Quarterly Roundup: Our year to date
The last couple of months have been busy for the FaithAction team. Here’s some highlights from some of the events we’ve had the pleasure to be a part of since January.
Tackling inequalities through faith and community partnership workshop
In January, we joined together with the British Islamic Medical Association to host a workshop for mosque leaders and health professionals in East London to explore how faith communities and health leads could work together to reduce inequalities in pregnancy and maternity. The findings from this workshop are available here.
An Evening with FaithAction
In February, we invited members from a local faith community to come and hear more from our team and about the work that we do. The team had a great time talking about the different projects we’re involved in, and the impact they have on communities across the country.
Launching our new Creative English website
Also in February, we launched our new look Creative English website with an event with local Creative English learners. We also relaunched our Creative English licence programme, with new options alongside the standard Creative English programme, including an opportunity to add Creative English elements to a programme you may already be running.
Tower Hamlets Faith Health Action Partnership: Celebrating Faith & Health
We started March celebrating our Faith Health Action Partnership (FHAP), funded by the Public Health team at Tower Hamlets Council, led and coordinated by FaithAction, and delivered by 8 local faith settings, each providing health focused projects to local communities.
Faith Covenant Forum
March also gave the team an opportunity to hold our regular Faith Covenant Forum. The Faith Covenant Forum brings all of the Covenant holders together (both local authority representatives and faith leaders) to share best practice during COVID-19 and beyond. It is also a space for prospective Covenant areas to hear about what the Covenant looks like in action. We were delighted to hear from representatives from Southampton and Calderdale, areas that have recently re-signed a Faith Covenant, as well as hearing more about the Good Faith Partnership’s Warm Welcome programme.
Coventry Faith Covenant Launch
March also saw Coventry become the latest area to sign a Faith Covenant. Representatives from Coventry City Council and local faith leaders signed the Covenant as part of the launch of a Faith Partnership, a strategic body that will facilitate closer partnership working between the local authority and faith groups, opening up clearer channels of communication and taking collective action to serve the needs of communities across the city.
Tower Hamlets Inter Faith Forum: Faith, Funding & Cost of Living
We finished March with our latest Tower Hamlets Inter Faith Forum meeting, held at the newly opened Tower Hamlets Town Hall, on the site of the historic Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel. Attendees were treated to a tour of the new building, which has incorporated elements of the historic building with new modern facilities, as well as hearing from Tower Hamlets CVS and council representatives, including Deputy Mayor Cllr Maium Talukdar.
We look forward to being able to carry on with some of these projects, and others in the coming months, and hope to share more about the fantastic work our team and yourselves are involved with as we move towards the summer.
We’re particularly excited about:
- Creative English for Health, in partnership with Birmingham City Council, has been refunded for another year
- We have a new set of Heath and Wellbeing Alliance projects commencing over the next few months, including projects around suicide prevention, a social prescribing champions pilot and a continuation of our project looking at improving outcomes in maternity care
- new reports being launched, including our work during last year’s Health and Wellbeing Alliance, and evaluation reports for Creative English for Health, FHAP and Café Connect
- Continuing our relaunch of the Creative English licences
- Unveiling details of this year’s #FaithinPartnership Week, including a #FaithinPartnership Summit.
Keep your eyes peeled for more details on all this and more.
