The Community Access project is a core element of Exeter Communities Together. There will be a meeting one day a month, on the same day, at the same central venue, starting at 10.00am and ending at 4.00pm.
Morning Session
In the morning there will be the ‘Meet Our Communities’ slot. A service or statutory body – such as the police or Social Services, or one of our sister organisations – will be invited to talk to us about their role and purpose, and how they can support people from ethnic minority communities. They may hold advice sessions or workshops on how to engage successfully with them. The purpose of these mornings will be to build better relationships and communication between services and ethnic minority communities, and to find out what these communities need and want from the different services and organisations.
Lunch
Each month, a different partner organisation will provide lunch.
Social Activities
In the afternoon, various social activities will be available. However, what we would really like to know is what people would like to do. So, if someone wants to set up a knitting circle in their own neighbourhood area, we would look to see how we could support that happening. If another person wants to organise a walk across Dartmoor, we would see how that could be supported to happen. We will work with other organisations so as to maximise our resources. Although the community access programme will meet on just one day a month, other activities might continue on a more regular basis, where people live.
Training
We will also use these days to find out what other training and support members of our communities might want or need. Then we can find it elsewhere or set it up ourselves. In this way we can support the development of all.
Isolation and Reaching Out
We are particularly keen to reach people who are isolated or who may not have as much support as they might need. Using the networks of all our community groups, we hope we will be able to reach more people who could benefit from our programme.