On Wednesday the 13 of September, our Policy and Development Manager Philip Connolly and our Research and Engagement Officer Anna Denham went to three meetings with both new and key partners in Bristol.
The first one was with Tim Bowles, the mayor for the West of England where Philip and Anna explained I Can Make It and attempted to get his support for the campaign. As a result, we’re looking forward to meet the local enterprise partnership at an event themed around I Can Make Its aims of creating new job opportunities for people with disabilities and health conditions at a date to be determined.
Next Philip and Anna went to Bristol City Council where they met with Councillor Estella Tincknell and Ruth Pickersgill from the Mayor’s Office as well as council officers. Philip and Anna were joined by one of our Champions for I Can Make It in Bristol: Charlotte White to follow up on actions agreed from an earlier meeting we had with them in May. We were pleased to see that Bristol City Council have agreed to set targets around using social value to create job opportunities and look forward to meeting with them in November to discuss the roll out of our campaign. We also welcome the councils’ commitment to create a factsheet a fact sheet on employing young disabled people and include it in supplier bidder guides.
Finally, Anna met with Paul Wilson of Virgin Healthcare to discuss the possibility of job opportunities in the Bath and North East Somerset area. We’re looking forward to being introduced to Bath and North East Somerset Council and may be making an appearance at an event in October.
We’d like to thank all our partners for their timely co-operation on Wednesday and look forward to working with them in the future. We’d also like to thank Charlotte White for her contribution to the meeting with Bristol City Council.
We’re also in the process of making arrangements for a meeting with councillors and officials from Liverpool City Council and are arranging our event joint event with Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority. And we should have some exciting news to tell you about from our partnership with Hertfordshire County Council . So, watch this space for further developments in what is proving to be an interesting month for our campaign.