Getting involved

The borough and its partners are committed to engaging with residents in the planning and delivery of its services. We know that if we engage with local people we will deliver higher quality services that are more responsive to your needs.

By engaging with residents and stakeholders in an open and transparent way, we aim to ensure that the opinions and concerns of local residents are gathered in a timely manner to help inform decision making and improve local services.

You can find out about how to get more involved, by visiting the links on this page. You can attend your local Community Ward Forum meetings, or become a member of the residents’ panel

Youth Involvement

The Council is recruiting to its Youth Engagement groups. Please see the brief descriptions below and if you are interested contact Jane Brueseke on 020 8496 8105 or jane.brueseke@walthamforest.gov.uk

  • Young Advisors: trained to be consultants, paid to advise on how to make services better for young people locally
  • Forest Flava Press Gang: vbudding: journalists who write articles on local issues and have a website for young people
  • YIAG: interested in community safety issues, they work with youth offending team, schools, the police and the Gang Prevention Programme

For more information visit the Youth Engagement page.

Community Ward Forums

Community Ward Forum meetings take place in each ward, 3 times a year. The meetings are open to individual residents, community groups and business representatives who want to help shape and improve their neighbourhood. This is an opportunity for local people to get together, meet their ward councillors, and discuss the important issues affecting their area. Each ward has £10,000 to spend annually on local initiatives. How this money should be spent will be discussed at one meeting during the year.

For more information visit the Community Ward Forum pages.

Voluntary and Community Activity

The local Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) consists of a wide range of charities, community groups, tenants andresidents associations, social enterprises and many more not-for-profit organisations or groups. The Council currently spends over £3million on services delivered by the VCS including practical and development support for organisations through Voluntary Action Waltham Forest.

For more information visit the Voluntary Sector pages.

Community Cohesion

Waltham Forest is proud of its diverse population and rich mix of communities. Community cohesion is about different communities across the borough getting on, supporting one another and feeling that they share an interest in what happens in the area and have the opportunity to get involved in what happens in their community.

For more information visit the Community Cohesion page.

Contact the Community Engagement Unit
Tel 020 8496 3000