A word from the Chairperson

First, let me thank Ann Barron for chairing Gibshill Residents Association (GRA) from its inception in October 2003 to July 2004 when the new board was elected as planned. Ann has led the Association from scratch to a well established, properly constituted and professional organisation.

I feel absolutely privileged to have been elected into the lead role. It is not an enviable task to pick up the 'relay baton' at this challenging 'crossroad' of Gibshill's multi-million Pound Gibshill regeneration programme, but I have not hesitated for a moment to say YES to the cause of serving my community in this honourable capacity. 

The former board has more or less completed all the groundwork for sustainable Community Engagement in Gibshill and a framework for ongoing Capacity Building are now in place. A prominent role has been secured for the Residents Association at the 'heart' of the Task Group, which is the single most important decision making body for Gibshill's regeneration programme. The GRA feels very advantaged to be part of this highly dedicated Task Group team where all stakeholders actively give their very best to ensure that our community's regeneration continues to move towards a comprehensively successful completion. 

Gibshill now also has its own logo and its own Newsletter. In addition our community can pride itself on an exclusive Community Website which hopefully will drive increasing numbers of Gibshill residents to the Web. The website literally provides Gibshill with a 'gateway' to worldwide exposure. We should exploit this perfect stage to expose both our potential and our achievements. We should exploit this web-space to interact and to explore.

The recently conducted Community survey has produced invaluable new baseline information which will allow us to plan for our community more effectively and to deliver customised services in increasingly efficient manner. The GRA invites you to make maximum use of it and to eventually join our Digital Team to make our website even better. After all ..it is your stage. 

There are more ways and more reasons to join us. We have clustered our work into three specialist areas in order to work more systematically and to encourage you on board on the basis of your personal interest, ambition and/or expertise. The specialist clusters which are consistent with national priorities and local policy targets are as follows: 

Improving Neighbourhood and Community Inclusion
Health and Wellbeing
Economic Regeneration, Environment and Lifelong Learning
GET ON BOARD; YOU WILL LOVE IT

Arlene Mailey
Chairperson GRA