Connecting
Inclusive Approach OneOur approach
Connection is vital on many fronts. Connection to a place through relationships with its strengths, such as community groups and centres, green spaces and shared experiences. Our connections support us to build a sense of pride in our places and a sense of belonging to our surroundings. This connection is vital in building the local community infrastructure that builds resilience and self-sufficiency.
When people can build strong connections and relationships within their communities, they are more likely to feel safe, valued and lead fulfilling lives. This is especially true for those individuals and groups who sometimes face barriers to connecting with their own or wider communities. This can make having a sense of belonging more complicated, for instance; care leavers, LGBTQ+ communities or people with learning difficulties. This approach requires you to think about your reach into communities and how you can build relationships that allow you and others to connect.
Our engagement and actions should contribute to building a sense of belonging and place value on what matters to people, working in a place-based way that recognises and enables people to feel important in our processes.
Statements
- We will strengthen the local social infrastructure through, sharing and combining resources, bringing people together, minimising unnecessary duplication, organising, co-ordinating and working collaboratively.
- Through connecting to communities, our Kirklees-wide partnership will establish a better and shared understanding of community strengths and the role that they play, as we guide our resources towards our shared objectives.
- We will support people to come together. Focusing on shared values, interests and priorities; we will make sure these spaces are inclusive and welcoming to people from different backgrounds.
Checklist
What examples do you have of where you have worked in partnership with local people to achieve better outcomes?
When did you last share resources, including budgets, to improve a shared objective in communities?
Do you prioritise actions that actively foster a sense of belonging to the places you work in your organisation or team?
Are you connected to a wide range of people in local communities that are part of the community profile?
Guiding principles
The belief that people need gathering and connecting in meaningful ways. A long-term ethos, based on clear principles, needs to be deliberately formed. People can then feel loved and valued, growing in confidence as they make authentic relationships that assist in co-existing, supporting, and learning from one another.
Community ideas and resilience can be built when local communities are supported actively by a central hub, with practical care and knowledgeable advice. If hubs are organic and responsive to the needs of the community, through developing, by listening to feedback and responding to initiatives, communities can hold solutions to their own challenges
The importance of celebrating diversity and creating a sense of inclusion, which facilitates the transformation of people into their possible best. Supporting individuals holistically into a place of wellbeing and preventing people becoming isolated or reaching a personal crisis. Recognising personal responsibility and encouraging people to be a part of their own solution. Belief of non-competitive work with other charities and services, to create a wide, caring network with many volunteers.
Approaches
Long-term, loving, respecting, connecting, deliberate ethos, responsibility and transformation.
The Branch has been in the community for over 24 years, starting off as community groups, run by volunteers. The trust, longevity and experience really helped when they were needed to respond to community needs, during the covid pandemic.
People were reluctant to admit they needed help, as they weren't sure what the consequences would be of their admission. It felt risky but The Branch have created a culture where people could give and take; take when they need help and give back when they could. This is working towards a place of no shame progression, into empowering them giving back and then volunteering. They started out by asking 'just enough' questions of people to be able to meet their needs and seeking out those people at grassroots level who were able to mobilise the support needed, this meant that trust was built and connections were strengthened.
Providing community places and spaces where people from different backgrounds can find love, connection and belonging. Combatting isolation and strengthening resilience, becoming stronger together. Designing community activities where people participate, become integrated and develop new skills, encouraging them to be the best version of themselves.
Working from the grassroots within the local community, encouraging organic activities to evolve, creating volunteer enthusiasm, group responsibility and peer support, becoming better together. Reaching out to those most excluded in society, offering practical help and providing a voice for the voiceless.
