Yesterday I attending the launch of a new project Fife Council has set up to support people to get life skills and training opportunities whilst also doing good work in the local community. The new Community Works Programme has £2 million of funding through Fife Council and they are working to pull in other funding so that community projects can make a real difference in local communities whilst people gain skills.
The project is being delivered by the Opportunities Fife team which is headed up at political level by Cllr Tony Martin (Lib Dem) and has been supported big time by Cllr Willie Clarke (Communist) with priority funding being made available since Labour took control of Fife Council over two years ago.
The reason I am explaining the politics of this area of work within Fife Council is that it demonstrates that Fife has this approach where lots of parties and individuals are working together for the better good of what can be achieved for local people and the local communities they seek to serve.
The example that we visited yesterday which is the relocation and development of the new War Memorial in Lochore also demonstrates the good work at community level that can be brought about through partnership. This project is a partnership with the local Community Council leading supported by Fife Council and the staff and trainees of the Community Work Programme and also in the photo is representatives from the Co-op funeral care who moved the stone and put all the names on the stone, but also the members of the local community history group who carried out all the research to get all the names of those who had died in the wars of the past from the Benarty area.
All these people are rightly proud of what has been achieved with this War Memorial project and also what is being achieved across Fife with the skills and training agenda which is being driven by Fife Council and the deputy leader Cllr Lesley Laird who is in charge and determined to drive the Fife economy forward in the interests of all Fifers.
We all need to work together if we want to tackle the big issues for our communities
