On 25 March we held our first community panel gathering at the wonderful Mazi Project.
This was an important milestone for us, bringing 12 local people into Bedminster Works to help shape our work. We are grateful to Action Greater Bedminster who worked with us to recruit the panel and will also attend panel meetings as observers.
The community panel will help assess whether projects reflect local needs, particularly in terms of addressing disadvantage, consider community impacts and risks of proposed projects and bring in local insight as extra eyes and ears on the ground. We have a range of perspectives and experiences on the panel, with some members who’ve lived in Bedminster for 40 or 50 years, some newcomers to the area, those who run businesses on the high street and others who’ve shopped at them.
A panel of 12 people could never truly represent a diverse community like Bedminster, so the panel has an important role to seek and bring in the views of those who are not represented, which will also complement our wider community engagement work.
As well as our community panel guiding our work, we have a board of 6 directors and a membership structure which includes local stakeholders such as Action Greater Bedminster, Windmill Hill City Farm and Library of Things.