Wellbeing & Health Equality

Making it Happen is about discovering, celebrating and building on the positive things in local neighbourhoods. Community development workers are supporting communities to come together to make the most of the opportunities that exist to create positive change.

#MakingitHappenES

How it works

Do you have a great idea and need help Making it Happen? We’d love to hear from you and help if we can! We can give advice, guidance and funding to help you move your idea into action.

Making it Happen aims to build the confidence and capability of people to come together in their neighbourhoods to create positive change and to tackle local issues that matter to them most.

Community Development Workers will be active in neighbourhoods – in community centres, on streets, in schools – helping people discover their own strengths to connect with the positive things already happening and with others who share the same interests, and to help people see that everybody has something to bring to their community.

A key principle is to not do for individuals and communities what they can do for themselves. Community Development Workers are there to lend-a-hand and provide guidance to people to develop their ideas.

Through strengths based and community driven change, the main aims of Making it Happen are to increase social connection through neighbour-to-neighbour relationship building and to improve communities’ capacity to come together to influence the places that they live.

By discovering a community’s strengths it is also possible to build a fuller picture of a whole community and not just the problems and needs. This re-balancing will help other agencies to better understand the factors that influence healthy communities.

Where it’s delivered

3VA is delivering Making it Happen in the Shinewater, Willingdon Trees and Hampden Park East areas of Eastbourne, but the project is being delivered by partner organisations throughout East Sussex.

Each area presents unique, complex challenges as well as assets, and the level and length of development support will reflect community aspirations, priorities and pace. Additional areas will only be added when or if there is the confidence and self-sufficiency for people to progress collective community priorities themselves, with reduced or no additional support.

Getting support

Have you got a good idea to make positive change in your neighbourhood?

What do you need to put in place to make it happen?

Let’s get started!

Making it Happen Community Development Workers can support you to turn your good idea into reality. From listening to your idea, connecting you up with others who feel the same, signposting you to training or putting you in touch with people with the right expertise, resources or information about funding, they can provide as much or as little support as you need.

Give us a call or fill out this form to tell us about your idea and to find out more about how we can support you, including information about Making it Happen funding opportunities.

Or you can download the form to fill out by hand.

Contact Jo Peters (Team Lead) on:

Tel: 07944 617 792
Email: info@3va.org.uk