A new downloadable guide designed to help local authorities deal with procurement plans and waste contracts has been launched by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The procurement plan provides a link between councils’ Municipal Waste Management Strategies and the contract toolkit, to assist authorities in implementing their strategies.The toolkit has been drawn up to guide a local council through this process and to help highlight risks, identify issues and signpost essential information from Government and from professional institutions to help in drafting contracts.The Waste Implementation Programme will provide a range of support measures and good practice advice for councils, covering areas such as procurement, strategy-making, kerbside recycling, waste collection from high-density housing estates, civic amenity sites and collecting bulky goods. It also provides information about new technology and will help to motivate the sector to make decisions and changes through procurement and specialist waste management advice. The toolkit has been developed by Enviros Consulting.

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Nine schemes have been named as the finalists in the search for England’s most inspirational transformation of a community space. The nine projects have each won regional awards in the ‘A Picture of Change’ competition and each has won a thousand pounds with a chance of a further five thousand as the national winner.The new competition has been established to identify local groups who have made a momentous difference in making their neighbourhood cleaner, safer and greener. The national winner will be named at the Delivering Sustainable Communities Summit in Manchester, on February 1st.Announcing the finalists, ODPM minister Phil Hope said each of the nine was a great example of how the community could make a difference to a neighbourhood and the lives of the people who lived there. “Across England,we received over 400 entries for the competition, which is evidence of the enthusiasm that people have for taking action and driving change,” he said. The standard of entries was so high that they will all be showcased on cleanersafergreener.gov.uk.

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By Cherie R. Brown and George J. MazzaBased on the National Coalition Building Institute’s popular leadership development program, Leading Diverse Communities gives community, campus, nonprofit, and business leaders the tools they need to embrace diversity and encourage their stakeholders to do the same. The book is filled with practical guidance on how to achieve results and provides a simple, skill-oriented guidebook for busy leaders. Leading Diverse Communities distils the National Coalition Building Institute’s wisdom into thirty-two concise leadership principles. Each principle is illuminated with theory and a related example, activity, and worksheet that can help develop the skills required to put a particular principle into practice.

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