News

Calling all Town and Parish representatives

Whether you are a Town or Parish Councillor, School Governor, Village Hall Trustee, Church Warden, GP, Community Nurse, Carer, Small Business, Village Volunteer or Resident please take the time to have a look through this information and see if this scheme can support the ideas you may have for your Town or Village.

The importance of a community hub

A Village Hall is a necessity in times of crisis. These invaluable community hubs are largely overlooked, and seen as venues that host, children’s birthday parties, uniformed groups and the WI, with a few exercise groups thrown in for good measure. However, these small but mighty spaces, as we all know, can offer our communities so much more.

Village and Community halls are a lasting legacy of the First World War, when there was a national drive to develop social and educational provision in rural areas. The building or improvement of a Village Hall was quickly seen to be the most effective way of bringing all interests in a village together.

Today community hubs can be located in a variety of spaces, whether it’s the Church, Pub, School, Shop, Post Office, Cricket Pavilion, Village Green or Playing Field. Having a central space where the community can come together is essential.

The need for social action

The last five years have thrown a plethora of crisis at society. From a pandemic which highlighted the large numbers of people across our communities who are isolated and lonely, to the resettling of refugees displaced by conflict, and a universal cost of living crisis, which has forced people to switch off their heating and skip meals. The need for communal spaces, to bring us together, is greater now, than ever before.

Support for community volunteers

Community Hubs don’t run themselves. Whether built 100 years ago, or 30 years ago these spaces, regardless of what form they take, need a dedicated team of volunteers to keep them maintained and running. They all have their own unique quirks and foibles. We understand managing these facilities can be a thankless task with an overwhelming list of jobs to do before you even try to get people through the door.

RCAN is acutely aware of these issues and knows how hard it is for management committees to get the local community to engage, as the commitment and availability of volunteers is declining, putting pressure on the same volunteers to pick up the slack.

RCAN has recognised the need for rural communities to access additional support for their communities to address these issues. We have been successful in receiving a grant through Broxtowe Borough Council’s Shared Prosperity Fund, to support a scheme whose mission is to create or revitalise 10 community facilities in the Borough of Broxtowe and inspire more social action in the towns and villages where those facilities are based.

Applications welcome

Start Action Yourself Now! aims to create Social Hubs, that will provide opportunities for residents, businesses, community groups and all users, to work together for the good of their local area.

Each organisation will receive bespoke support from RCAN’s rural officer. They will work alongside community volunteers, offering them the support they need, from the inception of your project to its delivery.

This scheme is open to applications of interest from organisations from any Town or Village in Broxtowe, whether you have a community facility or not.