Community Cohesion in Worcestershire
You will hear more and more about community cohesion as it is an important national issue and one we need to seriously consider locally.
Community Cohesion is defined as:
"Community Cohesion is what must happen in all communities to enable different groups of people to get on well together. A key contributor to community cohesion is integration which is what must happen to enable new residents and existing residents to adjust to one another." (CLG, LGA and IDeA)
Evidence suggests that people who have a sense of belonging in their neighbourhood are likely to take better advantage of public services and enjoy the benefits of a good education, have access to meaningful employment, are healthier
and are likely to live longer. Therefore, the development of a community cohesion strategy for the county is vital and VCS organisations are important to this process.
Many services and organisations are contributing to community cohesion already, for example, those running activities that bring different groups of people together. This work is capturing these details so that the strategy can build on these opportunities, so organisations can continue to work together and any gaps can be identified.
A practical action plan and a toolkit designed to disseminate information and learning will be created later this year so that all partner organisations can contribute. All partners, including the VCS, are represented on the working group for this project. VCS representatives from umbrella organisations have also been invited to the event on January 25, 2010 to help to define the vision for the county that further work will build on.
For further information or to find out who your representative is, contact Margaret Reilly on 01905 766150 or email mreilly@worcestershire.gov.uk More information will be provided across the partnership as the project develops.