The first joint agreement for community work on a local level was signed yesterday between Agenzija Appogg and St Paul’s Bay local council. The two entities embarked on this project to target the social needs of the community through the service of a community worker.

This project aims to build and strengthen community resources, create networks, and work in partnerships with service providers to address better the needs of the community and ensure accessibility of services by all residents. Such needs include employment, education, housing, and services for persons with a disability and the elderly, among others.

Such project promotes the inclusion and participation of the residents within that locality in assessing the needs of the community, decision-making and also in-service development in the community. Training for all those involved is an integral part of this project.

Joe Gerada, chief executive officer of the Foundation for Social Welfare Services, commended this initiative by the St Paul’s Bay local council, as such projects are an effective way of taking social welfare services to the people in their own communities. Mr Gerada added that this model is the way forward in social welfare and that other local councils should build on this model for further development in the social welfare field. Through this initiative, people in the community are engaged in issues that affect them directly. These needs vary according to the locality and therefore the local council is well positioned to set the priorities.

Paul Bugeja, St Paul’s Bay mayor, referred to the social needs of the community and the importance for such needs to be addressed by the local council. Such initiative marks a development in the role of the local councils, which in this case, assessed the requirements of the locality and approached the service provider – Agenzija Appogg – to embark on this joint project. The local council has come to a point where it has to reflect and respect the social aspects of the residents of the locality in order to be closer to its residents.

Present for the presentation of this agreement were Catherine Fleri Soler, manager for Community and Generic Services of Agenzija Appogg, Mario Camilleri, councillor and chairperson of the social aspects of the St Paul’s Bay local council as well as Rose Camilleri, executive secretary of the St Paul’s Bay local council.