The #PowerTo Change partners group has been meeting regularly since May 2022. In that time, it has become a safe and trusted space for community partners to meet and share issues, concerns and learning . It has also provided a platform for the group, to feed into local and national policy work.
At our #PowerToChange community partners meeting on Friday 18th July our community partners signed off our partnership agreement that seeks to set out how why and how we will work together over the coming years. The agreement notes “As with all groups and organisations we are aware that circumstances, context, organisations and people change, and what worked yesterday might not work tomorrow. So, we are committed to and open to ongoing reflection and learning and adapting how we are structured and operate as needs arise. Since we started meeting in May 2023, we have already started to have an impact and are confident in the years ahead we can have more. This agreement, although light in touch, does we believe capture, the spirit, soul and intent of our work.”
Purpose: To provide an opportunity for a diverse range of frontline community groups from across Leicester City , to share and reflect on their practice and to use learning arising to influence and shape relevant local and national policy and decision making and improve service provision.
Goal: A Leicester city where everyone has access to the support, services and opportunities that enable them to thrive and live happy, healthy, safe, secure, rewarding and fulfilling lives:
Key values and methodologies.
Partnership: We believe that partnership both within the community sector and between, community, public and business sector is key to delivering our goal.
Creativity and agility: We live in a fast paced ever changing complex world , so for organisations to be effective they need to be creative, agile, and willing to adapt so they can respond to the ever changing demands and issues.
Working without “ego, silo or logo”, is key if we are to learn from each other and to develop effective practice and solutions.
Lived experience and voice of the young people, families and communities we work with should drive and lead the work, they are an asset and the solution not the problem.
Diversity and inclusion. We will proactively seek to ensure we identify and remove barriers that prevent people from participating in our group or thriving within, our city.
Reflection and learning. We are committed to learning from our practice, both its successes and failures, so we can continually adapt and improve.
“This is a great opportunity to harness our collective experience and knowledge to bring about change”
“Poverty is a huge issue in our city and only by working together can we overcome it”
“It has been great learning from each other and we can achieve much more through partnership, than by working in silos”
“This is the start of something positive”
We are looking forward to supporting this network to identify and tackle key local issues.
See full text of agreement here: PTC agreement
For more information on our #PowerToChange approach https://www.leicestershirecares.co.uk/about-charity/our-approach/power-to-change/