The Benefits of Leisure and Cultural Activity and the need for a Strategy.
Leisure andCultural Activity
Leisure and
cultural activities are a source of enjoyment and relaxation.
They have many benefits:
For the Individual
Leisure and Cultural activities can add to the quality of life for people and enable them to lead rich, creative and fulfilling lives and to achieve their true potential. Leisure and culture can have a positive role to play in health care and education, and offer opportunities for all to grow and develop as individuals.
For the Community
Leisure and culture can bring people together, helping to create a sense of community identity and pride. At its best, leisure can play a major part in helping to strengthen community involvement; encourage understanding; occupy and engage people's energies and help to reduce crime.
For the Environment
Investment in leisure and culture is an investment for future generations. The renewal and regeneration of resources is an implicit and positive effect of such investment, helping to protect and enhance the environment in which we live. People educated towards a healthy lifestyle tend to protect the environment rather than harm it.
For the Economy
Leisure and culture can generate income, support jobs in the Borough and bring business benefits. Participation in active leisure pursuits brings health benefits, thus reducing health care costs and cutting workdays lost to illness. An appreciation of a high quality of life can help to attract and retain staff and generate investment in facilities and business.
Leisure and cultural activities and assets have an inherent value in themselves. This is appreciated by local people and adds to the overall quality of life. People have leisure and cultural needs - records show that people have participated in a range of such pursuits for thousands of years e.g. the arts, sports, horticulture and play.
However these activities and services also have an instrumental value. They can help in the delivery of many, if not all, of a local authority's corporate objectives and of the "cross-cutting" national issues of health, community safety, social exclusion, environmental sustainability, regeneration and lifelong learning.
Reasons for developing a Local Leisure and Cultural Strategy
The main reasons for developing a local Leisure and Cultural Strategy are:
- The recognition that although the Council has a number of individual service-related strategies and contributes to a several cross cutting strategies, it does not have an overall leisure and cultural strategy.
- Government and District Audit expectations that local cultural strategies will be linked to Best Value programmes and the development of a Community Strategy for the Borough.
- The Department of Culture Media and Sport recommendation that all local authorities develop such strategies.
- The development of such strategies is now a Best Value Performance Indicator enabling Fareham to be compared with similar local authorities.
- Lottery and other grant-aiding award bodies are making the development and linking of local cultural strategies with other strategic plans (both local and national) a prerequisite to successful bids.
Benefits of a Leisure and Cultural Service Strategy
A local Leisure and Cultural Services Strategy gives a clear rationale as to why a local authority funds, manages, supports, encourages or regulates certain services and activities; it provides the basis from which an authority can best determine its own contribution to the cultural well-being of its community.
Specifically, the Strategy:-
- sets out the important contribution leisure and cultural activities make towards the economic, social and environmental well-being of the local population;
- brings leisure and cultural activities to centre stage;
- encourages local people and communities to participate in different leisure and cultural activities;
- focuses on the leisure and cultural needs, demands and aspirations of Fareham communities and encapsulates them within the vision of the Borough Council and its partners;
- defines priorities and reconciles competing demands within the cultural sector;
- demonstrates that the cultural needs of the area are being met in an efficient, equitable and effective way;
- acts as a catalyst for the long term improvement of cultural facilities and opportunities;
- informs individual plans and the work of individuals and organisations;
- acts as a framework for performance review;
- sets a direction and priorities for all partners, agencies and organisations;
- provides links with other plans of the authority and its partners and promote partnerships; and
- acts as a lever for, and justifies funding.
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