VCSE Community Conference - 30 November 2020

The VCSE Sectoral Advisory Panel held its inaugural Community Conference on 30 November 2020, providing an opportunity to hear about the newly established VCSE Sectoral Advisory Panel, learn from community wellbeing approaches in Scotland and Wales, and to discuss implications for the community planning process in Belfast.

Key note speakers included Carál Ní Chuilín (Minister for Communities), Suzanne Wylie (Chief Executive of Belfast City Council and Chair of Belfast Community Planning Partnership), Sophie Howe (Future Generations Commissioner for Wales) and Sarah Gadsden (Chief Executive of the Scottish Improvement Service). You can watch the presentations by visiting the video links within the AGENDA section on this page.

Attendees also heard perspectives on community planning themes being taken forward under the Belfast Agenda, from the Chairs of the Community Planning Partnerships delivery Boards - Alistair Reid (Growing the Economy and Working & Learning Boards), Ryan Black (Living Here Board), and Grainia Long (Resilience and Sustainability Board) as well as from John Tully, the Councils Director of City and Organisational Strategy.

Attendees had the opportunity to discuss key themes of interest to the sector with the VCSE Panel, who hope to use the feedback to shape their work going forward. Themes discussed included approaches to decision making and accountability, partnership and impact, engagement and participation.

A conference report which includes a summary of the event and participant feedback has now been published and is available to view or download from the right hand panel.

If you were unable to attend the conference, you can now catch up on what you missed by watching the below recordings:

If you attended the conference, please take the short conference feedback survey below.