Objective 2 – Promoting community involvement and engagement
Our diverse communities are best placed to understand their public service needs. Inclusive and responsive services need communities at the heart of their design and delivery. To do this, we must gain trust. We need culturally suitable and sustainable engagement. And we must involve grassroots voluntary and community organisations, our partners and residents.
This work will inform the design and delivery of our services, policy interventions and how we measure impact.
We have six aims that help to track our progress.
To strengthen our voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector
We'll strengthen the capacity of our city’s voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector. We'll do this using Our Manchester grants and other funding. We'll focus on improving the capacity of smaller grassroots organisations. This will improve engagement with our diverse communities – building trust and confidence.
To communicate in a culturally proficient way
We'll continue to develop our communication and engagement tools. So they're culturally proficient and meet the needs of our diverse communities. This will make our engagement more effective. And we'll gain vital insights by creating quality standards for community engagement.
To improve health equity
We'll strengthen the work of Community Health Equity Manchester. We'll use collaborative system working, influence, advocacy and targeted work. We want to engage with people experiencing racial inequality and discrimination. We want to do that in a positive way – considering the different forms of inequality some may face. These insights will help us to act in a way that builds trust with our communities.
To improve services for disabled residents
We'll refresh and strengthen the role of the Manchester Disability Collaborative. This will address barriers in public services for disabled residents. We want to improve equality and inclusion in the design and delivery of our services.
To improve services for LGBTQIA+ communities
We'll meet the needs of our LGBTQIA+ communities by reaching out to partners and stakeholders. We need their input to improve services. We'll also give regular feedback on the impact of their work with us.
To celebrate our diverse communities
We'll continue to celebrate our diverse communities using citywide events. These also help to promote good relations between communities. We want our communities to feel valued. And events like these help to build trust.