiceforum.org

and PMLD Network www.pmldnetwork.org