​Celebrating Community during #CommunitiesWeek17 - The BYHP Community Big Lunch 2017

The week commencing 20th March has been designated as #CommunitiesWeek and during this week we at BYHP wanted to announce that we applied for, and have been successful in receiving, £2100 of Big Lottery Fund funding as part of their Celebrate programme to fund the third BYHP Community Big Lunch, which will take place on Sunday 2nd July 2017.

Before yesterday’s events in central London this blog would simply have been  about that - very locally focused on Banbury - but following those events we want to give out a  message that in fact this week is the time to be even more open and more community focused to show that yesterday's events are extra-ordinary and not the “new norm”. Now is the time to strengthen our communities and to share and learn, to break down barriers and to build resilient communities.

BYHP is part of the Brighter Futures Initiative in Banbury and we are committed to improving the lives and wellbeing of local people and helping drive community cohesion.
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Since 2015 we have held "The Big Lunch", in September 2015 and in 2016 on 2nd July. Here you can see all about last year’s event.
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BYHP's objective is to engage with all local residents equally and we really want as many of our partner organisations in the community to be involved, not only on the day but in the months leading up to the event, both defining what elements there will be and organising the activities.

So, we are publicly announcing this event to start making local people aware but also to ensure that our partners know that we want them to be part of a wonderful celebration of community collaboration which will result in a free event for local people, all funded by the Big Lottery Fund.

One extra element of the event is that we hope to include some of BYHP’s young clients in the organisation of the event as part of them learning about event management through BYHP’s newly re-defined Employability Service.

Whilst the details are still to be confirmed, the BYHP Community Big Lunch 2017 will no doubt include, fun, food, music, crafts, games and activities for all of the family.

We have had 100-150 attendees at the last two events and we would love to think that with other community groups working with us all the way through and also helping spread the word about the event, we should be able to see attendee numbers grow, thus enabling more of the local community to spend time together and to bond over a free shared lunch.

So in a week which started celebrating the richness and importance of community across the UK but which included a terrible act which may be used by some to cause division and distrust amongst some members of our community, we are even more delighted to be able to announce this funding and to say that we are going to have a #BigCelebration of community and that #WeAreNotAfraid and that community makes us more resilient and safer if we work together and celebrate together.
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If you would like to know more about the event please keep an eye on our Events Schedule and if you wish to help organise it, please contact enquiries@byhp.org.uk

#CommunitiesWeek17 #CommunitiesWeek #thebiglunch ​