During the ongoing lockdowns the workload of an event organiser has, unsurprisingly, dropped considerably. As such we have had more time to work with community interests, such as The Village Hub in Stoke Village, Plymouth.
Diverse Events CIC has been involved with Stoke Village for a number of years now, since supporting the relaunch of the Stoke Village Fun Day. Aaron, one of the Directors of Diverse Events CIC, has also become the Chairman, and a director of a new Community Benefit Society in Stoke Village, The Village Hub, after being one of the founding members.
Diverse Events CIC, through Aaron, has been supporting The Village Hub with social media content, and technical support. The Village Hub have said that Diverse Events CIC has “been indispensable at creating digital processes to manage our volunteers, keep our accounts straight, and ensure we have policies and procedures in place. They have also created systems on our website to collect donations and payment for the organic veg that we bring into the area from a local supplier.”
The Village Hub hope to work with the community to help themselves, through listening, caring, connecting through learning, signposting, and cultural activities; all while having fun in a safe and caring environment. During lockdown it has been very restricted in what it can offer, although it has been successfully running a community larder, offering pay-as-you-feel local, organic vegetables, offering local organic vegetable box subscriptions, as well as being a drop-in centre for those who need a chat, some support, or a referral to other supportive organisations.
The conversations and involvement with various communities in Plymouth has enlightened us to how Plymouth’s voluntary sector is trying hard to work together. It is showing that when different groups work together huge things can be achieved, it may take much longer for collaborative working to, well, work, but the collaborative working really helps reach more people and achieve more things.
One of the organisations often repeats the African Proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”. This really rings true in the voluntary sector.
As our workload increases with lifting of restrictions, we hope that we are still able to stay involved with The Village Hub as much as we are now.
