Agenda item - Chairs Communications

16.1    The Chair, Councillor Daniel, opened her communications by welcoming Members and Members of the Public to the Bridge Community Centre.

Brighton and Hove Muslim Forum Event

16.2    The Chair stated that she had been very honoured and pleased to attend a recent event held by the Brighton and Hove Muslim Forum on radicalisation and islamophobia. She had attended with the CE of the council and the three MPs for the city and had heard some very interesting, stark and challenging commentary on tackling radicalisation and islamophobia. Many of the speakers or members of their family including their children had experienced islamophobia themselves.  There were discussions as to what as a whole community could be done about it, ideas included opening up the Mosques more regularly and seeking opportunities for people from the Muslim community to be more actively involved in civic life, such as becoming school governors and becoming more involved in work in neighbourhoods. Everyone in the room committed to coming back together to keep action going.

Whitehawk Market Day

16.3    Continuing the theme of coming together, last month the council and community had come together to deliver a fantastic market day at the Whitehawk Hub. The event had been part of the council’s Communities and Neighbourhoods portfolio of work, aiming to bring together services in east Brighton with local residents and other partners in the area. At the heart of the event had been the chance to share the Neighbourhood Action Plan that had been created for the area by local residents, and to seek greater engagement with a wider group of local people and partner organisations. It had been a great day with lots of fun activities for all ages, and residents and service providers had enjoyed and discovered all the amazing things that were happening across the Whitehawk Hub, Whitehawk Library, Wellsbourne Health Centre and Roundabout Children's Centre and Nursery.

16.4    Staff and residents that had attended were all buzzing afterwards and saying what a fantastic event it was. One manager said they particularly liked the way people were engaged by collecting the gold stars for children and one for parents – and having good prizes – which all really helped. They thought it was really well organised and developed a lot of positive energy, which they were able to tap into in terms of Housing options/prevention.

BSL Charter

16.5    Since signing the BSL charter in spring this year the council had been meeting with members of the deaf community to hear how it could meet the pledges set out in the charter. The Chair stated that she would like to take the opportunity to promote a workshop the council’s Communities Team was running with Deafcog at Hamilton Lodge School on Tuesday 31st October, 6.30-8pm specifically focused on gathering feedback and ideas from Deaf young people, their parents, teachers and others involved in providing services for deaf and hard of hearing young people across the city. A copy of the invitation was available from the Communities Team.

Ward Member Budgets

16.6    The Chair closed her communications by advising of a promotion for/through councillors. Following a committee decision in July each ward member had been allocated £1,000 to make social, economic and environmental improvements in their ward. The funding must be spent by 31 March so if anyone had any ideas they should contact their ward councillor. Information was also available on the council’s website.

16.7    RESOLVED – That the Chair’s Communications be received and noted