The following are our aspiration we wish to achieve for all people in our borough
Confident and Welcoming Community
The Confident and Welcoming Community Thematic Action Planning brings together people from a wide range of local organisations, including the public, voluntary and community sectors and local businesses. The team first met in May 2018 to develop a shared action plan with actions we will take towards achieving the Confident and Welcoming Community Outcomes.
The team have agreed a Terms of Reference and have shared understanding for community planning to work we need everyone working together.
Confident Community: Everyone has opportunities to engage in community life and shape decisions – we have a strong sense of community belonging and take pride in our area.
Welcoming Community: Our borough is a safe, respectful and peaceful environment
‘Connected’ the first community plan for our borough outlines the five population indicators shown below which are aligned to the Skilled and Enterprising Economy. The indicator tells us what we are seeking to improve; we will we track our progress against these overtime to ensure we are heading in the right direction.
Using Evidence
We are continually working to improve our knowledge of people and communities to help develop new plans for local services. Our Confident and Welcoming Community action plan comes from a broad base of evidence that has been gathered using local and national statistics, identification of needs and issues from CWTAP members, current programmes and service mapping and community engagement.
Indicator Baseline
A statistical baseline has been prepared and forms part of a suite of six baselines covering all nine long-term outcomes from ‘Connected 2017-2030. This baseline has focused on the 3 indicators that underpin the Confident and Welcoming Community outcome of our community plan. A statistical presentation and baseline report are available for download below.
Community Engagement
In order to extend our reach and include more voices into the action planning process TAP members carried out community engagement. This engagement allowed us to build the story behind the baseline.
What we asked…
- What are the community strengths?
- What are the key issues or needs to be addressed?
- What is currently working well to address them?
- What organisations/services would you like to see working together more and why?
What you told us…
Community strengths
- Good relations, sense of community spirit, welcoming and safe place
- Strong community-based groups and networks
- Strong linkages between community groups and networks and statutory service
- Volunteering ethos
- Confidence in service providers
- Natural heritage, parks, facilities etc
Issues/needs
- Anti-Social Behaviour and crime/fear of crime
- Community segmentation, tensions and gatekeeping
- Engaging children and young people to build resilience, empower and instill self-confidence
- Social isolation and breaking down stigma of mental health, addiction, intergenerational work
- Community group capacity building, funding and working together and with others
- People not engaging with services
- Access to affordable amenities for all
- Lack of community investment and regeneration, poor infrastructure and transport links
What could work better?
- Better and smarter advertising/ promotion of services
- Greater recognition of community networks as integral part of service delivery
- Everyone working together better
- Engagement of young people and outreach to break social isolation
- More open community engagement and decision-making processes
- Volunteer support
The partners in this action planning process have listened to what people have to say, considered the evidence and bringing their own experience to and expertise to collaboratively design an action plan that is meaningful and will bring about real change.
This plan has been prepared by the Confident and Welcoming Community TAP team under the leadership of Barbara McNally, PSNI, as the Chair and Seamus McCrory, Armagh City and Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council as the Council Lead.
The Action Plan has a total of nine actions which are being taken forward under the Confident and Welcoming Community outcome. The strategic actions for each are shown below. To view the full action plan please click the link below. The detailed actions set out in the action plan will be driven by the ‘Action Coordinator’ who will work in partnership with identified individuals and organisations. The performance measures will help measure how successful each action is.
Strategic Actions
- Ensure people feel safe and secure in their homes, neighbourhoods and borough
- Strengthen connections between service providers and families, groups and communities
- Build resilience, promote empowerment and ensure that the voices of children and young people are heard
- Understand community sense of belonging and need better
For each of the action identified partners will work to identify performance measures which will tell us:
- How much did we do?
- How well did we do it?
- Is anyone better of as a result
The action plan will be living document and actions may change according to changing needs.
The team will continue to make progress in this theme and will meeting twice per year to ensure that a collaborative approach is taken moving forward.
Meetings and workshops
Any business or activity that takes place in our Confident and Welcoming Community Thematic Action Planning Team will be published here so that you can keep up to date with what is happening.
Downloads
Please contact the Community Planning team at Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council if you have any further enquiries:
Each thematic action planning team will report to the Community Planning Strategic Partnership every six months. The Progress reports provide an update from the Chair and show the performance of the confident and welcoming community actions.
The Chair of the confident and welcoming community action planning team reports to the Partnership in March and September.
| Title | Size | Download |
|---|---|---|
| Confident and Welcoming Progress Report one Mar 2019 | 1.10 MB | DownloadPreview |
| Confident and Welcoming Community Progress Report two Sept 2019 | 1.20 MB | DownloadPreview |