Celebrating and Inspiring Village Halls for 2022

Celebrating and Inspiring Village Halls for 2022

ACT Development Officer and Lead Village Hall Advisor Hellen Aitken with ACT’s pledge to: Support all village halls in Cumbria with advice and guidance when they need it.

11th February 2022

Thank you to everyone who helped to celebrate village and community halls during Village Halls Week and who made pledges for your hall for the year ahead. Village Halls Week 2022 may be over, but the opportunity to do something different at your hall this year has just begun!

We had a great turnout at our online Community Buildings Event on Saturday 29 January, with over 50 people on the Zoom call from halls across the county.

Our usual two-hour Saturday morning event was jam packed, covering a wide range of topics to both celebrate and inspire halls for the coming year (listed below). But don’t worry if you couldn’t attend, contact us at ACT to find out more about any of the subjects covered and to suggest those you’d like covered in greater detail at future events.

Special thanks go to our guest speakers from Utility Aid; Eden Valley Pickleball and Wetheral Village Community Hall; Sound Reduction Systems, The Watson Institute in Castle Carrock; Burton Memorial Hall; and Nicholforest Village Hall.

And of course, a big thank you to all the village hall volunteers across Cumbria; we’re proud to support you and pledge to continue to do so.

Join us at our next Community Buildings Event on Saturday 19 March where we’ll be looking more at how 2022 can be your year to do something different at your hall.

Summary of topics and links from January’s event:

Utility Aid:

Energy Markets and projections - helping village halls and other not-for-profit organisations with future energy contracts. Visit www.cumbriaaction.org.uk/what-we-do/partnerships for details of ACT’s partnership with Utility Aid and contact information.

Eden Valley Pickleball:

Easy to play, accessible sport for everyone. A great opportunity to generate income for your hall and support increased physical activity in your community. Taster sessions and loan of equipment to any hall with a badminton court. Contact: Richard Wise, Tel: 07711938076, Email: edenvalleypickleball@gmail.com

Fundraising Ideas:

Volunteers Tom Speight and Richard Johnstone share their experience of refurbishing the Watson Institute at Castle Carrock in an interesting half hour webinar. Details of the wide range of local fundraising events and activities held to raise money for the hall are included from 23 minutes into the video. Watch now at: www.northpennines.org.uk/restoring-the-watson-institute/

Sound Reduction Systems:

Find out how Sound Reduction Systems can help deal with the acoustics problems in your hall, and get a free report and quote. Tel: 01204 380074, Email info@soundreduction.co.uk, Web: www.soundreduction.co.uk

Making your village hall accessible:

Review your hall’s accessibility and do all you can to ensure it can be enjoyed by the whole community.

  • Making your Village Hall Accessible guidance and ‘DIY’ Access checklist (contact ACT)
  • Dementia Friendly Village Halls guidance and checklist (contact ACT)

Reducing environmental impact and improving the building’s energy efficiency:

Make a commitment to reduce your hall’s carbon footprint - Improve comfort levels, reduce your energy use and bills.

Hybrid Meetings in Village Halls:

Burton Memorial Hall’s experience of setting up hybrid meetings in the hall during Covid restrictions, utilising the hall’s WiFi and creating new opportunities for people to participate remotely in meetings, guest speakers to present from further afield etc. Ann also shared their positive experience of a recent Energy Audit and Buildings Condition Survey.

Meting local needs and generating income:

Nicholforest Village Hall’s experience of their popular ‘Nicholforest Exchange’, a monthly community-run event providing lunch, conversation and more, open to everyone. More information on the ACT website: www.cumbriaaction.org.uk/what-we-do/community-exchanges

Hall hire by Becky’s Pop-up Bar generates income and provides further social opportunities for local people. The hall is also encouraging new activities by offering reduced hire charges to new local groups, helping them to get started.

Bringing the Arts to rural communities:

Highlights Rural Touring Scheme, in East Cumbria, County Durham and Northumberland. Working with village halls and other community venues to bring the arts to rural communities.

Email: info@highlightsnorth.co.uk Web: www.highlightsnorth.co.uk

For halls in West Cumbria, contact Arts Out West: www.kirkgatearts.org.uk/arts-out-west/

We Are Here! – ACT’s new Arts project in West Cumbria:

New ACT project aims to involve over 50,000 West Cumbrian people in art and creative activities. Contact us at ACT for more information.

Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Celebrations:

Arts Council funding to support voluntary and community organisations to deliver creative activity as part of the Jubilee celebrations: www.artscouncil.org.uk/our-open-funds/let’s-create-jubilee-fund

Sport England funding to support sport and physical activity as a means of bringing a community together and tackling inequalities: www.sportengland.org/how-we-can-help/our-funds/queens-platinum-jubilee-activity-fund

Neighbourliness:

Activities in village halls bringing people together. Encouraging neighbourliness and community resilience: www.cumbriafoundation.org/fund/community-resilience-fund

Reviewing Policies & Procedures:

Last but by no means least! When was the last time you reviewed your hall’s policies and procedures? Access national guidance and model documents from ACT including:

  • Hire Agreement and Hiring policy; Health & Safety policy; Finance policy; Safeguarding policy; Equality policy; Environmental policy etc. (Contact ACT)

Village Halls Week:

Village Halls Week is an annual campaign, led by ACRE (Action with Communities in Rural England) to raise the profile of village and community halls across the country, celebrating the contribution they make to rural communities.

Visit ACRE’s news page: acre.org.uk/news for a series of short articles looking at:

  • The importance of village halls and why we should continue to support them
  • Why village halls are being challenged to be innovative and do something different
  • The relationship between village halls and music groups
  • How village halls can become beacons of hope for a more sustainable future
  • Why some small businesses wouldn’t survive without village halls

See all news and events