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Annual Community Conference
The Local Strategic Partnership host a Community Conference each year which aims to inform representatives from the wider community and residents of progress against the Community Strategy and to challenge them to engage with the theme of the year.
The conference will explain the previous year’s progress, encourage delegates to participate in workshop activities looking at local solutions to local issues and will provide an opportunity for individuals and groups to give their views on whether the strategy is still focusing on the right areas of priority for the District.
"Targeting Change – local solutions to local issues"
"Aiming High – caring for our future"
This year’s Aiming High conference was attended by 130 delegates from the public, private and voluntary sectors working across the District. The days programme focused on how all of these groups and organisations can work together to make the aspirations set out in the Community Strategy for the District a reality.
After a short film produced by media students at Oaklands College (Shake It Films) giving an overview of LSP achievements and progress over the last year, Andrew Cawthorpe from the Prince’s Trust spoke to the audience about helping young people across the District to achieve their own high aspirations.
Enterprise Youth Ambassador, Tarkan Ahmet then gave the audience an insight into his real life experience and how the Princes Trust and other organisations gave him a chance to fulfil his ambitions despite a number of set backs.
The speakers really got delegates thinking about what a difference they can make if they work together.
After formally launching the revised Community Strategy the Chair of the LSP, Councillor Robert Donald also announced a new fund called ‘Targeting Change’ aimed at addressing the priorities and gap areas identified in the updated strategy.
This fund will give the opportunity for delivery partners from all sectors including voluntary groups, local charities and community groups to bid for funds between £2,000 and £10,000. Please see the Targeting Change page for more details.
The afternoon session gave delegates an opportunity to take part in workshops with the aim of finding practical ways to build stronger neighbourhoods, develop economic sustainability and engage young people in local solutions. This was followed by an opportunity to ask the LSP Panel questions flowing out of the days activities.
Overall the day had a real buzz of enthusiasm for tackling the issues in our District and there was evidence of active networking to generate ideas and identify solutions.
"Big Foot – tackling our ecological footprint"
October 2008
WWF report (Oct 2007) on British cities says that St Albans has the second worst ecological footprint. How are we going to improve?
Speaking at the annual conference of the Local Strategic Partnership, environmentalist Joanna Yarrow challenged the community to take action on the main causes of carbon emission including food miles, car use and energy consumption and show cased a number of national and international examples of good practice that could be adapted for local use.
"What makes a real impact is designing personal portfolios of lifestyle changes that make a difference in every area of an individual's life whether at work, home or play," Joanna, the Director of Beyond Green, told over a 100 representatives of community groups at the Rothamsted Conference Centre, Harpenden on Thursday, 23 October.
First Community Conference – launching the strategy
Around 100 people, including residents and local groups, attended the LSP's First Annual Community Conference on 14 September 2007 at Rothamsted Research Centre in Harpenden.
The conference marked the launch of the new Community Strategy and delegates took part in workshops to identify the key actions for the LSP to take forward in it's projects to improve the district. The conference also included thought-provoking keynote speeches from Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive of the RSA and Stephen Joseph, Executive Director of Transport 2000.