Barbara Pond and Sabrina Dixon from GRCC recently gave a very well-received presentation about Localism at the Cotswold District Council Parish & Town Summit, which brought together more than 60 clerks and councillors from across the Cotswold District to discuss the opportunities presented by devolution.

“This was a great chance for us to showcase how Localism works, and explain the breadth of GRCC’s work with communities across Gloucestershire. We love to inspire creative ways for communities to sustain themselves,” said Sabrina.

Our Community Development Team has extensive experience of Community Asset Transfers, supporting the establishment of community shops and pubs, and many other ways to transfer power to the local community. If you'd like to know more about how we could support your community with this, email cdt@grcc.org.uk

Karen Price, our Social Prescribing Link Worker for Children and Young People in the North Cotswolds, recently completed a training to become a facilitator for The Body Project.

This well-tested programme, which has been delivered to more than 4.5 million girls and women in 136 countries, successfully reduces the prevalence of eating disorders, promotes body acceptance, and improves self-esteem and wellbeing in girls and young women aged 13-25.   

"The exercises, run in small groups over four sessions, help to reduce the internalising of appearance ideals, reduce thoughts of body dissatisfaction, and prevent or reduce eating disorders," said Karen.  "I’m looking forward to delivering this intervention in the North Cotswolds with the young people I work with." 

The Body Project is being rolled out locally by the University of Gloucestershire with funding from Gloucestershire NHS Integrated Care Board - more info on their website here. 

Angela and Guy from our Community Development Team recently attended the Gloucestershire Volunteer Awards evening - an annual event to celebrate the incredible contributions made by inspiring volunteers across Gloucestershire.  The awards are organised by Go Volunteer Glos, a project set up by the Gloucestershire Volunteering Collaborative, for which Guy is the Coordinator and Angela is a member of the steering group. 

"It was great to see so many local organisations present at the event, and to witness how much it meant to the winners to have their amazing volunteer work publicly recognised like this," said Guy, who is GRCC's VCSE Adviser.

You can see the full list of the 2025 award winners here on the Go Volunteer Glos website.   

In early June, BBC Points West TV reported on the work being done jointly by GRCC's DAISI Project and Cheltenham-based ITSA Digital Trust to provide laptops to digitally excluded people in Gloucestershire. 

ITSA Digital Trust expertly refurbishes surplus IT equipment donated by local businesses,  then GRCC's DAISI Project gives the laptops and support and tuition to local people who are in digital poverty.  The recipients are identified through our county-wide digital drop-ins, and through our network of DAISI Partners.

The Points West report shows ITSA Digital Trust staff and volunteers collecting and refurbing computers, and our Digital Equity Manager Daniel Gale giving the laptops and ICT tuition to local people who have been experiencing "digital exclusion" due to lack of funds and know-how.  

Community-Led Housing empowers local people to create solutions to their own housing needs. It involves residents leading in the planning, design, and often the management of their own housing developments, typically aiming for maximum affordability and community benefit.

Community-Led Housing projects can take various forms, including community land trusts, housing cooperatives, and cohousing (such as Springhill Cohousing in Stroud, pictured left), and can involve partnerships with other organisations like housing associations or local authorities.

GRCC's Affordable Housing Team has devised a webinar about Community-Led Housing.  If you would like to organise a Community-Led Housing webinar for a group that you belong to, or simply would like to know more about Community-Led Housing options, get in touch with the team via affordablehousing@grcc.org.uk or call us on 01452 528491. 

Community buildings can now apply to this fund for grants of between £7,500 and £75,000, which can be used to cover up to 20% of capital costs associated with renovation and improvement projects.  Applications are administered on behalf of DEFRA by our umbrella organisation ACRE, and applications are supported in Gloucestershire by GRCC.  

The scheme is quite complicated, but Sabrina Dixon, our Community Development Officer, has summarised the key points in a briefing document available via the button below.  Sabrina will be running an online information event from 12.30-1.30pm on 2nd July, which you can sign up for here, or if you can't make that session and have questions, please email sabrinaD@grcc.org.uk

Pictured left are Bill Carruthers and Rupert Brice, trustees of Weston-Sub-Edge Village Hall, who with GRCC's support were successful in securing funds towards installing solar panels and battery storage for their hall in the previous funding round. 

Our monthly Moreton Community Hub, which we run as part of our North Cotswolds Connecting Communities Project, will be happening again on Monday 7th July.  This month we'll be joined by Kate Holland from the Active Cotswold Physical Activity Programme, who will coming on our short wellbeing stroll and leading a chair workout. 

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

You can download an A5 flyer here.

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.

Looking for a new challenge? Are you well-organised and do you enjoy working with people? You could be just the person we're looking for to join our busy and friendly team.

We're looking for:

• a good communicator with excellent interpersonal skills to be the first point of contact for the organisation and provide business support to the team
• a friendly, well-organised, flexible, and open-minded multitasker with a good telephone manner and IT skills, including competence in Microsoft Word and Excel
• an individual with good English language, spelling and grammar
• someone proficient in the use of social media and other platforms

Full-time post (36 hours per week), £24K-£26K.  Based at our office in central Gloucester.

Gloucestershire County Council has a programme of events over the summer to launch its new Family Hubs, and deliver the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) scheme.

You can download a poster with all the event dates and locations here, or use the button below to view the Family Hubs website. 

Do you or does someone you know use a telecare alarm? Landline phones are currently switching to digital, which could stop telecare alarms working.

All landline providers need to know which of their customers use telecare devices, such as falls alarms, so they can keep them safe.  The switchover is already happening, and will be complete by January 2027, so you need to act quickly.

If you or someone you know uses a telecare alarm:
• call the landline provider now for support
• visit digitalphoneswitchover.com to find out more

If you would like to put up a poster about this on a noticeboard, you can download one to print  from here.

Richard Bradley, the Deputy Lord-Lieutenant for Gloucestershire, has strong links with non-profit organisations in the county, and is keen to make sure that non-profit businesses and social enterprises know that they are eligible to apply for the prestigious King's Award for Enterprise.

Outstanding achievements in promoting opportunity through social mobility, and outstanding achievements in sustainable development, are two of the fields which the King's Awards are targeted at. 

Applications are made online, the application process is free, and the closing date for the current round of awards is 9th September.

Parkinson's UK are offering grants of up to £3,000 to support physical activity projects for people with Parkinson's all over the UK.  There is also an addional fund aimed at people in marginalised communities, which Parkinson's UK define as:

• ethnic minority groups
• anyone with physical or learning disabilities
• low-affluence areas and low socio-economic groups
• anyone from the LGBTQIA+ community.
• refugee, asylum-seeking and migrant communities
• anyone who identifies as a woman

Use the button below to find out more. 

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.