Community engagement and development was brought into the heart of KCSC following the Grenfell fire of June 14th 2017
In the intervening years KCSC's emphasis altered, embracing community development models, to assist in ensuring place, people and community assets are a foundation to decision making. To help amplify community voices.
North Kensington’s communities struggled for decades to be the architects of their own future, forming many ground-breaking projects and institutions along the way. However, as we emerge from the cloud of Covid 19 fresh challenges have come to the fore that add to those being tackled before the lockdowns began. Now, more than ever, there is an expectation in the borough that change will be brought about by genuine participation, an expectation raised by RBKCs own Charter for Public Participation which helped to shape the Charter that now sits in the Council's Constitution. The co-design and co-production baton is also expected to be picked up by the NHS, the voluntary and community sectors, and other principal stakeholders.
This is not a given and will require vigilance, nurturing, and support. Community development is integral to the KCSC work as we advance, so that we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our communities, fostering the conditions and support structures that enable social action and community voices to flourish. Please find useful information on our Community News page.
KCSC wants to build and support community-led social action in line with our mission and values, and to build and support local community alliances
We will do this by seeking to:
- Strengthen civic participation through training and upskilling
- Support the raising of local voices to influence
- Create and support opportunities for closer working between grassroots community groups/local actors and the statutory and voluntary sector e.g facilitated meetings
- Help coordinate and improve local services for North Kensington
- Support the development of local community-led initiatives – such as emerging CIC’s
For more information about our work, please find our case studies on our website.