Ever fancied being a part of the decision making process in your community? If so then the chances are that your Area Action Partnership is looking for representatives to sit on their board and influence how the council and a range of other agencies address priorities in your area as well as reacting to neighbourhood issues to decide how a dedicated neighbourhood budget should be spent.

All AAPs are looking for people with a strong desire to improve their local areas who can relate to their community. Even if you have never played a role in your local community before, why not give it a go? Experience has shown the council that often those people with little or no experience prove to be very good board members who come up with the best ideas and contribute the most.

Gordon Elliott, head of partnerships and community engagement, said: “Public representatives are valuable to the AAP, bringing their individual experience and local knowledge of communities. I would urge anyone interested to get in touch with their AAP to find out more.”

Since the AAPs inception in 2009 they have supported more than 600 projects across County Durham.

The partnerships were set up in 2009 to ensure the council is in touch with local people and to ensure members of the public have a say in how services are delivered and, more critically, have means to take action themselves.

Gordon added: “It’s now coming up to four years since they were put in place and they have proven to work, delivering action in communities to tackle issues. Crucial to their success has been the role of the public representative.

“Public reps have used local knowledge and information from residents to enable them to identify, prioritise and start to address some of the key concerns in their communities.

“They have been the main drivers in addressing these concerns and, working alongside a variety of partners, have helped to shape and develop numerous projects, schemes and programmes.”

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Durham County Council wants to keep the boards vibrant and is looking to recruit to this exciting role. We want to recruit members of the public from across each of the AAP areas to try and get a good balance of public representatives from a range of communities.

If you’re involved in your community already, or even if you’re not and have never been involved in anything like this before but now have time to do more, get in touch.

A public rep can serve on the AAP board for up to four years and would be expected to attend board meetings which would take place at least once every two months. They can also get involved in a variety of groups which are designed to look at the communities concerns and develop ideas and possible solutions to address these.

Boards currently have representatives of all ages ranging from a teenager to someone in their 90s and there are a number of people who have been inspired by their time with the AAPs and gone on to leading major projects in their community.

The partnerships have done so much to date but there is a still lot to do so if you feel you can add something then get in touch and ask for an application pack via your local AAP.  Our closing date for full applications is 2 April.

More information on the AAPs can be found at: http://www.durham.gov.uk/Pages/Service.aspx?ServiceId=6379