High Wycombe Community Board focuses on supporting the whole community

Democracy and Local Affairs

From children and young people to businesses and vulnerable residents, High Wycombe Community Board has been working hard to develop and support projects and initiatives which benefit a wide range of the local community.

At its meeting on Wednesday night the board heard from representatives from a number of organisations who have recently benefited from board funding for projects and initiatives including:

  • Winter grant funding
  • Leap Boredom Buster activity bags
  • Gift cards for care leavers
  • Be Your Own Boss Start-up

The representatives gave an insight into how the funding is supporting local people. Mark Stokes, Children and Young People Development Manager at Leap explained the joy the Boredom Buster activity bags gave to Year 3 children in several local schools over the Christmas holidays and Gemma Jones from the After Care team at Buckinghamshire Council gave details of how the care leavers have put their gift cards to good use. One used it to fix their bike so they can use it to get to work and another bought paint to decorate their home as a project to carry out during the lockdown. Gemma explained that the young people were delighted with the gifts and truly touched that people were thinking of them.

Going forward the board is considering a number of other community projects aimed at children and young people and decisions on funding for these will be made in coming weeks.

High Wycombe Community Board chair, Arif Hussain said: ““We have all been through some tough times over the past year and it is going to take some time before things go back to any kind of normal.

“As a community board we are committed to supporting all members of our local communities in whatever way we can. These projects and others by organisations such as The Clare Foundation, show the range of work going on to help local people and we are pleased to be able to give our support in the form of funding to help them continue and to support other worthy projects and initiatives.”

High Wycombe Community Board has highlighted five areas to focus on this year:

  • Covid-19 recovery, resilience and regeneration
  • Local infrastructure and transport
  • Community cohesion
  •  Mental health and community
  • Environment and climate change

If you have an interest in any of these areas and would like to get more involved, you can join one the sub-groups or join the mailing list. Email: hwcb@buckinghamshire.gov.uk  or visit our website for more information.

All 16 community boards will be meeting over coming weeks. To find out when your local board meeting takes place visit our webpage