Background:

The Amber Valley Partnership was set up in 1994 to shape the social, economic and physical development of the borough. Previous attempts at regeneration had been fragmented and narrow and it became apparent that any new initiatives needed to involve the public, private, voluntary and community sectors, uniting then in a common cause.

A Community Plan, setting out improvements to people’s lives and action needed to achieve this was first published in 1994. Since then, the Partnership has delivered and is delivering a diverse range of strategies and projects, particularly in the most deprived parts of the borough. These include:

· The Single Regeneration Budget project in Langley Mill, Ironville and Somercotes: A project to tackle the causes of deprivation in these locations

·The Belper-Derwent Project: A project designed to improve the fortunes of Belper and the surrounding area

· The Healthier Communities Project: Set up to target and address health inequalities across Amber Valley

· East Amber Valley Sure Start Project: its aim is to achieve better outcomes for children, parents and communities

· ICT Bridging the Gap Project for Langley Mill and Ironville: Set up to improve IT skills in these areas

· The Heanor me&u Project: This project aims to do what the Belper-Derwent Project did for Belper for Heanor and its surrounding area.

· The Renaissance Ironville project: This is a 15-year plan to improve the lives of the people of Ironville and Codnor Park.

Some of these projects are now at an end but others are still very much alive and achieving significant improvements in their areas of operation. Outcomes from many of these projects feature in the 2003 and 2004 progress reports, which can be found under the publications section of this web site.
 

Recent developments:

A new 3-year Community Strategy for 2006 – 2009 has been developed after consultation with partners and the community. This strategy can be found under ‘publications’ setting out our plans for the future.

A new partnership structure has been agreed upon to enable partners to deliver their plans. This may be summarised below:

                                                               Partnership Structure                   

This structure is supported by a clearly defined way of working, featured in the Governance handbook and Communications Strategy, both of which can be viewed under the ‘Publications’ section. Furthermore, these principles are under–pinned by a code of conduct which may be summarised as follows:

Our partners:

a). Believe in the importance of harmonious relations between the diverse communities of Amber Valley and commit to take every opportunity to improve those relations.

b) Give an undertaking to represent the interests of all, regardless of race, sex, colour religion or any other unlawful discriminating factor.

c) Reject all forms of racial violence, racial harassment and unlawful racial discrimination.

d) Agree not to publish or endorse material likely to generate hostility or division between people of different racial, national or religious groups.

e) Agree to ensure not to use any actions or words that might lead others to discriminate or stir up racial hatred, or lead to prejudice on the grounds of race, nationality or religion.