At one of our recent Community Buildings Network meetings facilitated by Guy Dobson, a local voluntary sector organisation said that they had safety concerns because of the anti-immigration demonstrations taking place across the country.

Guy then called in the support of GRCC’s Community Resilience Officer Lucy Eccles, who specialises in helping organisations and communities with Emergency Plans.

"Guy and I both then visited the organisation to hear in more detail about their concerns," said Lucy.  "We looked around the facility to see what safety measures were already in place, and discussed physical improvements and new procedures that could be introduced to make the staff and community feel safer."

Our Community Development Team are now  working on a bespoke Emergency Plan for the organisation, and will continue to give support where needed in the future.  If your community or organisation needs similar support, get in touch with us on 01452 528491 or email cdt@grcc.org.uk 

If you call us on the phone or visit us at Community House, the first person you'll meet will now be Isobel Smith, our new Receptionist and Business Support Officer.   

Isobel's role is very varied: "As well as being the first point of contact, I support all the teams with admin, keep the building running, and look after GRCC's social media accounts," said Isobel.

"It's been a great first month at GRCC finding out what all the different teams do, and learning about GRCC's remarkable 101 year history of helping communities in Gloucestershire."

Isobel has a degree in makeup and costumes for theatre and TV, and has previously worked in hospitality and retail, so GRCC is something of a new direction for her: "I'm delighted to now be able to work for an organisation where I feel that I'm doing something really worthwhile to give back to the community," said Isobel.

You can contact Isobel about any aspect GRCC's work, or to book our meeting rooms, via 01452 528491 or info@grcc.org.uk. 

A small rural affordable housing development that we helped to enable at Berry Hill in West Dean Parish is now nearing completion.

The 17 properties have been developed by Two Rivers Housing on a rural exception site, and consist of 13 social-rent and four shared-ownership properties, with a mix of one-bed flats, houses, and two wheelchair accessible bungalows.

Anyone who is in housing need with a local connection to Berry Hill or West Dean Parish should urgently make sure that they are registered on the Homeseeker Plus website.

Applicants must meet the "local connection criteria", and should set up an email alert so that they can bid for the property in the short time slot available to do this.  For more information about this, please email affordablehousing@grcc.org.uk
 

Our eight-week blacksmithing course for young autistic adults held its final session on 23rd October. 

The nine autistic young people who took part in the course, run by Arian Leljak at his teaching forge at Cranham, gained fantastic new metalworking skills and social confidence, with many of them planning to continue learning the craft.  

Their amazing work now joins the Earth Fire Iron exhibition at Stroud's Museum in the Park for its final week, finishing on Sunday 2nd November.   

The course was organised by GRCC's CASA team with charitable funding from The Ironmongers Company.  It was part of a two-month long series of events at and around the Museum in the Park, Stroud, commemorating the life and work of nationally-famous Stroud artist blacksmith Alan Evans, who died in 2023.  

"It has helped me to sleep better..."

"I feel so much better physically..."

"This has been an absolute lifesaver..."

"My hips are so much better..."

That's just some of the feedback we received from our pilot T'ai Chi for Health and Wellbeing group in Cirencester over the summer, so we've now launched a regular fortnightly group. 

The class is led by T'ai Chi expert Clive Birch, and starts on Thursday 6th November, 11am-noon at Ashcroft Hall, £7.50 per session.  Contact us to book, 01452 528491 or info@grcc.org.uk   

GRCC carried out a Housing Needs Survey on behalf of Eastington Parish Council which  gave them an evidence base to use for their first community-led housing development.

Community-led housing is about local people taking social action, playing a leading role in solving the housing problems within their own communities.  It's the community helping itself to meet its own housing needs.

The Eastington project was featured in a recent BBC Panorama programme "The Race to Build 1.5 Million Homes", which you can watch on BBC Iplayer here.

Our Affordable Housing Team can support groups and communities to create Community-led Housing projects.  Contact us via affordablehousing@grcc.org.uk

Our monthly Moreton Community Hub, which we run as part of our North Cotswolds Connecting Communities Project, will be happening again on Monday 3rd November. This month we'll be having a quiz and a games session, with great prizes including dinner at a local restaurant, afternoon tea at a hotel, and coffee vouchers! 

Our Social Prescribing Link Workers and a range of staff and volunteers from local 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.

To mark World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, the charity RoadPeace and the Gloucestershire Road Safety Partnership are holding a church service from 2.30pm to 4.30pm on Sunday 16th November, at All Saints Church, Cheltenham GL52 2HG.

The event will remember those who have lost their lives and those who have been seriously injured on our roads – and families whose lives have changed forever.  It will also thank our emergency services.

People of all faiths and people with no faith are all welcome at the service.  

Cheltenham-based Art For All, a charity which uses art to support mental health, will be having a showcase of their members' work at the Gardens Gallery in Montpelier Gardens, Cheltenham, from 10th to 16th December.  

You can download flyer for the event here, or use the button below to find out more about Art For All.

As well as providing legal advice and letter drafting via the AccessAva expert system chat bot, the charity Access Social Care can now provide personal one-to-one support, either online or face-to-face, through local "Peer Navigators".  

To be put in touch with a Peer Navigator to help with legal advice for accessing social care, email sharon.sharman@accesscharity.org.uk 

Gloucestershire County Council's Grassroots Neighbourhood Fund will provide funding to community initiatives that  have a positive impact on health and wellbeing in local communities. 

This councillor-led scheme will give each of the 55 members of the County Council £20,000 to invest in their community. 

The fund will be open to grassroots projects that improve health and wellbeing and tackle health inequalities within each member’s ward.  

Each Councillor will have 18 months to spend their allocation of £20,000, with a minimum of £250 and a maximum of £5,000 available to any one project.  

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.