How we deliver social value by building on community assets

We want to deliver social value by helping communities to be more self organising and resilient, and empowered to do things for themselves.

Rather than doing things for and to communities, we are recognising, strengthening and combining community assets to boost mutual support. This approach is called an 'assets based' approach to community development.

We have 3 key community assets in Cheshire East: our people, our green spaces, and our community buildings and centres.  

Local people

Local people are our strongest asset. In Cheshire East, many fantastic people give their time as volunteers. We are encouraging more people to join them in helping make the area a better place to live, work and socialise.

To do this, we are developing and co-ordinating volunteering opportunities through our People helping People programme. This connects people and organisations who need help with those keen to get involved.

Our We are Cheshire East volunteering portal makes it easy for people to sign up for local opportunities. The portal includes volunteer roles with us and with other organisations - any local group can use it for their own volunteer recruitment.

Cheshire East Council volunteering roles are varied, and include providing community-based support to those without support networks who are in need of help or simply a friendly phone call. This gives the most vulnerable with a way of accessing early help and reducing isolation, and can avoid or delay the need for costly adult social care support.

We are also building on our volunteer offer to include opportunities for training and routes into employment.

See the social value impact of our support for volunteering

Green spaces

We have a wealth of green spaces in Cheshire East. We can deliver significant social value by protecting these spaces and increasing the connections between people and their local green spaces. Plans include:

• advice, support, and opportunities for funding to help communities plant trees
• giving people a say in the future of local parks and open spaces through a co-produced parks masterplan
• encouraging people to use green spaces for improved mental and physical wellbeing through approaches such as green social prescribing

See the impact of our social value work around green spaces

Community buildings, services activities

We are linking together community bases across the borough and supporting the services they offer through a Connected Communities social franchising model. Each Connected Communities centre delivers services and activities tailored for their local community and offers space and support for local residents to run activities that will benefit the community.

See the social value impact of our connected communities model.

Building social value through community assets - our impact

Support for volunteering - our impact

Our People helping People programme has generated 164,328 volunteer hours (equal to £2,399,188). 

Green spaces - our impact

We are starting to put our green spaces social value plans into practice and will add information on our impact as it becomes available.

Community buildings and services - our impact

We are putting together information on the impact of our  Connected Communities model and will add this here shortly.