Community Champions event: Building healthier communities together

Since 2013, the Community and Maternity Champions Programme, together with the local Public Health Team, have been organising an annual conference. The aim is to bring together Champions, Public Health services, Neighbourhood Health Teams and partners to promote progress, share learning experiences, explore new initiatives and celebrate achievements in the community.

Community and Maternity Champions

Community Champions are neighbourhood-based volunteers who work in the community to promote health and well-being. Some the ways that they do this are by running health campaigns, community fun days, weekly activity groups and connecting residents with local support services.

Maternity Champions are highly skilled, local volunteers who support parents on their parenting journey. They help new and expectant parents from pregnancy through to their baby’s first birthday in various ways including preparing parents for birth, bonding with their baby, breastfeeding and first aid. Find out more about this here.

Building healthier communities together

This conference aimed to shed light on the key role of Community and Maternity Champions in building people’s trust in health services and achieving behaviour change to address some of the difficulties faced by the healthcare sector.

There were themed workshops and Healthwatch attended one which explored ways to reduce health inequalities in our communities. This workshop was led by One You Westminster and joined by different Champions and community organisation representatives. Some of the key ideas that were discussed included the impact that the cost of living is having on people's access to health services, importance of health education for people of all ages, and that health is significantly affected by where people live.

Throughout the day, we had the opportunity to hear about the changes that Maternity Champions are making – such as their contribution to the bi-borough's new Breastfeeding Plan. Representatives from Westminster City Council and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council also shared their plans to focus on coproduction with the community, particularly listening to youth about the things that matter to them, such as the environment and mental health support. There will also be greater collaboration between the council and Community Champions.

The event concluded with an award ceremony led by Lord Mayor of Westminster, Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, to celebrate the notable achievements of local Champions.