Levelling Up Conversations
Together In Sussex is offering funding for 10 churches (or groups of churches) from coastal and urban communities across Sussex to host a series of facilitated conversations with their local communities. These conversations will consider what issues are most important to the community and how they would like to see them addressed.
‘Levelling Up Conversations’ are a Together Network collaborative project with the Department of Levelling Up, Homes and Communities Faith New Deal programme, designed to strengthen engagement between national government, local government and faith groups and demonstrate the role faith groups play in supporting communities to solve local problems.
These conversations will give local people the opportunity to discuss commonalities as well as differences, explore how to live well together, and what councils and other local public service providers can do to help tackle challenges.
The ideas and suggestions that come out of these conversations will then be brought together in a bigger local event, which will include senior public sector leaders, policymakers, council staff, police and other key service providers - demonstrating that faith groups working in partnership can play a significant and effective role in supporting community cohesion, solving local problems and building greater trust in local public services.
How can you get involved?
We're looking for 10 coastal churches to deliver a series of three ‘Small Conversations’ over the September–November 2022 period.
People from the church could be invited to take part in these conversations, such as your PCC, congregation, or from a social action project. You could also invite people from outside the church to have their say. The more people you involve, the better.
The aim of the three conversations are to create a safe space, where everyone can be open and honest about their thoughts, ideas, and concerns regarding the community.
The conversations will be led by a facilitator from the local church and a member of Together in Sussex, who will take suggestions from the group and help to draw out ideas.
Following this, we will hold a further five ‘Large Conversations’ across all participating areas during December 2022 and January 2023 involving local authorities, police, health, voluntary sector groups, MPs and councillors from the area.
If you are a church based along the south coast and would be interested in hosting three informal conversations for members of your local community, contact us via email at info@togetherinsussex.org.uk