Details of A Festival Of Urban Living: Get Involved Information Evening Tuesday 16th July 6- 7.30pm MK Gallery Project Space, MK9 3QA
Meet raumlaborberlin who are co-curating the festival, transforming Midsummer Boulevard, bringing together; artists, architects, designers, urban planners, thinkers, creatives and many others to deliver a free programme of exhibitions, events, creative workshops, performances and much more.
Find out about BEDS UNITED a unique project which aims to celebrate the huge diversity of city, inviting our citizens to host a festival guest for one night only. Sign Up HERE
Find out about other projects including BIKE SCHOOL which will promote and celebrate cycling in many ways. Bike School will rise to the challenge of making MK the Greenest city yet.
A huge thank you to everyone who came to Our Summer Networking Event last Friday 5th July. It was brilliantly attended by new and old friends from the Voluntary and Community Sector. It was great to share information about the growth of Milton Keynes and enjoy seeing some real life examples on our CMK walking tours!
As well as our own interactive stall about how the growth of Milton Keynes will impact the Voluntary and Community Sector, we had an information stall from the Wildlife Trust, who are working with us as well as with CMK Town Council, conservation volunteers (working on the Green Gym projects) and local residents on improving the green spaces in CMK.
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Our colleagues from MK Community Foundation were also in attendance, promoting their Vital Signs initiative. Here at Community Action: MK we are supporting the Vital Signs community consultation programme this year by running a focus group on Wednesday 31st July at 3pm at our office in Acorn House. Please click here to book your place if you would like to take part and share your views about the life in Milton Keynes.
After the networking, we set off on the walking tour of the developments of Central Milton Keynes, with the weather on our side! If you would like to experience an audio version of the walk, please follow this link. Here you can see the list of the key new developments visited on the tour.
The walk culminated at Middleton Hall for the MK Futures 2050 Exhibition – ‘Milton Keynes: A Journey to 2050‘. It was really interesting to view designs for MK:U, the new university being built in CMK, and meet and greet the robot that could answer back! There was also talks led by key stakeholders involved in the growth of Milton Keynes.
Stay tuned for information about our next Networking event, which will be held in Autumn 2019. Any questions or information about our events can be asked through info@communityactionmk.org.
Sid Burgess is avidly involved in Big Local Conniburrow, volunteering most of his time to organising events for the residents of Conniburrow to bring the people together and promote the feel of community. We wanted to help him share his story with you …
Sid Burgess is now the Chair of the Social and Involvement Task Group for the BLC through his time volunteering with them.
My wife Doreen and I moved to Conniburrow about 8 years ago. Sadly I lost Doreen nearly 3 years ago after 46 years of marriage. I’d heard about Big Local Conniburrow from a friend of mine. He told me they do a coffee morning on a Friday. I’m always looking to meet new people and make new friends so come Friday I was off to the coffee morning. I got to know the staff and as time went by they got to know me. I told the team that I had arranged events in the past, birthday parties, Christmas parties and much more. To cut a long story short, I am now the Chair of the Involvement and Social task group. The team arrange events for residents of Conniburrow. I am happy doing things like this as I like to see people enjoying themselves. The first event I organised was a treasure hunt around Conniburrow for children and parents. It was a good turn out with nearly 60 people attending. Not bad for my first time as an organiser! I intend to do my best as Chair now and in the future. It may be early but I am making notes for next years events already. I always like to think ahead in what I like to do! Sid Burgess
With Sid’s involvement there are plenty more events lined up for the residents of Conniburrow. He was also involved in the Building Connections project, a project funded by the Co-Op to help loneliness and isolation in children and young people through the utilisation of community spaces.
Sid recently attended our CA:MK Volunteer’s Lunch, to say a big ‘THANK YOU’ to all our wonderful volunteers and to let them know how much we appreciate all their efforts in helping communities come together and grow!
For more information about opportunities to volunteer in your area, visit our volunteering platform, SimplyConnect or contact us at info@communityactionmk.org.
Vital Signs Focus Groups on Friday 12th July @ 11am & 2pm
Vital Signs MK 2019 is the latest instalment of a project that the Milton Keynes Community Foundation has run since 2013. The reports bring together existing research and social data about Milton Keynes with an aim of highlighting the strengths, as well as identify areas for improvement for the local community to respond to, including the Voluntary, Community and Cultural Sector, as well as local businesses and individuals who want to help make a difference in the Milton Keynes community.
Here are Community Action: MK we will be supporting this year’s Vital Signs community consultation programme by running two focus groups:Friday 12th July, with one group at 11am and the other starting at 2.30pm.
If you would like to participate and share your views towards this year’s Vital Signs report, please follow this link to express your interest.
Tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided of course!
Once you have registered your interest, you will receive more details.
Midsummer Boulevard in CMK will play host to the first ever ‘A Festival of Creative Living’ this autumn! It will bring together artists, architects, designers and urban planners, thinkers and creatives to deliver a free programme of exhibitions, events, workshops, performances and more!
The programme itself will take place in a temporary campus of remarkable and playful buildings and structures and you will find more information about each element here.
The Festival will explore the idea of ‘The Built, The Unbuilt and The Unbuildable’ with an urban environment.
Visitors will be able to enjoy and experience central MK in an entirely different way and think about what it might become and look like in the future!
Whilst the Festival campus will occupy the centre of the city’s infamous grid road, raumlabor have developed two other creative projects, with the sole aim of getting visitors out and about in MK, whilst also inviting residents to experience and visit different parts of the city.
Do you provide support for Children and Young People’s mental health and wellbeing? Particularly in Milton Keynes, Bedford Borough or Central Bedfordshire? Well, this event may just interest you.
See below for more details.
To see more from our Community of Practice events and any more information about CoP, click here
We journeyed out and about into the local communities of Milton Keynes to promote and celebrate all types of volunteers!
Wolverton Community Orchard were wonderful hosts, with the Orchard itself housing several fruit trees, pockets of peace and a lovely sensory garden for all ages to enjoy! The volunteers there give their time and work hard to maintain the tranquil garden, whether it’s teaching schools about wildlife, planting patches of wild flowers or building a dragon out of their unused compost, their commitment to this well-kept Orchard is to be commended! Click here to view their Facebook page to find out more about this wonder of Wolverton!
We also travelled down to Brooklands Expansion area – ever expanding, it seems! There was an inquisitiveness surrounding what we do here at CA:MK, meeting a few people interested in offering their time to us as volunteers! CA:MK also had the fortunate pleasure to bump into the Health Centre’s practice manager, who seemed keen to liaise with us about local community engagement! Creating links, connecting the community and giving people opportunities is a pleasure to accommodate here at Community Action:MK!
The pop up in Netherfield provided an interesting insight into the residents thoughts and feelings on the People’s Health Trust project, a Local Conversation. Most locals were intrigued, particularly when tea and coffee were on offer! They were delighted with the Local Conversation’s recognition of the challenges they face, but there was also a sense of community among them and a willingness to give their time to the Local Conversation, to come together to share ideas, giving up their time willingly to do so, which is what Volunteers Week is all about! To find out for yourself what the Netherfield Local Conversation is all about, click here!
The locals of Big Local Conniburrow accommodated us at the hub for their weekly coffee morning, where we were joined by Amy from Sanctuary Hosting, who was impressed by the activities and various groups set up by BLC and it’s committee, with one of the committee members proudly showing off his own artwork, as well as the colossal amount of ideas and activities he and the committee put forward to bring the community together! To find out more information about what goes on down at the BLC hub, click here, or see for yourself by popping down to their local coffee morning every Friday!
There are so many opportunities to get out there and volunteer, even if it’s just for one hour a week – your time could make a difference to somebody’s life or to your community, as well as gaining invaluable experience and making friends along the way! Volunteers are the unsung heroes of a lot of our communities, so here’s to them! Thank you! #volunteersweek
Get in touch using info@communityactionmk.org if you wish to advertise any of your volunteering vacancies with us, or for those wishing to volunteer themselves, simply follow this link to view our opportunities, sign up to our weekly newsletter or pop in to our Volunteer Drop-In and speak to one of our Volunteering advisors, every Tuesday 1-3pm at Acorn House, Midsummer Boulevard, Milton Keynes, MK9 3HP.
