Without Walls - York's Local Strategic Partnership - will celebrate the city's key achievements and start to debate what the partnership's focus should be for the next three to five years at its annual conference today (30 September).

In 2008, the partnership launched York's Sustainable Community Strategy, providing a complete overview of the issues that City of York Council and its partners, including the police, the NHS, private and voluntary sectors, must address during the next 20-25 years.

The partner organisations will get together for the annual Without Walls conference at the Hospitium on Thursday to hear about the many significant achievements that have been made over the past year in partnership, including:
· University expansion - the University of York's £500m campus expansion making good progress and will include jobs for local people as well as academic positions.
· Energise - The new Energise sports centre opened in December, providing improved fitness and swimming facilities.
· Explore York Library Learning Centre - the new centre opening in May, following a major refurbishment in partnership with Aviva.
· Tourist Information Centre - the new, state of the art centre opening in Museum Street, giving York the best tourism centre of its kind in the UK.
· Working together for disabled children - strong partnership working is having a significant positive impact on the lives of children with disabilities in York.
· Kingsway West Area Action Project - the project to reduce deprivation levels in one part of the city has achieved some fantastic outcomes.

Councillor Andrew Waller, Vice-Chair of Without Walls, said "We have proved that we can achieve so much in partnership.  Going forward we need to continue to pull together, pooling efforts and resources in pursuit of improved services for all York residents."

Key speakers will include Angela Harrison of York CVS on the city's inclusion strategy; Richard Hampton, member of York's Environment Forum on the climate change framework and Peter Kay, Chair of York Economic Partnership, who will give an update on the local economy.

Workshop discussions will focus on bringing the Partnership's Strategy up to date in light of the challenges that have emerged since the last re-write and reaching consensus on where Partners should focus attention in the short term.

Sir Ron Cooke, Chair of Without Walls, said: "In the current climate we will need to be more focused on the partnership's role in leading the city through these turbulent times, sharing challenges and ambitions and embracing new opportunities to work together."

For more information about Without Walls and the Sustainable Community Strategy, go to www.yorkwow.org.uk