London Councillors' Event - how health empowerment can work for you

Be inspired by experts and get ideas for your projects, campaigns and manifestos......

Date:

22/02/10

Time:

5.45 – 7.15pm

Venue:

Novas CUC, London Bridge Bankside, London, SE1 0NQ

What was it about?

London Sustainability Exchange (LSx) ran this seminar as part of a series of events on behalf of Wellnet,London Civic Forum and London Empowerment Partnership. This partnership event brought together London Councillors, community workers, practitioners and event organisers.

The aim of the event was to:

• educate, inspire and enable Councillors to champion health through community empowerment
• help councillors find common solutions to the barriers to engagement of local communities in decisions about health in:
  • their scrutiny
  • local community advocacy
  • supporting policy making
  • empowering communities to access appropriate health and social care; and
• provide an opportunity to discuss issues of common concern with other Councillors and to reflect on, and learn about, new approaches

At the event, attendees:

• unpacked the terminology and complexity behind community empowerment
• outlined the key barriers (getting communities involved, changing social identity, being overwhelmed with information and juggling different responsibilities and priorities)
• explored the opportunities (linking health empowerment with other agendas, looking for pre-existing community access points, making use of community diversity and drawing on peer pressure)
• highlighted examples of good practice
• recommended how to facilitate empowerment and summarised ideas for future events