Our cross-party supported group to help address community cohesion issues.
We are working together to understand community concerns and address community cohesion issues in Aldershot and Farnborough. We are calling this work Rushmoor Voices.
This followed a motion at council in August 2024, where there was cross-party support on setting up a working party.
Scope and purpose
The Community Engagement Task and Finish group has been set up following a Council motion. The motion agreed that the Council would:
'Establish a cross-party working group to work with local community groups and leaders to better understand and address community concerns.'
Objectives of the group
- To work together to mitigate community tensions
- To understand concerns by facilitating constructive engagement with community groups and residents to ascertain their views and experiences
- To work with community and voluntary groups to develop an enhanced programme of community engagement events and activities
- To identify and learn from external speakers who have experience in community cohesion
- To create a safe environment to discuss matters of concern and wellbeing, such as hate crime and personal safety
- To encourage respectful participation in civic life and interaction between different community groups
- To be open and transparent about the work and progress of the group and ensure frequent communication updates on cohesion related issues are shared
Membership
- Councillor Sophie Porter (Chair)
- Councillor Craig Card
- Councillor Sue Carter
- Councillor Alex Crawford
- Councillor Halleh Koohestani
- Councillor Sarah Spall
- Councillor Stuart Trussler
Meetings
Frequency of meetings to be agreed.
Accountability
There is a budget of £50,000 to support this work.
The group unanimously agreed to use their budget to bring in the expertise of the Belong Network to support us. This programme of work is called Rushmoor Voices.
We will be outlining the work of the group at a council meeting early this year. We will add the report from the meeting, as soon as it is available.
Contact us