Advice to Local Community about geting involved

As well as a world class sports facility available to everyone which delivers a sporting legacy, another of our five key ambitions is creating healthier and closer communities through increased participation in sport, competition, cultural events and volunteering. As part of our work on this theme we have created
a community engagement toolkit in order to encourage grassroots and local level enthusiasm and involvement in the occasion
of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The toolkit works in conjunction with case studies of two areas that have set up organising committees.

One example is the Royston 2012 Co-ordinating Committee, which was set up in November 2010 in order to manage and create a programme of events. The committee is made up of representatives from local groups, such as from schools, churches and Sport Royston, as well as councillors and officers from the town and the district councils. The Committee is chaired by Town Councillor Lindsay Davidson and Les Baker (former District and Town Councillor and former Editor of the Royston Crow) is Deputy
Chair and Secretary.

The banner under which all areas of the project work is ‘Royston 2012 – A year of celebrations!’ Existing events in the town’s annual programme of events, such as the Royston May Fayre and
the Royston Community Exhibition will have an Olympic theme in 2012.

The committee meets as and when required and acts as a supporting arm to the participating individual groups staging events and have no jurisdiction over the content of individual
programmes unless problems can be foreseen, such as date clashes. The committee also aims to provide publicity and volunteers for events. Both Royston and Bishop’s Stortford town
councils have allowed us to use their community engagement models as examples of good practice that can be replicated across
the county. The toolkit offers key advice on how to get started as well as other issues you may want to consider when promoting a programme of community led events.

This article has been taken from the Herts is Ready for Winners newsletter April 2011.

 

This page was added on 14/08/2013.

Add your comment about this page

Your email address will not be published.

Start the ball rolling by posting a comment on this page!