Citizens UK’s newest chapter, Liverpool Citizens, officially launches at its Founding Assembly

Citizens UK’s newest chapter, Liverpool Citizens, officially launches at its Founding Assembly!

Liverpool Citizens, the most recent addition to Citizens UK’s chapters throughout the UK, was formally launched on November 18 at the iconic St George's Hall in front of 590 attendees.

With 17 member institutions representing the faith, charity, healthcare, education, and housing sectors, Liverpool Citizens is already at the forefront of creating change driven by people.

The Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, the Leader of Liverpool City Council and NHS and local transport representatives joined us to hear from people how their lives are impacted by challenges including the costs of living, unreliable and unaffordable public transport, and the need for access to mental health support for young people. They pledged to work together for meaningful change on these issues.

Ethan, a care-experienced young person from Thrive Careers Hub CIC, asked if Liverpool City Council would become an accredited Living Wage employer and rally employers to make Liverpool a Living Wage City. Councillor Liam Robinson pledged to work toward formal accreditation for Liverpool City Council and spread the Fair Employment Charter citywide.

Josie, a ten-year-old pupil from Monksdown primary school, followed up on a previous meeting with the leader of Liverpool City Council, Cllr Robinson, and challenged him to trial free school meals in eight primary schools in Liverpool. The councillor promised to continue to look into this.

Secondary school children from Dixons Fazarkarley High School directly told Richard Hoare, Area Director of Arriva Northwest and Wales, about the challenges they have getting to school daily using buses. This included bus reliability making them late, missing classes and getting detentions, and affordability of transport fares meaning that some pupils must walk to school. Mr Hoare outlined plans for increased capacity and timetable changes, and meeting with the group to review progress. Mayor Steve Rotheram pledged to put the public back into public transport and committed to keeping transport fares affordable.

Community people, including youth, raised concerns about street lighting, park maintenance, and access to sports facilities. Cllr Robinson committed to joining a neighbourhood walk and creating an action plan to improve street lighting and park maintenance in Everton.

Access to health and dental care, mental health support in schools, and the Real Living Wage for NHS workers were key health-related concerns raised by members of Liverpool Citizens. The Chief Executive of the NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board, Graham Urwin, pledged to work with us to ensure young people can access counselling in schools across Liverpool, and to ensure all local NHS jobs become Living Wage roles.

From cost-of-living to improving public spaces, questions asked by community leaders reflect the lived realities of Liverpool Citizens and their vision for the future of the city.

The founding assembly included the signing of a pledge by decision-makers: “We pledge that we will work with Liverpool Citizens for the common good of the city. We will be accountable for the commitments we make. We will meet regularly and engage collaboratively in a spirit of public service”.

Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotheram, summed up the event: “The best way we can achieve all the wonderful aims we’ve got for the Liverpool City Region including the city of Liverpool is to engage broadly. This is a great opportunity for us to listen to what people want.”

The event closed with a Monksdown primary school pupils singing “We’ve got the power’ to a rapturous response, with 600 people standing, singing and clapping in a moving moment of people power!