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Letham’s children, young people, residents and decision makers have today launched their shared vision of what’s needed to make Letham the best place to grow up.
The Love Letham report is the culmination of the first 18 months of the initiative which saw hundreds of children, young people and families get involved to identify what needs to be improved in the area. The pioneering project from Perth & Kinross Council and Wellbeing Economy Alliance Scotland saw the creation of Commissions in each of the three primary schools, worked with youth group The Inbetweeners and brought together local residents, senior staff at the Council and Councillors as part of an adults Commission.
Tackling frightening and disordered behaviour, improving spaces and places to play and increasing access to healthcare were among the top priorities identified by Commissioners and detailed within the report. Commissioners chose to investigate the problem of frightening and disordered behaviour in depth and made a series of recommendations to be taken forward by Perth & Kinross Council, public bodies and the wider community.
As a result of the data gathered through the project a new dedicated Safer Communities Warden is being created for Perth City North, and Perth & Kinross Council are setting up a new “Locality Group” in Letham.
Building on their experience with Love Letham and as part of the implementation of The Perth & Kinross Offer, the council are setting up a Multi-Disciplinary Locality group in Letham. This is part of a wider programme to transform how the council works with and enables communities, providing a more tailored and streamlined service that meet the particular needs of the community in which it operates. The learning from this Letham team and others across Perth & Kinross will be used to shape the wider rollout of this programme across Perth & Kinross.
Executive Lead, Strategic Planning and Transformation at Perth & Kinross Council and Love Letham Commissioner, Clare Mailer said:
“Letham’s children have been a real inspiration to us during this project - they were so insightful, compassionate and realistic about what they wanted to see changed. It’s up to all of us now to make their vision a reality. The new Letham locality group will be one way of us doing that - bringing local service providers together to meet local needs.”
"In many ways, we are just getting started. Ultimately, we'd like to use the approach we've used in Letham across the Council."
Funding has been secured from Cattanach to evolve the Love Letham Commission which will continue to work with children of all ages and young people to formulate policy changes on the issues they identified in the first phase of the project.
Local residents and Love Letham Commissioners Elsa (20) and Linda (72) said: “We're really pleased to see Love Letham has resulted in the creation of a new community safety role for the area and we hope that Perth & Kinross Council will be able to follow through quickly with simple things such as better lighting and prominent, colourful rubbish bins. Making an area feel safe is often about perception, especially for younger people and making them part of the decision making process is an excellent way of beginning this journey.”
The initiative, supported by local schools, NHS Tayside, national children’s charities and Police Scotland is based on an understanding that if policies are to ensure children and young people can flourish now and in the future, they must be co-designed with children and young people. Love Letham goes beyond short term challenges to think long-term about what is needed for all of Letham’s young people to thrive. By bringing children, young people and decision makers together throughout so everyone can have a stake.
Roddy Ross, Team Leader at Safer Communities Team, Perth & Kinross Council said:
"The Love Letham project demonstrated that children and young people wanted to see more of the Safer Community Wardens, I'm delighted to say thanks to the support of the community and the local elected members we're making that happen. In Spring this year Letham will have an extra, dedicated, Safer Communities Warden."
Residents can find out more about what’s next for Love Letham at a public meeting at 6.30 on Tuesday 20th June at Letham Community Club on Marlee Road. Find out more and read the report at www.loveletham.org.
Download and read the report below:
Love Letham is a collaboration of the Wellbeing Economy Alliance Scotland and Perth & Kinross Council. It is supported by Northern Star and is funded by the Cattanach Trust,Partners for a New Economy and Robert Bosch Foundation.