Joanna Cordero. 24th February 2011.
The 24 institutions present at last night’s West London Citizens strategy meeting unanimously agreed to undertake a Talent Audit by July 2011. With the aim of analysing the resources that they already have – their members – institutions will become stronger and more effective. As Chris Wilkie of SS Peter and Paul’s Parish, Ealing said during the Rounds at the beginning of the meeting: “We are the most powerful when we use all our different talents and when we are resilient.”
The Strategy Meeting, which was the first in 2011 was attended by 92 individuals from member institutions of West London Citizens. The aim of the meeting, as stated by Paul O’Shea, of Saint Charles Catholic Sixth Form College, is to strengthen institutions in order to build powerful communities: “Only an organised civil society can hold the market and the state to account” he said.
The Westminster Centre for Independent Living (WCIL) demonstrated the truthfulness of these words with their campaign to keep their centre open after funding from the council was cut in September of last year. They realised that “in order to act together they needed to know the skills that existed in their institutions,” said Sarah from WCIL, adding, “In our campaign we needed accountants, project planners who are able to put together proposals”
With uncontested agreement for a Talent Audit of member institutions, West London Citizens show that they are ready to proactively tackle the issues they face in their communities. Maureen McGinn of Our Lady and St Joseph’s and one of the chairs of the meeting said, “We have to scramble in reaction to issues coming up in our communities. If we have to be looking at our institutions for the resources then and there then it is going to add to the delay keeping us from being able to respond quickly enough.”
“We have to be doing this proactively – finding out the resources within our institutions before these things hit so that we can react more quickly,” she concluded.
The proposed deadline for the Talent Audit is on the 10th of July 2011, in time for the West London Citizens Summer Party.
