Engage Liverpool encourages residents to resolve challenges by ‘playing their part’ in the wider city region

Building on nine years of successful seminar series, Engage Liverpool will host three events across October 2019, focusing on challenges faced around cycling and walking, homelessness and rough sleeping, and devolution and governance. The final seminar in the series will take place on the eve of Brexit, Thursday 31 October.

The seminars will bring together national and international speakers with unrivalled expertise in these areas, along with local representatives, guests from the City Region Combined Authority and grassroots activists.

The events will explore how the solutions to some of the biggest challenges faced by city centre and waterfront residents could come through regional collaboration.

The series will launch on Thursday 3 October at Museum of Liverpool (5:30pm – 7:30pm) with Cycling/Walking – Winning the Argument, exploring resident concerns about infrastructure for cycling and walking.

Keynote speaker Klaus Bondam, CEO of the Danish Cyclists’ Federation and former Mayor of Technical and Environmental Affairs in The City of Copenhagen, will share his experience working in Copenhagen, widely considered to be the leading city in the world for cycling and walking.

He will be joined by regional speaker, Cllr Nathalie Nicholas, Deputy Portfolio Holder LCR CA, Transport & Air Quality and a panel of local guests, including Daniel Robinson, from social enterprise Peloton Liverpool, Blaen Roberts, founder of biking community, Liver Pedlaa Pool and Kevin McCann, from Sustrans, a charity seeking to make it easier for people to walk and cycle.

On Thursday 17 October the series will continue with Homelessness/Rough Sleeping – A Different Approach at The Tapestry in the Fabric District (5:30pm – 7:30pm). The event will examine the crisis of homelessness and rough sleeping which is evident on the streets of the city centre on a daily basis.

International guest, Juha Kahila, Project Coordinator for Y-Foundation in Finland will share the revolutionary approach taken by Housing First that has almost eliminated the issue of homelessness and rough sleepers in his home country.

Sefton Cllr Trish Hardy, Deputy Portfolio Holder LCR CA, Housing & Spatial Framework, will represent the region, being joined by a local panel of activists and experts including, John Finnegan, CEO of Liverpool Homeless FC, Nigel Mellor, Chair of Emmaus Merseyside and David Carter, CEO of Whitechapel Centre.

The final seminar, Devolution/Governance – in the Brexit Era will take place on the eve of Brexit, Thursday 31 October (5:30pm – 7:30pm), at Constellations in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle.

On this landmark day for the UK, Engage Liverpool will welcome Prof Philip McCann, Professor in Urban and Regional Economics at Sheffield University Management School and a national expert in devolution and the impact of Brexit, as keynote speaker.

The final seminar will explore the history of rivalry and antagonism in the region and ask if an environment of cooperation and collaboration is finally starting to blossom. It will also ask how the region will cope in a No-Deal Brexit.

Regional speaker and Deputy Portfolio Holder LCR CA, Policy and Resources, Strategy and Delivery, Cllr Carla Thomas, will be joined by Andi Herring, Co-Founder of LCR Pride Foundation, Rev Canon Dr. Ellen Loudon, Director of Social Justice and Canon Chancellor Diocese of Liverpool and Nick Smith, Enterprise Manager Canal & River Trust.

For the first time ever, there will also be a ‘marketplace’ at each seminar, with local organisations and businesses attending to talk about their work and services in the areas of healthy transport, homelessness, and governance.

Gerry Proctor, Chair of Engage Liverpool CIC said: “This year’s seminar season aims to situate our residential community at the heart of the wider Liverpool City Region. It explores three themes that matter a great deal to people everywhere in the city region but especially to waterfront and city centre residents.”

“Our highly-esteemed local, national and international speakers will bring their personal experience and expertise to discussions and we hope that it can stimulate an appetite for collaborative and innovative thinking at the local and regional level to tackle these significant challenges.”

The events highly-esteemed speakers have been secured thanks to support from sponsors The Regenda Group, P-IE (Planit Intelligent Environments) and Promenade Estates, and hotel partner, The Titanic Hotel.

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