By Steering Group and Wards Corner Community Coalition member, Shirley Hanazawa
As a member of the Trust’s First Steps Steering Group, I was very pleased to be able to attend the second First Steps event on Monday, 2 November at Tottenham Chances.
The aim of the event was to further develop our First Steps Action Plan, which will guide the Trust’s ongoing work to deliver the community plan for Wards Corner, which received planning permission from Haringey Council in April 2014.
There were about 25 people in attendance. We were also privileged to have UCL students – who are volunteering with the Trust on the First Steps project – as note-takers of the group discussions. The enthusiasm and commitment of the people attending was inspiring and empowering.
The majority of the meeting was spent in small group discussions reviewing and further developing the four priority areas for our First Steps Action Plan: 1) Business Plan and Funding; 2) Feasibility Studies; 3) Stakeholder Engagement & Communications; and 4) Governance. Since the last First Steps event on 28 September, the working group reps had held meetings with other local people who had volunteered to join the groups in order to begin developing material for our First Steps Action Plan. The reps shared their initial thoughts at the second public event, generating lively discussions amongst those present. Discussions were progressing so well that we diverted from the intended programme in order to allow them maximum time. Alice Wilcock, the Director of Community Development Foundation, and our ‘relationship manager’ for the First Steps project, played an important role by rotating amongst the groups in order to make contributions to various discussions.
I participated in the discussions on the Business Plan and Funding Working Group. The group was engaged & enthusiastic, generating lots of good ideas and discussion. We emerged at the end with a basic agreement about which action points should be prioritised – a major achievement given the complexity and breadth of this group’s remit!
All in all a very inspiring event.
The Steering Group met on 13 November to review the event and to prepare the first draft of our First Steps Action Plan, due on 23 November. After that, we will be preparing more Working Group meetings and activities and consulting further on our draft Action Plan. To get involved, email n15developmenttrust@gmail.com to join one or several of the Working Groups or to be added to the Trust’s email list.