Community cohesion
We hear a lot in the papers these days about the importance of improving community relations in Britain, whether this be about race relations, or anti-social behaviour, or our 'segregated' society. This page provides links to some of the work the Council and its partners are doing to help support community relations.
The One City Vision
On 8th March 2006 the Leader launched the One City Vision to create "excellent services and stronger communities". The
speech emphasised the importance of taking action over the next five years to ensure that Westminster remains an open and tolerant city. He talked about the need to create a city where people are linked together by more than geography and stressed the importance of building on shared values and aspirations. Particular elements included the importance of English language tuition, engaging residents in the democratic process, helping create a common set of aspirations and developing representative resident and business associations.
Westminster City Partnership
The Council and its partners have been developing their aspirations in close collaboration. On Tuesday 14th March 2006 the Westminster City Partnership, hosted a summit at Porchester Hall to develop a blueprint for building security, tolerance, trust and neighbourliness in Westminster. 145 people joined the day's discussions and planning sessions. The group developed over 25 sets of recommendations on different topics and provided feedback on a range of issues. A summary report of the day and its findings can be downloaded
here together with a short 12 minute film of the day (Quicktime
low resolution or
high resolution, Windows Media Player
low resolution or
high resolution. An additional full transcript of the day is also available
here. The results of the event were incorporated into the Partnership's 10 year
vision for the city. The event developed a four part
framework that defined the vision of the day and against which progress could be monitored.
Other Consultation and Research
During 2006 the Council and its partners have hosted several initiatives to explore people's ideas and feelings about community relations in Westminster. On 13th December 2005 over 120 people from black and minority ethnic communities attended 12 workshops at St Mark's Church (
report). In January expert groups of community leaders debated how we create a 'tolerant city' and more 'active citizenship' (
report, page 8 onwards). On 24th January a major debate was hosted at the RSA (download
transcript and
summary). Through May and June workshops on 'community cohesion' toured five Area Forums and stimulated lively debate (
full report from p61,
summary) and on 24th October the topic was the focus of Reality 06, Westminster's annual youth summit with live performance artists incorporating views into improvised rap and songs.
Progress and Action
In Westminster, the Council and many of its partners already undertake an enormous amount of work aimed at improving community cohesion and ensuring that members of all communities and groups have the best experience of living and working in the borough. A summary of some of these initiatives against the framework is available
here. The following links provide more information and resources.
Belonging identity and neighbourhood
* CivicWatch
* Libraries
* Volunteering
* Open Spaces
Valuing diversity, dialogue & integration
* English Language
* Faith Exchange
* Discrimination
* Sport
* Dialogue
* VAW Community Grants
Involving and giving voice to communities
* Community Directory
* Meeting Spaces
* Youth Services
Equality of opportunity and social inclusion
* Paddington Development Trust
* Rough sleeping
* Young People
For further information on Community Cohesion please contact John Dimmer jdimmer@westminster.gov.uk.
