The Wiltshire Assembly

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What is the Wiltshire Assembly?

The Wiltshire Assembly is the main place where hundreds of organisations from the public, private and voluntary sectors and Wiltshire’s communities come together to decide how to ensure a bright future for the county.

The Assembly meets twice a year for its conferences which are themed according to the current hot topic for Wiltshire. The conferences are hosted in different parts of the county each time and chaired by an independent chairman. The intention of the conferences is to link agendas of all member organisations and to inspire continuous working from within the thematic partnerships.

The Assembly network is also kept up to date regularly on news about issues, trends and opportunities in the county, and sharing this widely to seek involvement and help project planning and decision-making.

What does the Assembly do?

The Assembly aims to be effective for all of its members through a shared sense of purpose and ambition. In particular,

• Be linked closely with communities and organisations to stay in touch with what is going on across the county
• Set out a 15 year vision describing the sort of place local people want Wiltshire to become, and the objectives for achieving the vision  - detailed in the Wiltshire Community Plan 2011-2026
• Challenge and encourage organisations and communities to take practical steps to make the plan come alive
• Host inspiring and thought-provoking debates that inform future planning encourage action.

The next conference - “helping communities to help themselves”

The next meeting of the Wiltshire Assembly is on Thursday 1 December. This will focus on the ways in which we already work in partnership that have benefitted our communities and how we can build on this to continue to do so. In particular, the conference will consider how to move forward from talking about our ideas to make these ideas a reality for Wiltshire’s communities.

Past conferences

9 June 2011 - “Creating a lasting legacy for Wiltshire’s people and places”

In the lead up to 2012 – the year of celebration – communities are being encouraged to participate and host events to celebrate the Olympic torch relay, the Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Queen’s Golden Jubillee. Whilst the year will be a special one, it is the long-term legacy that will be left behind from these events that will mean the most. This conference aimed to inspire participants to get involved and to find new ways of delivering a legacy, including some of the projects already underway that aim to do just that.

• Wiltshire assembly agenda - 9 June 2011 Agenda - 9 June 2011 46kb

15 October 2010 - “Turning words into action”

Social media has taken the world by storm in recent years. Over half the British population are signed up to facebook and businesses and advertisers have latched onto this phenomenon. This conference brought partners together for a more practical session in which members were encouraged to link with customers and communities in the same way – by engaging them in forums that they are already a part of. The keynote address by John Grant highlighted just how viral social media can be and the workshop session by MediaSnackers provided a beginners guide to some of the facilities available to try.

• Wiltshire Assembly Agenda - 15 October 2010 Agenda - 15 October 2010 46kb

18 March 2010 - “Tackling disadvantage and understanding inequality”

Following the previous conference, this Assembly focused specifically on the inequalities experienced by those living and working in Wiltshire and ways the partnerships can work together to reduce disadvantage. Richard Wilkinson, author of The Spirit Level, spoke about how doing just that can make society better for everyone – not just those who are currently worse off.

• Agenda - 18 March 2010 40kb
• Wiltshire Assembly Conference Report - March 2010 4mb

30 October 2009 - "Solutions for Sustainability"

This meeting focused on the key areas in which the Assembly can work together to support the sustainability of our county. The keynote address by Roger Levett gave a broad overview of possible ways forward and ways in which the partnerships can challenge themselves. The Assembly concluded with the voting of which should be the top three priorities for our future joint planning. These were agreed as: creating an economy that is fit for the future; reducing inequality and disadvantage; and tackling the causes and effects of climate change.

• Agenda - 30 October 2009 26kb
• Wiltshire Assembly Conference Report – October 2009 4mb

26 March 2009 - “The economic downturn”

This meeting focused on the economic crisis, and included feedback on how this situation is affecting people and businesses in the county. The Assembly agreed to focus its collective energy on finding ways to assisting Wiltshire to find ways to adjust to, and creatively respond to the economic downturn resulting from the current credit crisis.

• Agenda - 26 March 2009 53kb
• The Impact of the Credit Crunch in Wiltshire – a report to the Wiltshire Assembly 2mb
• Wiltshire Assembly newsletter – May 2009 2mb

3 October 2008 - “Creating strong and resilient communities”

This was the first conference of the Assembly. Keynote speaker, Matthew Taylor from the Royal Society of Arts, challenged members to work more closely together (“Integrate”), to pay more attention to people’s lifestyles and motivations when thinking about how we might bring about change (“Insight”), and for us to continuously seek new approaches (“Innovate”).

• Wiltshire Assembly annual report (2007-2008) 1mb
• Wiltshire Assembly conference report – November 2008 746kb

If you want to contact the Assembly, or find out more about its work please see details below:

Last updated: 20 November 2011