More than 50 people representing 35 village halls and community buildings from all around Gloucestershire gathered at our fully-booked Village Halls Week event at Gambier Parry Hall in Highnam on Thursday 20th March.

There were information stalls from 11 exhibitors, including the event's main sponsor Sound Reduction Systems,  whose support enabled us to provide a delicious free buffet lunch, giving attendees plenty of opportunity for chat and networking.  

There were workshops about Recruiting Volunteers, Enhancing Your Online Presence, Covering Your Core Costs, and Trustees' Roles and Responsibilities, and the feedback from participants at the event was extremely positive, including:

• “I gained understanding of what other village halls do that we don’t do yet”
• “We appreciated being able to pass on information about our experiences with other attendees”
• “We already had a handle on core costs, but the importance of demonstrating that to funders was new to me”
• “We now want to investigate getting a milk vending machine for our village hall!”

For support on how to run your village hall or community building effectively, contact our Community Development Team via cdt@grcc.org.uk or call us on 01452 528491

Rachel Seymour, our Flood & Community Resilience Officer, recently attended networking meetings in the Cotswolds and Tewkesbury to talk with local Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) organisations about online threats such as scams, hacking, phishing, and ransomware attacks.

Rachel outlined why cyber-crime is a particular threat to VCS organisations, and what support and resources are available to increase their cyber resilience.

Rachel is a member of the VCS Emergencies Partnership, a national network for shared learning, building connections, and enhancing skills to enable VCS organisations to be better prepared for all kinds of emergencies.  

For more information about community resilience, contact Rachel via rachels@grcc.org.uk.  For specific questions regarding your organisation’s digital needs, please contact our Digital Triage service.

Jason Spinney is our Digital and Technology Social Prescribing Link Worker for the North Cotswolds.  Jason's job is to enable people to improve their health and wellbeing through essential tech skills, assistive technology, and better access to digital devices and online tools.

Jason gives tuition and advice at groups and via one-to-one support, including home visits for the most vulnerable people, and has recently had some great successes in finding life-changing funding for clients. 

Jason obtained a grant for one client to enable him to extend his photography hobby, to get him out of the house taking photos, and starting to produce greetings cards for friends and family.  Another client, who is housebound,  was severely impacted by extreme amounts of clutter in their home, and Jason obtained funds to pay for house clearance as well as a new tech device. 

Another housebound client needed support to find a way to obtain prints of sentimentally valuable lost family photos, using the remaining negatives.   Jason found a Bristol company who very kindly offered to print the photos for free when they heard of the client's sad situation. 

Emma Royer and Pippa Baker-Walsh of our Community Autism Support and Advice (CASA) service have both recently been awarded Masters degrees, after studying for the MA in Autism Studies at the Tizard Centre at the University of Kent. 

Both worked towards the qualification part-time over two years, completing taught modules and a final research-based dissertation, and the pair are looking forward to their graduation ceremony in Canterbury Cathedral in July!

Emma's dissertation investigated the level of knowledge about autism among public service workers in Gloucestershire, and Pippa's dissertation was about autistic people's access to cervical screening.  

"We've both found that our MA studies have been really valuable for the work that we do at CASA, giving us access to current research, and helping us to adapt our working practices to be more effective in supporting autistic adults in Gloucestershire," said Emma. 

Our Rural Housing Enabler Tim Gwilliam has just extended his skillset by completing a one-year training to become an Accredited Community-Led Housing Adviser. 

"Community-led housing is about local people playing a leading role in solving their own local housing problems, creating affordable homes and strong communities," said Tim. 

"This is something that we at GRCC are very keen to help to get delivered, in order to give more people the opportunity to stay living in the village or parish that they wish, in a way they can afford, and for the benefit of the entire community."

If you are interested in finding out more about community-led housing, or need support with an existing rural affordable housing project, or have an idea for a new rural affordable housing project in your area, contact Tim via  timg@grcc.org.uk or call him on 01452 528491.

This new book, published to coincide with this year's Village Halls Week, examines the history and importance of Britain's 10,000 village and community halls. 

Rural life in England has changed for the better over the past century, thanks in no small part to the village and community halls that provide a home for fitness classes, WIs, amateur dramatics, dances, toddler groups, parish councils, polling stations and many other locally based activities. Managed by volunteers, the buildings represent a combination of historic legacy and modern design worth some £12 billion.

The book also examines the crucial supporting role played by the network of village halls advisers in GRCC and 37 other county-based rural support organisations,  members of our umbrella organisation ACRE - Action for Communities in Rural England.

Our monthly Moreton Community Hub, which we run as part of our North Cotswolds Connecting Communities Project, will be running on Monday 7th April. 

This month we will be joined by Healthy Lifestyles Gloucestershire who will talk about the services they can offer, including support with stopping smoking, getting more active, reducing alcohol intake, weight management, and staying healthy during pregnancy.

Our Social Prescribing Link Workers and a range of staff and volunteers from support organisations will also be there to chat to people and offer advice and help, plus there will be the usual time for socialising and free refreshments.

Come along to Jameson Court, GL56 0EW at 10.15am for a short wellbeing stroll, or 10.30am for the drop-in, refreshments and services.  For further information, please contact info@grcc.org.uk or call us on 01452 528491.

This vital role is about empowering the community through digital literacy, ensuring everyone has access to the digital world, particularly the most vulnerable and isolated.

We are looking for someone who is passionate about removing barriers to digital equity, is empathetic, good with people and problem solving, and can teach diverse groups.  Experience in community engagement, digital projects, or similar fields is important. 

Full-time, £27,000 per annum, deadline 23rd April.  

Healthwatch Gloucestershire has published a report on the state of community pharmacies in the county.   

As the number of services that pharmacies can offer has increased, so has the amount of feedback about pharmacies received by Healthwatch Gloucestershire. Many people shared positive experiences of local pharmacies, but others had concerns such as shortages of medications, and delays in receiving their full prescription.

Healthwatch Gloucestershire found that:

• People value their community pharmacy
• Most people are not aware of Pharmacy First, but people who have used it generally rate it positively
• GPs and pharmacies do not always work in a joined-up way, which can impact on patients
• Some pharmacies are spending more than two hours a day trying to manage medication shortages

Gloucestershire Community Energy Co-op has successfully completed its first few projects, including City Works in Gloucester and Minchinhampton Primary Academy. 

PV systems on these buildings are up and running, generating cheap energy for the building users, and interest payments to the community shareholders whose small investments fund the projects.  

The Co-op is now on the look-out for more community buildings that would be interested in having a community-funded energy system installed on their roof to power their building sustainably, and save them money on energy bills.  They also offer shareholders 2.5% to 4% interest, and accept investments of between £250 and £10,000.

Email info@gloscommenergy.org.uk or use the button below to visit their website.   

If you've had contact with us, or support from us, or just visited our website to try to find information, we'd really love to know how we're doing!  Were we brilliant, just OK, or not very good?  All feedback, good and bad, helps us to shape our services to better fit your needs.