The Potted History of Community Action Forum (Warwick District)

Leamington Social Services Children’s Team initiated the community action project in the early 1990’s as a response to the 1991 Townsend report examining areas of deprivation within Leamington Spa. A partnership approach was used and representatives from health, Warwickshire County Council, Warwick District council, Warwickshire College and the Pre-school Learning Alliance came together with the aim of promoting the welfare of children . Parents were to be consulted in the four wards with the highest degree of disadvantage: Brunswick, Crown, Clarendon and Wiles.

After extensive consultation with parents links were made with existing groups and community representatives so that each group met local needs. Four parent support groups and one playgroup were formed as a result of this .

During this exercise and whilst supporting the groups that were formed, members found that there were many other agencies intending to consult in the same areas. In order to prevent consultation overkill networks were extended and the beginnings of an integrated community approach emerged.

In February 1996 an Information Exchange was held which was attended by 54 people from a wide variety of agencies.

The response to the community work lead to a one day Community Initiatives Conference which aimed to improve networking and information exchange between community groups, organisations and the public. The feedback from this experiment was so positive that the planning group decided to use their remaining funds to provide lunches with opportunities for highlighting initiatives and exchanging information as the focus of the meetings.
So CAF was born.

Now we have more than 200 people on our database and the lunches are attended by 80 – 100 people and we all know if you want to network in Warwick District a CAF lunch is the place to be.

Although some things have changed the spirit of CAF is still of a group of people who come together to inform, network, and promote partnership working and eat a good lunch!

For more information on how to attend future events please click here