Wigan Borough Community First is working with a range of community organisations to co-design the 'Community Collective' and 'Thematic Networks'. This includes testing and resourcing a VCFSE-led approach over a six-month period.

In May we are holding a series of Thematic Engagement sessions at Ashland House on Ince Bar, which are open to all Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise organisations to explore:

• What is important to us about active spaces?
• What could we do together?
• How could we organise the circle / network and make decisions together?

See also:

• Thematic Engagement Session: Children and Young People’s Circle (Fri 15 May)
• Thematic Engagement Session: Wellbeing Circle (Fri 22 May)
• Thematic Engagement Session: The Women’s Enterprise Circle (May 8th)
• Community Leaders Group (May 8th)
• Charity Leaders Group (May 11th)

What Is This?

This is part of our development of a 'Dispersed Leadership Model' which will strengthen leadership, representation and collaboration across the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector within Wigan Borough. The model, developed through engagement with communities, VCFSE organisations and partners, has 3 distinct elements

1. The Voluntary Sector Leadership Board
The Voluntary Sector Leadership Board is the strategic layer and includes representatives from existing Sector Leadership Groups

2. The Community Collective
The Community Collective is the community-facing layer of the and will be organised and supported by Thematic Circles / Networks.

3. The Community Network
The Community Network is where the Voluntary Sector Leadership Board and Community Collective work together to engage wider stakeholders and partners through Community Network Events.

What's in it for me?

After the Engagement sessions, we will invite expressions of interest from organisations to lead Thematic Circles for a six-month period. 3 leads per theme will be selected to reflect a mix of organisation sizes and focus areas. Organisations not selected, will be offered priority consideration for the following six-month cycle.

The ‘ask’ of and ‘offer’ to each Thematic Circle Lead are:

Ask

• Engage in 1 facilitated Design session to plan simple working practices and processes to support the Circle and 1 Reflection session to plan next steps..
  
• Plan, promote and facilitate a minimum of 3 Circle’s between June - November 26, together with the other lead organisations.
• Engage in a workshop with the Voluntary Sector Leadership Board to plan, promote and facilitate a Community Network event in Autumn 2026.

Offer

• Administration and communication support to facilitate Circle’s and produce short report for the Voluntary Sector Leadership Board.
• A payment for each lead organisation (3 lead organisations per theme) to reimburse for time and skills and commitment
• A budget to spend on circle delivery (venue, refreshments, access)

We will work to identify relevant funding and opportunities connected to the themes, share these and offer support to access opportunities.

Delivery

Thematic Circle Leads will be supported by WBCF to:

● Design simple working practices and processes to support the Circle
● Plan and deliver a minimum of 3 circles in community locations

Reflection

After 6 months of Thematic Circles the leads from all the circles will be invited to a Reflection session to discuss learning and plan next steps. This may include:

• Identifying opportunities and challenges
• Sustaining the model
• Developing new Thematic Circles
• Recruiting new Thematic Circle leads