The Project – Resilience at the Heart of Isle of Wight Communities

Resilience at the Heart of Isle of Wight Communities is a 4-year project, delivered by Community Action Isle of Wight (CAIW) in partnership with Aspire, Ryde and West Wight Sports Centre, Freshwater. The Project is funded by The National Lottery Community Fund.

Community Resilience is a term given to communities that have the ability to meet their needs and the needs of future generations and to successfully respond to difficult unexpected events, using the resources available to them. The origins of this project are born out of the diligence and hard work of emergency planning and the volunteer response following the Covid Pandemic. Previous projects have shown the community of the Isle of Wight is capable of a robust response to a major adverse event.

The response was strongly linked to the work of the local councils (town and parishes), the networks of civic, charitable and social enterprise organisations. CAIW played an integral role in supporting the response providing a vehicle to mobilise local individuals as volunteers and collaborate with local groups to act as frontline service hubs, during the pandemic. This has given CAIW a unique understanding of Isle of Wight Community.

This 4-year project builds on the experiences learned through the Island’s collective Covid response and looks to build stronger more resilient communities for the future.

Over its 4-year duration the Project will deliver the following outcomes:

  • Strengthen individual skills, knowledge and confidence to support community capacity and resilience at the local (Parish/village) level.
  • Strengthen personal/family resilience through improved skills, knowledge, positive participation.
  • Strengthen organisational community capacity, strategic planning and partnership working at the local (Parish/ Village).
  • Improve resident’s lives related to 3 key priorities for the Island: delivery of IOW Biosphere objectives and sustainability objectives, delivery of healthy and positive lifestyles objectives, delivery of improved lives through participation in Island culture.
  • Improvements to local public realm, environment and cultural.

 

The Team      

North Medina Area (Cowes, East Cowes and surrounds) – Senad Adams

Newport Area – Suzanne Stant 

West Wight Area – Adam Tucker – WestWight.org.uk 

Ryde Area – Fiona Gwinnett 

Sandown Area – Julian Wadsworth –   The Bay Area Youth Project

South Wight Area and Project Manager – Joel Bateman