Community Strategy

Torfaen Community Strategy

• Health & Well-being
• Safer Communities 
• Education and Training for Life
• Economy, Jobs & Business
• Environment and Transport
• Housing & the Homeless
• Working Together & Active Citizenship

Visit this link to download a copy of the Torfaen Community Strategy|

Visit this link to download a copy of the Strategaeth Gymunedol Torfaen |

But other Partnerships already work in some of these areas...

Yes, there are a number of partnerships already working on many of these areas. The Torfaen Community Strategy is expected to provide a means of co-ordinating the provision of services and initiatives and ensure that issues that more than one partnership or organisation is trying to work on are integrated so that they are all working in concert. The partnerships and organisations that form them will be invited to participate in implementing the Torfaen Community Strategy.

How will all this be delivered?

The Torfaen Community Strategy will provide a focus for the partnerships and their action plans. The Community Strategy will be made up of a number of Key Benefits. These will be statements of what the Torfaen Partnership wants the people and environment of Torfaen to benefit from over the next 10-15 years. The Torfaen Partnership will then put in place a mechanism that will enable any organisation or partnership that is willing to contribute to the Community Strategy to let us know what they intend to do.

The Torfaen Partnership recognises the complexity of organisations that may contribute to achieving the Key Benefits expressed in the Communtiy Strategy. It also understands the limitations of undertaking an annual Action Plan process. The Torfaen Partnership believes that it has identified a mechanism for achieving the Key Benefits that will:

• make sure that organisations/partnerships do not need to cede any control over their resources or decision-making to the Torfaen Partnership (or anyone else) but still contribute to achieving the Key Benefits without getting bogged down in the complex process of joint strategic planning between a potentially large number of organisations/partnerships.
• mainstream and link to other relevant plans, strategies and partnerships.
• helps organisations/partnerships to understand what others are doing/planning to do in areas of common interest
• enable communication between organisations/partnerships that have shared outcomes or similar activities/projects
• encourage partnership working to improve effectiveness and efficiency within organisations when it is advantageous
• does not allocate responsibility for attaining the goals in the community strategy to any one organisation/partnership but enables any organisation/partnership that can contribute to any goal to do what it can
• enables organisations to contribute what they can within their remit
• is constantly available and updatable so reflects the realities of organisational planning.
  

 
Responsibilities and principles for forming the Comunity Strategy.

There are a number of responsibilities and principles which the Torfaen Partnership was bearing in mind when designing the process. Some of which are highlighted below:

• Work with rather than for, local communities and attach importance to the things that matter to citizens.
• Ensure the strategies of the partnerships linked to the Torfaen Partnership align with the community strategy and contribute to the 'well-being' of the Torfaen area.
• Provide a forum through which local people can influence decision-making and take action to improve their neighbourhood.
• Take forward and problem-solve the 'big' issues that have been unresolved to date.
• Sustainable development, equality of opportunity and tackling social disadvantage should be taken into account.
• Influence and help co-ordinate other organisations and partnerships and encourage them to adopt the Torfaen Partnership's aims and objectives and endeavour to implement them.
• Ensure that fairness, integrity, respect and dignity are central to the working of the Partnership.
• Make every effort to embed partnership working at all levels within partnership organisations.
• Reach out to them community and convince lots of people to get involved; particularly those that have previously been regarded as 'hard to reach'.