Friday, 6 March 2009

This morning I attended a meeting of Hertfordshire Forward’s Community Cohesion Strategy Group at Welwyn Garden City’s Campus West. Large windows offered panoramic views across the Garden City and wasted little time reminding everyone that the Garden Cities were a triumph for social enterprise, not local government. Those present nearly all represented local government and the room positively sizzled with good will and good intentions. But virtually nobody present had any firm grounding in work on equalities or community development or community cohesion – and so no access to 30-40 years’ experience of tools and methodologies and language. It felt a bit like being put into an engineering workshop with one morning to reinvent as many bicycles as possible.

I spent the afternoon working on the report for the Herts PCT and on writing up notes of the recent Watford LIVE! Community Arts Network meeting - things are really beginning to take shape for the 6-20 June festival.