Community support at the heart of region’s success

The power of communities to support those in need was vividly displayed during the pandemic...and businesses played a huge part in that uplifting effort.

As we all seek to move forward from the pandemic, Warwickshire County Council has launched, Community Powered Warwickshire, an initiative to sustain and build on that brilliant community spirit - and businesses large and small will have a major role to play.

WCC's Strategy & Commissioning Manager (Economy & Skills) Alison Robinson explains.

During COVID, Warwickshire’s incredible communities played a vital role in preserving, as much as possible, normal life, supporting vulnerable people and generally helping our progress towards recovery. The county’s businesses also played their part, adapting and rising to the challenges and often going the extra mile to support good causes around them.

It was utterly inspiring to see.

So let's keep that going... and build on it.

During the pandemic, and long before it, many Warwickshire businesses have quietly, without fuss or publicity, offered wonderful support to those in their area that need it. Thank you all!

Now let's enhance that brilliant effort and get even more businesses to join in and 'Think Community.'

At the county council, we are looking at how we can empower communities to do more and embrace the public spiritedness which has soared during the last 18 months. There was a huge surge of goodwill - so how do we encourage that to remain?

This will be discussed at our Community Powered Warwickshire conference on Thursday 4th November between 10am – 1pm. It is a virtual conference and we would love to hear from businesses who can tell us what they do and how they help those around them.

Many businesses do great stuff in their communities. Are you one of those? If so, we would love you to get involved and explain at our launch event what you do and how to set up connections with the people and organisations who need support.

We want to spread the word that there are sound business reasons to get involved. Engagement with the area where your employees live demonstrates a commitment to your locality. It can improve the welfare of your employees and their families and supports their wellbeing.

It is well known that if you invest in your employees, they will invest in you because they can see you are committed to your community. Economic benefits lead to health benefits with employees in better health taking less time off sick.

Community support from businesses can take many forms. There is much that businesses can do to offset their carbon emissions and there is loads to be done in schools and by funding local endeavours and community projects.

If you are a small business already doing this, please join us on November 4th and share your experiences and knowledge. You would be really helping us all to fully understand what businesses can do.

Some small businesses may not realise how much help they can provide with no or minimal cost to them. They may have redundant items lying around that would be of immense value to a good cause. Recycled laptops were precious cargo during the pandemic.

The pandemic bought the power of communities to the fore. Community Powered Warwickshire is designed to harness that feeling and help sustain and build upon it.

Everyone is part of the community somewhere, but businesses can provide a real lead. Please come and join us on November 4th.

To register for the conference, please follow this link https://crm.newlocal.org.uk/civicrm/event/register?id=371&reset=1.

ALISON