Summer is finally here and thus far not too wet!
June is a month crammed full of activity in the VCSE sector and wider communities; so much so, that The National Lottery Community Fund has dubbed it the ‘Month of Community’: an opportunity to celebrate the value of community and raise awareness of the fantastic groups and activities which create resilient, inclusive, and environmentally sustainable communities across the UK.
It was therefore appropriate that Support Staffordshire came together as a whole team in advance of the summer, to catch up with one another as well as hear about new projects and activity regarding Climate Action, Community Resilience, and Inclusion. We also spent time reflecting on how we communicate given we have grown to over ninety employees recently.
We will be promoting all things community across this week, Volunteer’s Week, which is celebrating 40 years! And across the whole of June at our Marketplace Locality Forums in every district – myself or a Support Staffordshire Trustee will be there to offer our personal thank you top all the county’s volunteers.
Later this month we will also celebrate Small Charity Week (June 24-28), by promoting our members – please self-submit your stories and events so that we can shine a spotlight on our amazing members across all our media platforms.
And 5 June was World Environment Day – an important opportunity to take stock of how we are doing our bit locally to ensure a sustainable future.
Finally, you might have noticed that by the time of the next E-news, we will have a new government following a General Election on 4 July. For those of you considering campaigning on your cause, please make sure to read the NCVO guide and stay within the rules. For those observing from a distance, look out for results in places like Newcastle-under-Lyme, Stafford and Burton & Uttoxeter which are the most marginal seats in the county.
We are backing the NCVO Voluntary Sector Manifesto and ACRE’s No Rural Community Left Behind. Together these papers set out two important principles for us, that the VCSE sector is a critical and equal partner to government and that rural areas like Staffordshire need to be treated fairly. Once the results are known locally, we will be reaching out to all new MPs to ensure they know how vibrant and important our local VCSE sector is.
And finally, please vote, it really does matter!
