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Recent Events
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Want to know what activities and events CEN has organised or been involved in? Or missed one and want to catch up? Then see below.
CEN also produces photo reports that are easy to read and give a good summary of what has happened. Reports from previous years are in the archive section.
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London 2012 - a once in a lifetime opportunity – be part of it!
London 2012 Open Weekend Olympic & Paralympic Games Community Information Fair, 24th July 2010
London 2012 Open Weekend is an annual UK-wide celebration counting down to the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Open Weekend 2010 took place from 23-25 July and included hundreds of events across the UK – from sport to art, dance to exhibitions.
As part of Open Weekend 2010 and to celebrate Coventry’s recent announcement of becoming a Host Olympic City for 2012 Olympic Football, Coventry CEN held an Olympics and Paralymics Community Information Fair hosted by The Ricoh Arena Community Space on Saturday 24th July.
The Information Fair was opened by David Moorcroft, Olympian and 2012 Ambassador and provided the perfect opportunity to learn more about the projects and events happening locally in Coventry, regionally and nationally, find out how to get involved, and obtain details of what funding might be available to support potential projects and activities. Those attending were challenged to use the London 2012 Games as an inspiration for change and to encourage working together to add value to Coventry's community cohesion strategy.
This very successful event was organised with a number of partners, including Coventry CEN, Coventry and Warwickshire 2012 Partnership (CW2012), Coventry City Council, the Coventry Partnership, Ricoh Arena, The Ricoh Arena Community Space and West Midlands for 2012 (WM2012).
London 2012 Open Weekend CEN Community Information Fair Report can be downloaded below:
Details of the information available and presentations made at the CEN Community Information Fair can be downloaded below:
For more information please visit: www.cswp.org.uk/london2012
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The Big Lunch 2010
The Big Lunch is a national event that happened for the first time in 2009. The idea was started by The Eden Project in Cornwall and around a million people took part last year, sharing lunches in streets, parks, gardens, car parks. They loved it and the Big Lunch took place again in 2010!
This year, CEN worked with the Coventry Partnership to promote this event across Coventry. Thirteen Big Lunches took place on Sunday 18th July across Coventry, from a simple lunch in the garden to a big community event. The Big Lunch was a chance for different generations and backgrounds to hear each other out and share stories, skills and interests. A big park lunch was lined up for Gosford Park and also, with the help of Whitefriars, in places like Willenhall and Foleshill. There were a total of 13 Big Lunches organised across the city. These included: Gosford Park Primary School, FolesHillfields Healthy Summer, Godiva Mela - Edgewick Park, Foleshill (where the Lord Mayor attended). You can check out the locations at www.thebiglunch.com/map/find-a-big-lunch.php
The Big Lunch is led by the Eden Project with the support of a family of partners, The Big Lottery Fund, MasterCard, EDF Energy and the Department of Communities and Local Government who all want to break down barriers and build bridges within neighbourhoods.
More information and resources for planning your Big Lunch are available below:
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Whether you go to someone else's Big Lunch or organise one of your own have a great time, make some new friends, and let us know how it goes.
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Community Empowerment Network (CEN) receives Coventry Compact Award
The Coventry Compact Awards Ceremony took place on 11th June 2010 at The Welcome Centre, Coventry. Nominations for these first ever Compact Awards were invited in April for partnership working for the Coventry Compact Awards from organisation's whose work involves co-operation between sectors in the following catagories:
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Joint working between a statutory organisation and a voluntary or community organisation/group
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to achieve more together than each could have achieved alone
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Actual working practices which reflect the good practice set out in Coventry's Compact codes
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Initiatives or ways of working that enable voluntary and community organisations to thrive
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Initiatives to embed the Compact codes within internal working practices
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Sixteen nominations were received from a wide range of organisations. Work had to be jointly nominated by both a statutory and a voluntary/community organisation.
In 2009 Coventry CEN worked with the Community Safety Partnership to enable community knowledge and expertise inform the 2009/10 Community Safety Partnership Strategic Assessment, which identified community safety priorities in Coventry. The work also included the review of Safer Neighbourhood Groups and development of an induction pack for all new Safer Neighbourhood Group members which is being distributed by the city's Community Safety Officers. Coventry CEN and the Community Safety Partnership were jointly nominated for this work and were successful in receiving a commendation for good examples of Compact-style working.
Other nominees receiving a commendation for good examples of Compact-style working are:
• the MAMTA Project's work with NHS Coventry and UHCW around infant mortality
• Foleshill Women's Training's work with the City Council on preconception care and joint working on employment
• the Children's Society's work with the Police on the Reunite project
• the Innovation and Development Fund delivered by Voluntary Action Coventry for and with NHS Coventry
• the City Council's dissemination of the Coventry Compact Procurement & Contracting Code within its procurement systems
• Coventry Carers Centre and the Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust for Caring for Carers
• the United Reformed Church's partnership working with Henley College to run a cafe whilst providing work experience for students with learning disabilities
The following nominees receive a special commendation for particular strong examples of Compact-style working:
• Alzheimers Society & UHCW for the wider partnership behind the Dementia Care Group
• Coventry MIND and NHS Coventry for their joint working in delivering the Increased Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme
• NCT and the City Council's Health Development Unit for Positive About Breastfeeding
• Age Concern Coventry and the Older People's Partnership for Contact & Connect
The awards show the continued commitment of the voluntary and community sectors to working with colleagues in the statutory sector to improve the lives of Coventry people and to achieve more together than could have been achieved separately.
Coventry City Legends
During the week Monday 15th to Thursday 18th February Coventry CEN joined forces with a number of partner organisation to provide an exciting programme of intergenerational learning activities at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, with a Match-day experience on 27th February.
Coventry City Legends was developed in Partnership with the Federation of Stadium Communities, (FSC), Coventry Community Empowerment Network (CEN), The Ricoh Arena Community Space, Sky Blues in the Community, Coventry City FC, and the PfS Partnership Centre. The project was funded by a Transformation Fund grant from the Department of Business, Innovation and skills and brought together NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training) young people (19-25) and older people (50+) from the neighbourhoods surrounding the Ricoh Arena and other areas in Coventry, to take part in a variety of informal learning activities including digital photography, meeting and interviewing former players, football coaching and desk-top publishing. The course was free to all participants with transport and lunch included.
"Finding Out About Energy ... And How To Save It ... !" Training Day
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Coventry CEN and The Ricoh Arena Community Space hosted a free one day Green Communities training course on 12th November 2009 at The Ricoh Arena Community Space.
The event was part of Coventry, Warwickshire and Worcestershire's "Switch It Off" 2009 Campaign, and provided delegates with information to carry out a basic energy audit of community buildings and their own homes, using processes including;
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Delegates were also able to learn about:
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Coventry City Council's sustainability team also attended the event with an information stand and gave a presentation about the Council's Waste Watcher's community energy saving programme. Delegates were also shown to how to measure their carbon footprints, and provided with energy saving advice.
Charity Director/Trustee Training
Due to demand the FREE Charity Director/Trustee CEN training course held on Saturday 18th April 2009 at the Ricoh Arena Community Space was increased by three additional places above the usual maximum limit. Delegates who attended expressed an interest in a follow up event to explore how the training was being put to practical use. Requests were also made for further courses. If your group would be interested in attending future events please contact us at info@covcen.org.uk and let us know what training would be of interest.
Saturday Conference 14th March 2009
Whilst the country faces difficult times, Coventry’s community groups continue to bring people together and get things done. It’s even more important now for the community sector to pull together and make its voice heard and with this as the theme for the event, CEN held its latest Saturday Conference on 14th March at the Welcome Centre, Parkside, Coventry.
As CEN begins a new chapter as a fully independent network, it’s an exciting time but there will also be some challenges, and the Saturday conference reflected this. There were opportunities to hear about the latest proposals for a new city cente health facility, to engage directly with Coventry Partnership as Coventry continues to tackle difficult issues, and also to find out about a ground-breaking new national resource for community groups developed by our community colleagues from Cornwall. And given the milestone CEN is going to achieve, there was also time for some celebration and going forward together. CEN once again welcomed Peter Woodward, Quest Associates, who facilitated the morning for us, and the event finished with a celebration lunch. Further details will be included in our next Speakeasy newsletter.
How GREEN are we...!
Fifty four top tips for saving energy and resources, encouraging green travel and ethical shopping, and caring for our local areas were shared with community organisations who attended the “Greening your community group/building” training day at the Ricoh Arena Community Space in Coventry on 17th July 2008.
A discussion on climate change, the opportunity to develop an environmentally sustainable action plan and look at how this can be used when seeking funding were also included on the day’s agenda.
The event, held by Community Matters, was part of the Every Action Counts programme, which supports voluntary and community organisations in protecting and improving our environment. Many groups are already taking steps to make their activities “greener” and many others would like to do more to benefit their group, community, and the environment. Small actions can soon add up to make a positive difference.
Business in the Community representatives gave a presentation on how groups can link with free professional services. This was followed with an update from the Development Trusts Association on current funding initiatives, asset transfer and the empowerment white paper “Communities in Control: real people, real power” published on 9th July 2008 by the 
For more information about Community Matters visit:
Saturday Conference, March 08
‘Neighbourhood Working’ was the theme of CEN’s March Saturday Conference. Members of staff from Neighbourhood Management joined around 60 members of the CEN network to discuss questions like: How can we work together better? How do Neighbourhood Management work? and How can we improve our neighbourhoods? We also updated and revised our 'golden rules' for involving the communtiy in decisions that affect them. For more, read our colourful event report:
'Sustainable Communities Strategy' Event
On 19th January CEN members had the opportunity to share their views on the priorities for the future of Coventry. We were responding to Coventry Partnership’s ‘Sustainable Communities Strategy’ for the next 20 years. At our Saturday Conference on 17th March, the Coventry Partnership fed back to CEN in detail about how each comment had been addressed.
You can view what happened to each comment made here:
To read the original comments made on the strategy click on the report below:
You can find out more about the strategy