Stronger, Safer and Cohesive Communities - Good News Stories
This page is to share some of the good news stories happening across the county that are leading to stronger, safer and cohesive communities.
Moorlands Connect is an initiative developed by the Moorlands Together partnership to be a demand responsive transport service that will cover the rural Leek area from September 2010. It will not only contribute to sustainable development, but will encourage stronger communities and improve access to amenities in rural parts of the Staffordshire Moorlands.
For more information, please see our Sustainable Development Partnership pages on this website by clicking here.
- 'Goodbye to Summer' Lantern Parade in Lichfield wins the 'Successful Community engagement' aware at the RegenWM awards
The parade was developed as a result of two North Lichfield organisations bringing together a wide range of community groups and residents to prepare for six months to create a stunning 100-strong parade through the Dimbles Lane area of the town.
The partnership between North Lichfield Initiative and North Lichfield Community and Learning Partnership carried out fundraising, art workshops and training to put on the event.
As part of the process, 68 Home Fire Risk Check referrals were given to the fire service, the Jigsaw community hub saw a dramatic increase in attendance and Staffordshire Police confirmed that anti-social behaviour was 55% lower.
The approach adopted by 'Goodbye to Summer' is set to be replicated in Burton upon Trent and Burntwood.
For more information, please click here: 
Lichfield Projects Regen WM
- Fire and Rescue Service Equality and Diversity Award Scheme
The Fire and Rescue Service Risk Reduction Team at Burton on Trent Fire Station, working in partnership with East Staffordshire Borough Council under the auspice of the Community Safety partnership, has been selected as a winner of the Service Delivery (Team) Category in this year's Fire and Rescue Service Equality and Diversity Award Scheme. This national scheme is co-sponsored by CLG, the Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA) and the LGA.
The Risk Reduction Team had been involved in several projects, for example minority ethnic recruitment, providing fire safety booklets in Polish, setting up focus groups with minority ethnic communities to give fire safety advice, and offering coaching and mentoring to applicants to the Retained Duty System. The result of this endeavour was recruitment of five bi-lingual firefighters including one Polish woman, and two minority ethnic Retained Duty System firefighters. The judges agreed that the team's work was commendable as it reached out to different organisations and groups. They were impressed with the amount of activity taking place; the project targets were clear and the outcomes benefited a wide range of people; the impact of the project was also well assessed.
For more information please see: http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/fire/doc/1521552.doc
- Stafford's Domestic Abuse Partnership
Stafford's Domestic Abuse Partnership won 'Partnership of the Year' in the Staffordshire Justice Awards in November 2009 - this was a real achievement as it was only a year old at the time. Following on from this the partnership were also featured in the Governments recent
'Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy' which highlighted their work within rural communities as an area of good practice (page 45 -
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/vawg-strategy-2009/).
As part of their Domestic Violence Strategy, Stafford Borough identified a substantial rural area where the availability and knowledge of domestic violence support services was extremely limited. As a result Staffordshire Women's Aid and the Domestic Violence Co-ordinator developed a pilot project, Rural Reachout, to deliver community based outreach support in rural areas.
To enable women to access support and overcome barriers such as a lack of transport, social isolation and the stigma of domestic violence in small rural communities, Rural Reachout operates from discreet bases within the community, for example a GP Surgery.
The project was initially funded through pump-priming money but has since been mainstream funded by Staffordshire County Council's Supporting People. It has expanded to include many rural areas across Staffordshire.
- National Young Local Authority of the Year award
In their second year of taking part, East Staffordshire Borough Council won 1st place in the 'English Unitary and District Councils' category (beating 60 other councils) and came runner up overall in the competition. They fielded two teams of staff who were a credit to the Council and to the amount of work the Council has been placing on the youth agenda both inside and outside the Council.
Last Modified:
06/05/2010 13:41:55
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