Road From Wigan Pier!

CONFERENCE: "The Road From Wigan Pier - How can we Shape our Northern Local Economies"    Donna Hall is Wigan Council's highly regarded Chief Executive and architect of a new compact between the council, residents and businesses, known locally as 'The Deal'.   Join her at this regional conference on February 6th to learn what's in it for local economies like yours. View this email in your browser

What is The Wigan Deal? And why should we care? Like many other northern towns, Wigan has its problems. £60million worth of 'efficiencies' still to find by 2019 An increase in life expectancy and age related illnesses Dependent adults with 'chaotic' lifestyles Children not prepared for school life A higher level of deprivation compared to England as a whole Can Wigan's community-based organisations put aside old differences to work as a team, and help the Council reshape the way it delivers its services? Are the two sectors willing to cooperate in a joint effort to stimulate the local economy, for mutual and collective benefit? Do they have the co-operative vision, mindset and skills now needed to solve Wigan's problems?  The Council has a grand vision that combines self-reliance and social enterprise to develop a new and sustainable revenue model for local economies. But is the voluntary sector up for it? Are Donna's staff behind her on this? How might the model benefit community-based organisations and local social enterprises? Should The Deal be structured to scale and if so, how? Will it reward pioneers and early adopters? These and other questions will be addressed by Wigan Council's Chief Executive on Saturday 6th February.   "The most important local regeneration event of the last 20 years". Event: REconomy North 2016 - "The road from Wigan Pier" When: Saturday 6th Feb, 2016 Where: ALRA, The Mill at the Pier, Wigan, Greater Manchester Time: 9:30 - 4:30pm Cost: £10 waged, £5 unwaged - free places available Booking: via Eventbrite Our speakers: David Fernadez-Arias - Spokesman for the Greater Manchester Referendum Campaign for Democratic Devolution Pam Warhurst - Author, public speaker and founder of the Incredible Edible Network  Kath Godfrey - Positive Money expert and environmental campaigner Mark Burton - Activist, scholar and part of the Steady State Manchester collective Ainslie Beattie - consultant and change agent for the REconomy Project  Donna Hall - Chief Exec Wigan Borough Council and "The Deal" On the day Of course we'll be gathering views from around the room so we anticipate some lively and insightful discussions. Our day is an opportunity for you to take a bit of time out to connect and have fun with other people who want to discover solutions to real problems that their communities face. We hope you can make it.  The Wigan Transition Group Team