Last week the team were involved in various activities to celebrate Volunteers Week.
Jenny and Frankie welcomed a steady stream of visitors to the office on Wednesday at our volunteer drop-in. You can read more about our Volunteers Week celebrations.
Maya hosted the Volunteer Coordinator Forum at Bridge Street Community Gardens, a productive urban green space in the heart of Banbury, supporting the local community.
Despite the rain, it was a fantastic day learning about the wide range of activities they facilitate, from crafts, wellbeing, gardening and sustainability workshops to family and children’s activities. We also heard about their free tree giveaway initiatives.
There were valuable discussions on collective experiences of recruiting and supporting volunteers, as well as different funding streams for projects. It was wonderful to connect with local groups and charities from Banbury and the surrounding areas. Everyone enjoyed making new connections in such a beautiful and inspiring space.
We recently joined a jobs fair organised by Style Acre in Didcot as part of their ongoing Work Programme to support adults with learning disabilities overcome barriers to employment.
Volunteering can build confidence, develop transferable skills, and often provide an important first step towards employment, and we had many positive conversations around this at the fair.
It was a pleasure to meet the fantastic Style Acre team and learn more about the valuable work they are doing within the community.
It’s a busy Communities of Practice (CoP) month for Clare. The Bicester meeting had a good turnout last week despite the rain. The group discussed ideas on how we could share information about what’s going on locally and encourage more collaboration.
If you support adults in the community, either through work or volunteering, then consider joining a future CoP to share challenges and successes with others.
We were delighted to be invited onto the judging panel for the Oxford Bus Company’s recent Brand the Bus competition. Sobell House Hospice were chosen as the winner in their 50th anniversary year, while Oxford City Farm are runners-up. Both organisations are OCVA members and this is a wonderful opportunity for them to raise awareness further across the county. Congratulations to them both!