Partnership highlights VCSE POWER in week-long online event

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West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership (WY HCP) have launched an online event to celebrate the work of their partners in the voluntary community social enterprise sector (VCSE) from Monday 28 March to the 1 April.

There are an estimated 12,000 registered and unregistered VCSE organisations across West Yorkshire employing around 29,700 full time equalivant staff who work 49 million hours every year. Add to this the 8.7 million hours that the 121,000 residents who volunteer regularly contribute and you get a sense of the scale.

Throughout the VCSE Power week, a wide range of resources from videos, podcasts, blogs, case studies and infographics will be freely available to share and celebrate the diverse and often life changing work of our voluntary and community organisations in West Yorkshire.

Hilary Thompson, WY HCP Harnessing the Power of Communities Lead said: ‘We want to recognise the amazing work of our VCSE partners and the contribution they make day in day out to the lives of so many. Please browse, get in touch with the organisations directly and use these free resources to learn new ideas and share widely’.

With a focus on a specific theme with one from each of the five local places which make up West Yorkshire (Bradford District and Craven, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds, and Wakefield) the week-long event will cover:

  • Engaging with marginalised communities in Bradford District and Craven
  • Co-designing work with Calderdale communities around social prescribing and personalised care
  • Early help and what is happening in Kirklees, including community anchor network and community champions
  • The  win – win of volunteering in Leeds
  • The VCSE as specialist provider hosted by Wakefield.

Jane Colthup, Chief Executive of Community First Yorkshire, a charity that supports other voluntary sector organisations, said: ‘This is a huge acknowledgement and thank you to the many community groups, charities and volunteers across Craven District and West Yorkshire communities who quietly go about their business of strengthening the health and wellbeing of local people. From the community transport driver to the telephone befriender, they all play a vital role in tackling loneliness and isolation, improving people’s access to local services and opportunities and enabling our communities to be better connected and healthier’.

Andy Petrie, Chair of TSL Kirkees and Chief Executive, Local Services 2 You said:  ‘Over the last 2 years, during COVID, we’ve really seen the VCSE come to the fore in Kirklees and prove its value in partnering with health and local authority colleagues to support local people and keeping them well.  We’re now working on strengthening and developing what started as an emergency COVID response so that communities in Kirklees have the ability and resources to respond to the needs of those communities in their own way, via new initiatives like our community anchor network and community champions’.

You can access the free online VCSE Power event at https://www.wypartnership.co.uk/vcse-power-showcase Twitter #VCSEpower

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