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Lancashire praised for stronger communities.

Lancashire praised for stronger communities.

Lancashire County Council and its partners have been praised by organisations across the country for their innovative schemes to improve the way people live and work together.

Lancashire Community Cohesion Partnership, which includes the county council, local district and unitary councils, and other public and voluntary sector organisations, was presented with a 'Beacon Award' for community cohesion in 2009/10.

Awarded by the Government and the Advisory Panel for the Beacons, the scheme recognises organisations that work together to share ideas on community cohesion, and showcase particularly innovative schemes that are helping to build stronger communities.

Out of 13 examples of good community cohesion sch! emes highlighted by Local Government Improvement and Development as part of the Beacon awards, several were from Lancashire including:

• Living libraries in Lancashire led by the county council, which saw people from across the county become 'living books' giving visitors the chance to find out more about people from different backgrounds
• Peer mentoring, where organisations across the country shadowed Lancashire County Council to find out more about its approach to cohesion, training and projects
• Blackpool Inter-Faith Forum for Youth, which runs projects to raise awareness of different faiths, challenge prejudices and embrace diversity
• Chorley Time Bank, which is run by Chorley Partnership, and allows people to deposit time in the bank by helping others in the community, and withdraw time when they need help.
• Pendle and Burnley SPACE bus, which is run by Lancashire Constabulary to improve community relations i! n the towns
• Lancashire Beacon Open Day - hosted by L ancashire Community Cohesion Partnership, which saw the screening of The Lancashire Way, a film made by young people about community cohesion issues in Lancashire

Wirral Council, Bradford Council and Bolton Council are some organisations that said how much learning about Lancashire's projects had benefited their work.

County Councillor Mike Calvert, cabinet member for adult and community services, said: "The county council, together with its partners on Lancashire Community Cohesion Partnership, has achieved a great deal in improving services to develop strong communities whilst respecting differences and has been able to build on this during its year as a Beacon.

"We've taken an innovative approach through projects such as Living Libraries in Lancashire, which encouraged people to find out about those from other backgrounds in a fun and interesting way by hiring out 'living books' at their local library.

"In addition to! schemes like this, organisations across Lancashire Community Cohesion Partnership have continued to ensure their services cater for people from all backgrounds and as well as sharing their ideas, they've been able to learn from projects in other areas to improve their work.

"Even though our Beacon year has now come to an end, the hard work doesn't stop here. We are running other projects such as Lancashire School Voices to allow young people to have their say on cohesion issues and are continuing to work with our partners to ensure Lancashire remains a place where people can live and work together in harmony."

Ruby Dixon, Head of Programmes at Local Government Improvement and Development, said: "Lancashire's role of peer sharing and knowledge transfer across local government and the wider sector has been effective and far reaching. Lancashire was one of most proactive and impactful Beacons, and ensured that the well established natio! nal Beacon Scheme ended its tenth year on a high, and that citizens in Lancashire gained real quality of life benefits from this leading edge approach to promoting cohesion."

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