Our Mission
“To achieve positive social change by developing active resilient communities and transforming lives through social action”
To do this we are:
- Inspiring people & organisations to action: through volunteering, through donating money or resources to make a positive contribution to the life of the community.
- Connecting people & organisations across all sections of society: helping to create the social networks across our communities, including the social economy, commercial economy and public sector economy to instigate positive change.
- Influencing decision makers: to listen to local residents, charities, community groups and social enterprises, who have a voice to shape key decisions about the local community.
- Developing charities, social enterprises & projects: building the capabilities of existing local organisations to meet identified priorities and needs within our local community and helping to set up new charities, social enterprises and projects that meet identified priorities and needs within our local community.
- Targeting our support to the most vulnerable within society and the more deprived neighbourhoods within our community. We aim to provide help where it is most needed and where our impact can make the most difference.
Our Values
- Community Stewardship
We value service to the community over self-interest and believe that everyone with a locality has a responsibility to support positive social change for people living there and for future generations. - Co-operation
We value co-operation and actively encourage individuals and organisations to work together in partnership for the benefit of the community. - Fairness
We value social justice, equality and solidarity and strive to achieve a more equal society as a way of supporting the social, economic and environmental well-being of everyone within the community. - Voluntary Action
We value voluntary action, which is activity that is not pursued for private gain or profit but for social benefit and to put something back into our community. We believe volunteering is a valuable part of life that contributes to well-being. It helps with sociability and providing a sense of community. There are many reasons to volunteer and the rewards from volunteering can be great. - Willingness to Listen, Learn & Innovate
We value and are willing to try new ways of working. We are interested in listening to people’s ideas and learning from other people in order to improve what we do and the impact we have.
Partnerships
Community CVS works closely with a range of partners from all sectors to achieve its mission and vision for the borough. At a Borough level, we are helping to develop partnerships to better use existing resources and bring additional external resources to the local area to tackle local priorities. We offer a number of services to support partners in their service delivery in the borough, for example our Volunteer Bank and Volunteer Passport training.
We are working closely with the Borough Council in the development of the Volunteer Strategy and with the CCG to deliver Volunteering on Prescription and are the nominated lead to develop volunteering for the Plan for Prosperity.
Community CVS is a delivery partner for the integrated Information, Advice and Guidance system for the borough alongside Age UK, Care Network, East Lancashire Deaf Society, New Ground, Carers Service and Bootstrap Enterprises. We have a Memorandum of Understanding with Blackburn College and the Families Health and Well-being Consortium.
Membership and Representation
Community CVS is a member of local, regional and national bodies including:
- NCVO ( National Council for Voluntary Organisations)
- Voluntary Sector North West
- Lancashire Association of CVS’s
- Community Matters
- Volunteering North West
Quality Accreditation
- Community CVS achieved Investors in people in 1997 and have held it ever since
- We are nationally accredited – achieving Volunteer Centre Quality Accreditation in 2003 and have held it ever since
- We are a qualified Advisor for the Investing in Volunteers (http://iiv.investinginvolunteers.org.uk) National Quality Standard
Your views
We are committed to working with individuals (residents, students, volunteers) and partner organisations from across the public, social and commercial economies to make positive changes to our neighbourhoods and communities. On behalf of the trustees, we would welcome your views and suggestions on how we can work together ‘to support communities to transform lives’.
- Community CVS was set in 1986 became a company limited by guarantee in 1991
- Registered charity – No 1008190
- Company Limited by Guarantee – No 2668971
- Community CVS is the trading name of Blackburn with Darwen Council for Voluntary Service