“Liverpool is the world in one city” Liverpool citizens’ panel on community safety highlights a path forward for the city after major unrest
In the wake of the recent violent and racist thuggery that resulted in the destruction of the Spellow Community Hub and Library in Liverpool national justice charity Revolving Doors and citizens’ democracy organisation Shared Future CIC are coming together to reiterate the vital recommendations and messages from the Building Bridges, Safer Communities project. This initiative, the UK’s first citizens’ panel on community safety and policing, delivered its recommendations earlier this summer and remains a beacon of hope and unity for the city.
The citizens’ panel brought together a diverse array of voices from Liverpool’s community. Through informed and practical recommendations, it emphasised the urgent need for greater focus on prevention, community engagement, and investment in essential services. Today, we re-share the panel’s powerful statement, a message of hope and unity that firmly rejects aggression, division, bigotry, and hatred.
“Liverpool is the world in one city.
We came together at the beginning of this process feeling curious, unsure, intrigued, hoping to make a difference but aware the question creates a big challenge to solve.
Liverpool is surviving widespread disinvestment, and we recognise the depth and breadth of the impact increasing poverty has on the issues faced by all of us and especially marginalised communities.
We brought lots of strong views, differing life experiences, nationalities, religions and opinions to the table, reflecting the best of Liverpool in our diversity, but also in our passion and engagement in this process, to face challenges head on and not back down.
These recommendations come from the people and from the heart. We valued all the perspectives and are blown away in particular by the quality of the homegrown leaders taking charge in their communities – and think their work should be much more widely known, funded and replicated.
It’s a huge challenge to answer the question ‘How can we prevent crime and improve community safety for every, particularly marginalised groups in Liverpool?’ and services impacting community safety are gone or going. The community needs to step in, whether out of desire or necessity. We aim to set a strong example through the energy and dedication we have put into this project and put our trust in the advisory group to do everything in their power to use these recommendations to make Liverpool a healthier, happier, safer place for all.
30 strangers with different views, beliefs, opinions, experiences came together and at the end we’ve produced something we are proud of. We’ve become a new community; we stepped in and gave full effort and want the advisory group to take full responsibility and do us and the wider Liverpool community proud. We want to see visible, consistent work on our recommendations, which we intend to be the seeds of long lasting, positive impact on every community.”
Backing up their statement were over 40 prioritised recommendations for improving community safety, responding to crime and tackling anti-social behaviour. The recommendations were delivered by members of the Citizens Panel to the project advisory group including Liverpool City Council and Merseyside Police leaders at a public launch event in May.
Top recommendations received overwhelming support from the citizens following a long deliberation on the future of their city. They included supporting families and young people to provide the best start in life, investing in community leadership and community facilities, and building a cohesive and inclusive city through agencies working together.
This positive and forward-thinking response stands in stark contrast to the behaviour of a small group seeking to divide communities through their criminal actions. Liverpool, a city known for its resilience and unity, will not be overshadowed by these events. We stand together, stronger and more determined than ever to build a safer, more inclusive future for all.
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Notice to Editors:
More details on the Citizens’ Panel recommendations and access to the full report is available here.
A joint blog by Pav Dhaliwal, Chief Executive of Revolving Doors and Jez Hall, Director at Shared Future is available here.
For further enquiries or background contact Charlotte Sellers at Revolving Doors at charlotte.sellers@revolving-doors.org.uk and Samuel Augustine at Shared Future at samuel.augustine@sharedfuturecic.org.uk.
About Revolving Doors
Revolving Doors is a national charity working to break the cycle of crisis and crime. We advocate for a system that addresses the drivers of contact with the criminal justice system, including trauma, poverty and discrimination. We bring independent research, policy expertise and lived experience together to champion long-term solutions for justice reform.
About Shared Future CIC
Shared Future CIC is a Northwest based not-for-profit, which designs and runs community engagement and empowerment projects. We facilitate conversations on a wide variety of topics of public concern, seeking to create opportunities for consensus, improve policy-making, innovate public services and enable community action.
