Our Cohesion and Integration priorities 2008-2011 set out Leeds City Council's commitment to ensuring that in all communities across our city there is a strong sense of belonging and that the valuable contribution that different individuals and groups have to shaping our city’s future is recognised.
This policy document sets out the key improvement and priority outcomes we want to achieve on cohesion and integration for the city. The policy priorities are supported by a delivery plan that sets out our priority actions and the indicators we will use to measure and assess our progress.
Our six cohesion and integration priorities are:
- Leadership and community empowerment
- Sense of belonging and opportunities for all
- Preventing the problems of tomorrow
- Children and young people
- Communication and information
- The inclusion of cohesion and integration into key council and city based plans
This document will help shape and inform future priorities and support the Leeds Strategic Plan 2008 – 2011 and help deliver our Business Plan priorities.
We have adopted the Government’s definition of cohesion and integration which is:
Community cohesion is what must happen in all communities to enable different groups of people to get on well together. A key contributor to community cohesion is integration which is what must happen to enable new residents and existing residents to adjust to one another.
Our vision of an integrated and cohesive community is based on three foundations:
- People from different backgrounds have similar life opportunities
- People know their rights and responsibilities
- People trust one another and trust local institutions to act fairly.
And three key ways of living together:
- A shared future vision and sense of belonging
- A focus on what new and existing communities have in common, alongside a recognition of the value of diversity
- Strong and positive relationships between people from different backgrounds.