Politicians, members of the public and community leaders have gathered in Paisley to speak about making positive changes that can help those battling to make ends meet.
The Reconnection Summit is a follow on from the UK wide Connection Tour where Paisley’s Star Project joined in with the charity Engage Britain and other community groups.
The Reconnection Summit is being delivered by Engage Britain’s Grassroots Advisory Network of local community leaders.
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The summit provides a safe space to discuss the key issues that communities face as an increasing number of people are struggling to afford the basics.
Sharon McAulay, chief executive at Star Project, said: “The event was very inspiring. We used criteria of the 20-minute neighbourhood initiative to help participants consider community needs and think about emerging policy issues.
“Our community, after all, are the real experts on themselves and their lives. They were excited to have the opportunity to potentially influence future change and to contribute towards the UK Reconnection Summit next month.”
From Renfrewshire, Star project invited Mhairi Black MP, Renfrewshire Council's depute leader Jacqueline Cameron and Annabelle Armstrong-Walter, who is the council's Strategic Partnerships and Inequalities manager to talk about their experiences.
Three questions were asked at the event on Thursday and focused on how the community can be supported during the cost-of-living crisis which is currently ongoing and having families struggling to pay for bills and basic necessities.
The three questions asked were:
- How do we support and sustain local community solutions through the Cost-of-Living Crisis?
- How do we take hold of the opportunities for joined-up approaches to meet local needs and overcome the barriers to joint working as we did throughout the Covid pandemic?
- How do we support hyper-local initiatives to enable underserved households and communities to live decent lives during the Cost-of-Living Crisis?
The summit will also provide an exciting opportunity to allow people to share their opinions amongst a focus group as well as to listen to other professionals and help shape the next steps to supporting local communities and letting their voices be heard by policy makers over key issues and concerns.
This will then be taken to the Summit in Manchester next month.
To find out more visit https://engagebritain.org/ reconnection -tour/
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