Programme for week commencing 13th March, 2014

With reducing public services due to greater cuts of expenditure as a result of the Government’s drive on Public Borrowing, the Voluntary and Community Sector needs to consider how it can help communities meet these changing circumstances. So how is Rotary positioned to be part of this need for greater community building and development?

We believe this is an ideal opportunity for Rotary to drive home that “We’re for Communities” and consider how as an organisation we can facilitate, initiate and help to innovate, by working in partnership with others in our communities.

This we believe is about ensuring Rotary is accessible and affordable.  Can people who want to be involved in Rotary do this because our activities take place in the town or village centre or where needed? Are there different opportunities for people to join Rotary in different ways, in fact initially just becoming a volunteer and give service alongside Rotarians?

Click 4 Action eRotary is currently developing the Rotary Community Corps – an opportunity for people in our communities to get involved through Rotary to work on specific projects that need volunteers. We are really pleased that our first Rotary Community Corps has been chartered in Malmesbury (first RCC to be chartered in RIBI), to help us develop Flood Defences and a local Foodbank. However we want to see other RCC groups chartered in other cities, towns and villages that can help put the ‘Care’ back into communities, which can enhance people’s talents, skills and experience to give service where it is needed. What will be important to show is that Rotary stands alongside other groups and has valuable assets to offer as part of those partnerships.

We believe gone are the days when we just raise funds year after year, we now need to create sustainable communities, that find ways of generating resources, recycling what can be used again and developing enterprise so the local economy is based on what the community itself can either do as a Social Enterprise or in some kind of Time Bank application of giving Service to others. Rotary needs to consider can it help in these new ways of thinking and helping to make it happen.

We wonder if Rotary has ever considered the contribution it already makes to its local community, many Voluntary and Community organisations are already considering how they measure their Community Impact. Rotary already is equipped to do this with Rotary International’s Rotary Club Central. Through this online application we can input our plans, measure our outcomes and show by how much time we have given what value our contribution has been. We need to go further, Rotary needs to work with others to access need, to plan together how we can tackle issues, delivering outcomes that help communities live together in a harmonious way. Rotary can help provide the facilitation and leadership, we just need people to know we are committed to our communities and ready to help with a CAN DO attitude.

We think it will be important in the future for us to find out how the community views Rotary and to this end, as part of the Festival of Rotary on the 3rd May, we hope Click 4 Action eRotary members will help us conduct a survey to start understanding the public’s perception of Rotary in the UK.

So this week we are looking for members to:

• Help connect us into their communities and respond to the needs;
• Consider is there other needs where a Rotary Community Corps could help;
• We are looking for a volunteer to help us develop the Rotary Club Central Tool as a means of better measuring our achievements and impact;
• Help us either at the Festival of Rotary on the 3rd May or if not at the event during that day help with the survey elsewhere;
• Finally what are your ideas as to how we as Rotary can demonstrate our commitment to the communities we live, work and have our fun in.