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9.1         Introduction  

9.1.1  

The Cultural Strategy highlights various groups who are potentially excluded and some of the issues they face. Older people and disabled people in particular face difficulties in gaining physical access to some of our facilities and in having the support to be able to participate in leisure activities. Women with young children are generally under-represented in participation.  

9.1.2  

Young People’s expectations are varied and diverse and their activities may often cause conflict with others.   Perceptions of safety in the community are often influenced by the activities of young people.   Leisure Services needs to provide a range of relevant formal and informal leisure opportunities in appropriate locations.  

9.1.3  

Provision of good convenient childcare, developing initiatives and mechanisms that break down economic, transport, lifestyle and access barriers need to be addressed if everyone is to be included in Bournemouth’s cultural life.  

9.1.4  

Celebrating diverse cultural interests through leisure activities in the community creates better understanding of the importance and appreciation of all cultural life and in doing so involves different ethnic groups in organising, promoting and participating in leisure activities.  

9.2       Strategic Issues  

9.2.1           Understanding the Community

Identifying Communities and developing Community profiles are key to improving the understanding of local issues, to developing local contacts and to pointing to potential gaps in facilities, activities and people.   Recent examples include Sport England funding to research sports needs in Boscombe and profiling undertaking by Healthworks in Boscombe, West Howe, Springbourne and Charminster.  

9.2.2           Motivating people to take part in formal and informal leisure activities

Overcoming fear and apathy in taking part in activities and being able to trust organisations like the Council to deliver on their promises are key issues that to motivating people to take part in leisure activities.   Ideas and mechanisms include: 

i)           Use of advocates in the community – community leaders, youth workers, community
             development workers

ii)          Establishing non-user sampler initiatives e.g. offering vouchers for arts and sports activities
             to targeted individuals/communities.

iii)         Supporting people to deliver activities e.g. offering training to become play leaders and
             exercise instructors.

iv)         Engaging the community through events, innovative consultation with a realistic, achievable
             range of leisure projects

 v)         Building partnership and building confidence

 vi)        Managing and developing an appropriate distribution of activities and facilities that
             are affordable.  

9.2.3         The Council’s and Community’s collective responsibility to embrace social inclusion

The community involvement paper highlighted the importance of engaging with local people in managing and negotiating the different needs of their community.   From a leisure perspective the following issues and focus need to be considered:

i)          Understanding what community development is (facilitating local decision making, to include all sections of the community and offer relevant solutions to local issues) and what   community development is not (imposition of decisions, limit choice, ignorance of local opinion).

ii)         Strengthening links to involve the community in addressing social inclusion by improving dialogue so as to better understand the needs and expectations of socially excluded people.   Current examples include Community Parks and Countryside Officers (CPCO’s) networking with local forums, residents’ associations user groups (Friends), crime prevention panels, neighbourhood groups and Borough-wide groups.

iii)        Council investment in outreach work to deliver and sustain initiatives and seek feedback on needs and issues in leisure.  

9.2.4        Ongoing sustainable development for social inclusion

Despite the strategic intent to address issues of social inclusion through leisure activities, resources allocated to deliver those criteria are often vulnerable when budgets are tight.   Leisure Services will therefore need to:

i)         Look carefully at the investment in its fixed leisure assets and how relevant they are to meeting today’s community needs, thereby potentially releasing resources to increase the investment in outreach work.

ii)         Work with other agencies to seek and apply for funding to address community leisure issues, and to stimulate and support effective neighbourhood management arrangements.

iii)        Work within the Council with the Education and Social Services Directorates to resource development initiatives that target excluded groups e.g. children in care and people with disabilities.