We are delighted to welcome Susan Garrett to DCA this month - Susan joins us as our new Health and Wellbeing Coordinator.

This is a new role created to support Durham Community Action as it engages with the health and wellbeing infrastructure through partnership working in County Durham. Part of Susan’s role will be to build on the relationships between voluntary sector led social activity and those who are connecting people to community-based support.

We look forward to working with you Susan! 

A huge Thank You to each and every volunteer that has given their time during this strange and confusing year. June 1st - 7th saw this year’s Volunteers Week. Although face to face events were not possible for many organisations, that didn’t stop them showing their appreciation in different ways. Many held events virtually, with others such as Healthwatch, planting a tree in honour of all their fantastic volunteers.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the whole country has seen a huge increase in people coming together to help their communities. Many people stepped up within formal volunteering settings, such as the NHS, Community Hubs and Local Charities. While others checked in on neighbours, helped with shopping and supported the elderly.

As more organisations open up, volunteers who have helped out through the pandemic will return to work, and organisations will be looking for new volunteers to step into their roles. No matter how much, or how little time you can give to volunteering, there is something for everyone. From making phone calls to check up on people, gardening, and befriending, to retail support, tour guides and café volunteers. All available volunteering opportunities can be found via our platform by clicking on the button below.  

From everyone at Durham Community Action, we would like to thank all of our volunteers for their ongoing support.

Are you looking for an engaging role supporting empowerment and development within communities across County Durham?

We are currently looking for new trustees to join our Board to help us with adopting new ways of working and undertaking a review of our ICT and digital capacity during the coming year.

We will also be evaluating and reviewing with volunteers and volunteer-led groups so that we can understand their support needs for the coming years as they work their wat through and out of COVID restrictions. 

We are looking for new trustees to join our Board to help with this work. 

We are running a series of online workshops to assist voluntary and community organisations with Volunteer Management, Consultation & Engagement, Strategic Planning, Operational and Financial Management.

All sessions are currently fully funded and we now have course dates available to book until December. 

Join us on Thursday 24th June as part of Community Energy Fortnight to hear from speakers including: 

• Michael Vasey, Lead Energy Auditor at the Business Energy Efficiency Project (BEEP) talking about the services and support they can offer to help organisations be more energy efficient
• A representative from Framwellgate Moor Youth and Community Centre talking about the energy improvements they have made to the building and the difference it has made.
• Philip Wanless from Wark Sports and Recreational Charity in Northumberland will talk about their experience of retro fitting a ground source heat pump. 

There will also be information available about potential funding sources for energy efficiency measures and an opportunity for networking. 

We're delighted to find out that Food Durham, which is hosted by DCA, have been nominated for a Peas Please Prize!

We're nominated for the Veg City Prize which recognises place-based approaches to increasing veg uptake at a local level for places participating in the Veg Cities campaign.

The 2021 Eat Them To Defeat Them campaign has got underway in primary schools across County Durham encouraging kids to have fun with vegetables and defeat the veg foes by gobbling them up. 

The six-week campaign started with tomatoes last week and this week the veg children have been defeating is sweetcorn.  There is good evidence that the campaign is helping children eat more vegetables and to try new things.  

Image Credit: Pip Moreton

With the support of Durham County Council Area Action Partnership Budget, Durham Community Action and East Durham Trust are working in partnership to provide support to those responsible for the management of community buildings, as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, and activities fully return to communities.

With COVID-19 having had such a significant impact on the activities and services Community Buildings provide, this project fund will help to rebuild confidence and capacity of staff and volunteers as they reopen and emerge from COVID-19.

It makes available a small grants scheme to help kick start recovery and build a stronger future by providing resources and capacity needed to ensure community buildings are safe and COVID secure.

A launch event will be taking place via Zoom on Wednesday 23rd June from 10.00 - 11.00am