Shaped by People is a new way of measuring something that really matters, in local people’s own words. It’s a shared goal, created by people in local places across Kirklees, which will help us understand whether people feel able to influence and improve things where they live.
We’re working with citizens to measure our progress towards this shared goal. Together we’re creating ways of learning about four key aspects of Shaped by People, because these are the things citizens told us matter most for getting involved.
What we’re aiming to achieve is:
- More people believe that getting involved is worthwhile and feel inspired to take part.
- More people have the confidence to get involved and know how to get support.
- More people feel included, respected, listened to and able to contribute.
- More people feel connected and know people in their communities well.
We’re measuring our progress in three different ways.
Numbers
- We’ve asked some questions in the CLiK (Current Living in Kirklees) survey to give us a starting point. The questions are based on what local people have said matters, including whether you’ve got involved in your community in the past 12 months and if something positive came out of it.
- We’ll also be taking opportunities to ask these questions in other survey activities.
Conversations
We can best understand each other’s experiences by talking with each other and hearing each other’s stories – through conversations, not consultations. So we’re working with local organisations to test out some workshops and resources to help everyone do this.
Some things we’re working on now are:
- Workshops where you can talk with other local people about whether you feel able to shape your local place.
- A conversation starter pack that anyone can request, which we’ll send through your letterbox.
- Asking questions as part of our How good is our place? conversations, which happen in lots of local places.
If you’re interested in testing our workshops or materials, please Contact us – we’d love to hear from you.
Stories
Shaped by People started with hearing people’s stories – and we want to keep on doing that. We want to encourage everyone to recognise the value of personal stories, as something we can all learn from as well as being a chance to celebrate the great things local people are doing everyday.
Some ways we can do this are:
- Themed story gathering (stories about a topic, an event, specific people or places).
- Working with local organisations to make sure we hear from diverse communities.
- Working with our staff to encourage story gathering and to make sure we’re learning from what people tell us.
- Exploring quick story capture options (possibly using an online app).
If you have a personal story to share, you can find out more on our Share your story page.
If you’re part of a local organisation or you’re a member of Kirklees Council staff and you want to get involved, please Contact us – together we can help more people to share their stories.
Take part
Share your story
Contact us
