Recap of the first two Islington Council & VCFSE Strategy workshops

On Wednesday 21^st and Thursday 22^nd May, we held the first two Islington Council & VCFSE Strategy workshops with the themes being Advocacy, Advice and Guidance (Including Housing and Homelessness) and the Environment & Sustainability.

The purpose of the workshops was for participants from the VCFSE sector to co-produce a vision for a stronger sector and to put forward ideas of how to improve the sector’s working relationship with Islington Council to meet the needs of residents up until 2030.

It was fantastic to hear a range of thoughts. Here were some of the suggestions:

• Provide better housing advice and improved communication
• Create more spaces where communities can share their stories and address their housing needs (such as workshops and surgeries)
• Increase partnership working
• Provide fundraising training for the environment, health and wellbeing
• Create a centralised hub and network that is open-facing to share key information and resources to address climate change issues
• Engage younger people in climate action, projects and decision-making
• Increase circular economy activities to make sure resources are kept in Islington and redistributed to tackle inequality

We would like to take this opportunity to thank participants who attended our first two workshops.

If you are from a VCFSE organisation and would like to contribute to the strategy by attending future workshops, please sign up here: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/4hFvhf93dN

Participants will be rewarded with a £20 voucher for attending.

Dates of future workshops:

1. Children, Young People & Family Services – Wednesday 25^th June, 10:00am – 11:30am – At Whittington Park Community Centre
2. Community Centres (Including Food Aid) – Thursday 26^th June, 10:00am – 11:30am – At Vibast Community Centre
3. Community Development, Empowerment & Resilience (Including Volunteering & Social Action) – Tuesday 8^th July, 10:00am – 11:30am – At Voluntary Action Islington 
4. Community Safety – Wednesday 9^th July, 10:00am – 11:30am – tbc
5. Arts & Culture – Thursday 10^th July, 10:00am – 11:30am – tbc
6. Mental & Physical Health – Wednesday 16^th July, 10:00am – 11:30am – tbc
7. Infrastructure & Network Support – Thursday 17^th July, 1:30pm – 3pm – tbc