Local Faith Communities in Wider City Engagement
EIFA is committed to championing wider citizenship by encouraging its faith community members and individuals within these communities to get more involved in matters that effect them and more importantly their community and the city community at large.
EIFA is constantly developing its working relationship with a number of local institutions such as the City Council, Lothian and Borders Police and the NHS. The City of Edinburgh Council is a significant one for EIFA as the city council are a key provider of many services in the community.
EIFA is already involved in The Edinburgh Partnership and through our particpation in the Communities of Interest Support Network (COISN) we have a voice on the board of the Edinburgh Partnership.
This page will highlight ways in which people of the city's faith communities can get directly involved in important aspects of city life through the City Council with o without EIFA.
EIFA are looking for volunteer representatives to attend and particpate in consultation meetings on our behalf. If you are interested in this please contact us directly on 0131 228 8146 or by email at info@eifa.org.uk
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Edinburgh Equalities Network
The Edinburgh Equalities Network is a new initiative supported by the City of Edinburgh Council, Lothian and Borders Police Service, NHS Lothian and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. The Network will bring together different equalities communities of interest in the city.
The Network aims to:
• share information and improve awareness of equalities issues and events
• give a wide range of people opportunities to be involved in the discussions and approach to equality issues in Edinburgh
• work in partnership with agencies, communities and organisations across the city to help shape services and assist the public authorities in meeting equalities legal duties.
Members will have the opportunity to take part in consultations and equality impact assessments arranged by the public authority partners as well as other events.
Preparations for the Network are well underway. A new webpage has the latest Network news plus information on equalities events taking place across the city. You’ll soon recognise the Network by the logo on our publicity and information material including forthcoming newsletters. We are building our membership group and inviting individuals, voluntary and community sectors to join.
You can join the Network by contacting anne.elliot@edinburgh.gov.uk or 0131 469 3764 for a membership form. For more information and a membership form see www.edinburgh.gov.uk/equalitiesnetwork .
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BE THE VOICE OF YOUR COMMUNITY
Are you concerned about what goes on in your local community?
JOIN YOUR COMMUNITY COUNCIL
For more information about community councils and a map of community council areas Visit: www.edinburghcommunity.gov.uk/communitycouncils Contact: 469 3838 Write: Community Council Liaison Officer, Services for Communities, Waverley Court, 4 Market Street, Level C:4, Edinburgh EH8 8BG E-mail: community.councils@edinburgh.gov.uk
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Access to Sport and Culture Edinburgh (ASC Edinburgh)
Access to Sport and Culture Edinburgh (ASC Edinburgh) is an innovative project, initiated by the City of Edinburgh Council that aims to develop and improve access to cultural and sporting services all over the city. A brief overview of the project is downloadable here.
ESAR consultants are running the project, and have consulted widely to draft a framework for improving access to sport and culture. The draft framework is presented in the form of a pledge and related actions which arts and sports organisations across the city will be invited to sign up to
The next stage of consultation is being launched this week to gather opinion on the draft framework. An online survey has been developed to gather the views of all those that have an interest.
If you would like to take part, please click on this link. http://www.tinyurl/4sgymu
If you have any problems accessing the survey please copy and paste the link and/or contact heather@projectingchange.com
Please take 10-15 minutes to give us your views. The survey closes on 7 November 2008 .
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City of Edinburgh Council - Edinburgh's Homelessness Strategy 2008-2012
The City of Edinburgh Council’s new Homelessness Strategy (2008-2012) was produced in conjunction with service users (almost 300) and frontline colleagues, both internally and externally (almost 90). We moved away from re-packaging existing ideas and services and the outcome was a strategy organised around 4 main aims:
Prevention
Access to Housing
Temporary Accommodation
Sustainable Solutions
The new strategy recieved approval from the Health, Social Care and Housing Committee on 4 February 2008 and will be officially launched on 25 April.
see ... http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/internet/housing/housing_policies_and_strategies/
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City of Edinburgh Council - Neighbourhood teams and neighbourhood partnerships
Bringing Services Closer to Communities
The Council is changing the way some services are delivered so that they become:
more local
more joined up
more flexible to local needs
more accountable
We’ll be working closely with communities, listening to your priorities and doing our best to respond with a “can do” attitude. As a first step we’ve put the people who manage many important local services together in your area. There are six local teams across the city and within each area, staff in Services for Communities will work together with partner organisations to improve local services. see weblink ....
http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/internet/council/partnerships/CEC_community_planning_homepage