 Free online safety webinars this month
Involve Community Services and Wokingham’s Community Safety Partnership will launch the Keep Safe in Wokingham campaign, a series of engaging webinars throughout February which raises awareness and promotes safety for borough residents.
Keep Safe in Wokingham will bring together voluntary sector groups, local government professionals, schools and other key stakeholders to collaborate, learn and share resources for keeping our community safe - both online and in the real world.
The mother of murdered teenager Olly Stephens will be one of the speakers at the campaign’s launch event. Amanda Stephens will tell her family's personal story of losing their son.
The webinars are free to attend and each session is targeted for different audiences including parents and carers, local practitioners, with some open to people of all ages.
Next week’s webinars include:
Monday 3 February at 4pm - Campaign launch event
The launch webinar will highlight online events focusing on online safety for young and vulnerable people with links to keeping safe in the physical world. Speakers include Involve Community Services, Thames Valley Violence Reduction Unit, Youthworks Consultancy, Tellmi Mental Health App and Olly Stephens’ Mum, Amanda Stephens.
This event is for practitioners, local authorities, schools, the voluntary community sector and individuals.
Tuesday 4 February at 4.30pm - Young people and sense of safety
Hosted by Tim Wiseman, Head of Communications at Thames Valley Violence Reduction Unit, this webinar focuses on sharing insights from young people on their sense of safety. Tim will also talk about the Stay True to You resources which are free practical materials for anyone engaging with young people, to help start meaningful conversations about safety.
This event is for practitioners, the voluntary and community sector and individuals.
Wednesday 5 February from 1pm to 2pm – From surviving to thriving
Hosted by Vickie Robertson, CEO and founder of local domestic abuse charity Kaleidoscopic UK. The webinar focuses on surviving to thriving after experiencing domestic abuse in a relationship, from a lived-experience survivor.
This event is suitable for everyone.
Thursday 6 February from 9.30am to 11.30am – Technology enabled abuse
Hosted by South East Regional Organised Crime Unit, this workshop looks at ways in which domestic abuse, stalking and harassment can take place online and how a perpetrator may use technology as a way of maintaining control over a victim-survivor’s online presence and accounts.
This event is suitable for practitioners from all sectors.
To see the full list of events and book, visit the Involve website.
 Give feedback on Community Governance Review
We are seeking feedback on the current arrangements for the towns and parishes in our borough to ensure people are represented as effectively as possible.
The Community Governance Review is carried out every ten to 15 years and reviews things such as ward boundaries and the number of councillors that represent an area.
Using local knowledge, we will review recommendations and determine if they would be more appropriate for community cohesion.
Our initial consultation launched today (Friday 31 January) and will run for 12 weeks on our Engage Wokingham Borough platform.
 Road closure extended after heavy rain
Part of Easthampstead Road in Wokingham, between Waterloo Road and Heathlands Road, will now be shut until next Saturday (8 February) at the latest.
Our partners at Balfour Beatty are clearing hedges on both sides so they can get set up to build the South Wokingham Distributor Road.
It was set to reopen this Saturday but this has been delayed by heavy rain, which caused flooding in that area and slowed work down.
As a result, the two-way traffic lights on Heathlands Road have been delayed and will now be in place from 10 to 22 February to allow for the construction of a new site access.
A diversion remains in place for vehicles, and there's still access on both sides of the railway, but only pedestrians can use the level crossing.
Businesses remain open and can be accessed as usual.
We considered alternatives, like returning in the half-term holidays, but this would have conflicted with scheduled works on London Road.
We're sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause, and hope you will appreciate that these circumstances are beyond our control.
We'll do our best to reopen the road before next Saturday, which may be possible as the weather forecast is more favourable.
Keep an eye on all disruption across the borough using our live map.
Looking ahead to what's coming next
We're still working with Balfour Beatty to finalise our works programme and we'll share this with everyone as soon as we can.
Main works on the South Wokingham Distributor Road will begin in the spring, but no significant disruption is expected until later in the year.
From the summer onwards, we're expecting closures at the junction of Molly Millars Lane and Finchampstead Road, and we're also expecting further closures on the same section of Easthampstead Road from the winter.
We know this will be disruptive but we'll be working closely with residents and businesses closest to the planned works and will share the timetable with the wider community within the next few weeks.
We'll keep sharing updates in this newsletter, but don't forget you can get more detailed news by signing up to our South Wokingham newsletter.
 My Way to 5K programme coming to Arborfield
Do you want to improve your fitness levels, but would benefit from additional support?
A programme is set to launch at Arborfield Green Leisure Centre, offering weekly sessions to develop your confidence with running.
The My Way to 5K scheme will be run by Places Leisure, in partnership with My Journey Wokingham, over ten weeks.
Prior to launching, Places Leisure would like to get feedback on the best day and time to have the sessions. Share your views by taking a short survey.
What you might have missed
Here's all our email newsletters from the last week, in case you missed them:
If you’re interested in getting these updates directly, you can sign up on our website.
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