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• How we developed the Community Support Plan

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  In June 2024, we began a 3-stage process to develop our new Community Support Plan. As part of this process, we held nine public sessions and carried out an online survey to help us understand the key issues across the city and to agree the outcomes and priorities to be included in the new Community Support Plan.

  We asked

  We wanted to understand the current key priorities are facing communities and get feedback from community organisations about how community support services and funding should be approached moving forward.

  You said

  Generally, respondents valued the community support provided by council and spoke positively about council officers and the help they provided to residents and local communities. suggested ways in which council service delivery and funding, could be improved included:

  • Communities welcome the provision of Council owned and operated community centres / community spaces. These offer a low cost, safe and accessible space for community activities and service delivery.
  • It was suggested that access to facilities could be enhanced through increased promotion of centre facilities and services / activities; increased consistency of services delivered and ensuring that local facilities deliver activity that meets the needs of user communities.
  • There was feedback that provision of facilities is not always consistent across the city and that some facilities need modernisation.
  • Council playing a lead role in facilitating / stimulating networking and collaboration between community organisations at local level.
  • Proactively encouraging and facilitating collaboration between Council community centres and wider stakeholders to ensure community support and programming is delivered in a co-ordinated way that adds value and reduces duplication.
  • Provision of appropriate training / coaching / mentoring for community organisations, ensuring non-duplication with what is already being delivered.
  • Supporting volunteer development, including additional volunteer capacity and increased volunteer skills.

  Respondents also stressed that communities needed ongoing support from council to deliver community services and activities. Suggested priorities for council funding included:

  • Providing ongoing and increased funding for core running costs of community operated facilities.
  • Funding for core costs of running a community or voluntary organisation not linked to the provision of buildings / community facilities.
  • Funding for capacity building activities to addresses identified gaps / deficits.
  • Grant programmes should offer an opportunity for consortia / collaborative bids for programme / service delivery.
  • Grant programmes should offer a variety of funding scales from small short-term grants for community activities to multi-annual grants for programme / service delivery.

  The maximum grant available for community facility revenue costs should be increased recognising increased utilities and running costs experienced by community organisations.

  We did

  We have sought to incorporate these suggestions into our new community support plan.

  • Stevie to add description of how we have taken this on board