At a meeting of Cabinet on Tuesday 16 July, an exciting new approach to supporting and working with communities in Westmorland and Furness was agreed.
Westmorland and Furness Council is ambitious for its communities and an important step on this journey is to develop a Community Power Strategy which lays out a new and exciting approach to working differently with its communities - making sure that communities in the Westmorland and Furness area have much more influence in their daily lives and also what happens locally, on the ground, in their local area.
The new strategy will help ensure that communities are:
- Strong, vibrant and resilient with greater social connectedness;
- Happier and healthier with better long-term health and wellbeing outcomes.
Commenting on the decision, Councillor Virginia Taylor, Cabinet Member for Sustainable Communities and Localities, said:
"The approach set out in the new community strategy is an invitation for all communities, organisations, networks and businesses to work with us to support community power to flourish in Westmorland and Furness.
"The approach supports communities to work with us to improve their own lives, support each other to improve the places where they live, influence the services they use and change things for the better.
"We recognise that this change in approach will not happen overnight and will take time. This approach requires the council to work differently and to develop more collaborative models of working with our partners, communities, third sector and town and parish councils."
The Community Power Strategy supports the ambitions set out in the council's Council Plan and its Delivery Framework.