The new Elevate Programme – working together to build healthier communities

CDHN recently won the Public Health Agency contract to deliver the Community Development Capacity Building Programme. One of the immediate needs was to work on a brand and we are delighted to unveil the branding for the programme. The name Elevate was selected after McCadden Design carried out a focus group meeting with a cross section of practitioners, community representatives and local organisations, hosted by MEAAP, Ballymena.

The Elevate Programme has four core areas.

  1. Establish and Host an online Community Development Portal which will provide core information , fact sheets, resources, toolkits and training opportunities.
  2. Develop and deliver a Community Development curriculum which is relevant, accessible and evidence based.
  3. To develop and refine the draft evaluation framework and to measure and assess the impact of the Community Development Framework,
  4. To build sustainable resilient communities through positive collaboration mentoring of organisations/groups via the development of a community mentorship programme.

The Elevate programme is for one year and will have a strong emphasis on skills development. This will be delivered in three main ways – through the provision of on line and interactive training on the Elevate Portal; through the delivery of face to face training on four different occasions in each Trust area over the course of the year; and through the delivery of the mentoring programme which will see five local organisations in each Trust area receive one to one and peer support opportunities to enhance their practice.

CDHN is working in partnership with four subcontracted organisations within the Elevate programme to ensure added value – Prospect Awards, Rural Community Network, Community Evaluation NI and Minus 40. A lead mentoring organisation has been appointed in each Trust area who will have responsibility for identifying a further five organisations each to support. They are Mid and East Antrim Agewell Partnership (MEAAP) for the Northern Trust area, Co Down Rural Community Network (CDRCN) for the South Eastern Trust area, ARC Healthy Living Centre for the Western Trust area, Supporting People and Communities Every Day (SPACE) for the Southern area and East Belfast Community Development Agency for the Belfast Trust area.

The Elevate portal will be launched early May and will develop month on month as we gather case studies, journals and reports and devise training modules. Recruitment for the team is imminent. Work will then begin on a mapping and training needs analysis, development of mentoring and training programmes, development of an online Community Development Practice assessment tool and the redesign of the Community Development Outcomes Framework.

For further information on any aspect of the new Elevate Programme, please contact CDHN on 028 3026 4606 or email info@cdhn.org