Over recent years, many communities across Scotland have decided to develop a Community Action Plan which reflects the aspirations of the people who live there. It can be as broad or as narrow as the Community want it to be, depending on what’s there already and what people think may be missing and there is expertise out there on how to create one with funding avenues to secure it.
Given the many challenges facing us both now and after the Pandemic, a number of folk directly involved with the PH8 response have formed a local group, ‘PH8 Community Vision’, with a view to developing a Community Plan. The group has grown directly out of PH8 Community and enjoys strong representation from the Community Council and other local groups.
Our collective aim is to develop a Plan which reflects the strengths of our broad PH8 community while also identifying gaps in provision and possible solutions.
The Plan will look to compliment what is already there and to this end, will consult with a wide range of local groups across the postcode area. In addition, it will seek to gain the views of every household through a questionnaire or equivalent.
In the changed landscape ahead of us though, two thing seems certain. The range of challenges facing us will be greater than most of us have seen in our lifetime and the number of people at risk of exclusion ( social, financial, residential) is only like to grow. So our aspiration is for a Plan which seeks to make this a safer, fairer and even better community in which to live.
Over the next few days, funding applications will be submitted which, if successful, should enable the work of consultation to begin quite shortly. We now have a number of people either on or about to join the Steering Group for PH Community Vision, but we could do with even more. So whether you would like to be on the Steering Group or just ‘involved’ it would be great to hear from you. In due course we will need quite a lot of volunteers to help with distribution etc, so please do get in touch.
Our e mail address is: PH8communityvision@gmail.com
Further updates on progress will follow in future editions of The Bridge.