It's a New Year

Happy New Year to all voluntary and community groups and people trying to improve or strengthen their communities. The signs are that 2012 is going to be a hard year, perhaps tougher than some of us has ever known it. This will affect the ability of groups in Worthing to raise funds to keep going, it could mean that the number of people able to freely offer their time to volunteer reduces and it could mean that staff, trustees and existing volunteers in charities experience unprecedented stress levels. We know that voluntary action will in many cases prevail because the will and drive to not let people down is very strong in our sector.Making a difference and answering a need is the reason that many voluntary and charitable groups get started in the first place. WCVS will support that work and those groups and we will continue to make the links between local voluntary and community action, policy making, partnership resources and capacity building. If you can join us, support this work or contribute in any way do get in touch. However we also call upon all supporters of community and voluntary action in both the public and private sectors to continue to think carefully about how their actions and plans can help voluntary and community work, to support what the voluntary sector is already delivering and to use their resources to strengthen the ability of local groups to respond to needs.