Community Engagement Virtual Summit Agenda

From Isolation to Transformation

At their best, parish and town councils are at the heart of leadership within their local communities. But it is also true that they can operate at ‘arms length’ and appear disengaged from the concerns and aspirations of local residents. This session features the story of the very first C2 community-led place-based partnership that delivered astonishing environmental, health, employment & educational outcomes in just 2 years. Key principles will be narrated by local resident Grenville Chappell BEM, who became town & county councillor and, along with wife June, Mayor & Mayoress of Falmouth. He will be joined by Mark Williams, currently Clerk to Falmouth Town council who will describe impact of partnership, how it influenced the future thinking and crucially, engagement of the Town Council and local community 

The session will include opportunity for Q & A. 

In this session we will explore  

• the lessons of many years of austerity and the covid pandemic in terms of the roles of local authorities, parish councils and local communities
• parish councils using a strengths based approach to their activity and being a lynchpin is creating the conditions for communities to flourish
• why relationships are much more important than processes
• how this approach makes much better use of existing resources within communities and encourages local democratic community engagement

Welshpool Community Angels
Anne Wilson FSLCC, SLCC Cover Advisor

How do we respond to a local need when lockdown was announced – that was our immediate thought? Welshpool residents, businesses, the churches and a county councillor worked with me to set up a community project almost over-night. The Town Council ran a day centre and small-scale meals on wheels already but how do you grow this to meet the needs of the community during a pandemic, picking up many other local needs and finding people in desperate situations. I will tell you how the community came together, the kindness of residents and businesses, the challenges we met, the closing of the day centre and how this has changed the way the Town Council works in terms of the diversification of staff roles.

How Applications Can Help Councils to Improve Services and Better Connect with their Communities
David Hall, CloudyIT 

CloudyIT and special guests highlight how councils can use bespoke Microsoft 365-compatible applications (“apps”) to better serve their communities in more cost-effective and productive ways.   
What attendees can expect from this presentation:  

Discover how CloudyIT’s bespoke suite of Microsoft 365 compatible council apps has been designed by councils to deliver low-cost, easy-to-use, digital solutions to common local government service problems.    

This talk explores that range of “off the shelf” app solutions and features clerk insights to show you how apps can be used to streamline council services, reduce operational costs, and improve council’s engagement with their communities.  

Using Facebook Groups To Build A Positive Local Community
Sam Flynn, Managing Director, Sam Flynn Social Media 

Facebook Groups can be a great place to build a strong community and typically get more reach then Facebook pages.  In this session, we’ll cover:

• Why you might want to consider running a group
• How to encourage positivity and discourage negativity in your group
• How to use external Facebook Groups to get your message across

7 steps to the Perfect Community Event
Chris Powell, The Event Expert 

Events are a tried and tested method for organisations to reach and engage with the communities they serve. In this session you’ll learn the 7 steps to creating and designing successful and memorable event experiences.    

Councils are increasingly talking about community power – the idea that the public sector should hand more power and resource over to communities. But so far much of the agenda has focused on larger councils even though towns and parishes have arguably the closest and richest relationship with their communities. This session will investigate what role towns and parishes can play in wider plans for community power and how they can become more community powered themselves while addressing some of the obstacles and objections to such a shift.

Getting involved with The Big Jubilee Lunch – Fun way to deliver change 
Tracey Robbins, Head of UK Delivery, The Eden Project 

Discover more about the free resources Eden Project Communities offer to help connect communities and how you can get involved.  Learn how simple actions can make a big difference, and how The Big (Jubilee) Lunch and The Month of Community (with partners including Carers Week, Refugee Week and Loneliness Awareness Week) delivers real change in communities. 15 million people participated last year, enabling 77% to feel closer to their neighbours; 79% feel a greater sense of community and 75% more likely to get involved in community actives.  Come and join us to discover how you can take small steps to make a big difference where you live and get free resources for your community. 

• Discover free materials and resources to improve community engagement on the ground 
• Learn from research that demonstrate the value of connected communities 
• Hear how small steps we all ca take that make such a big difference