Cumbria

ACT has been working with Communities in Cumbria since the 1940s. There have been consistent themes: tackling disadvantage, working with communities, advising village halls and community groups, rural services, transport, rural retail, employment, affordable local housing.

One outstanding feature of role of the Charity has been in supporting the formation or early years of a wide variety of other organisations that also continue to service Cumbrian communities.

Among those organisations that have their roots in the Charity are:

Citizens Advice Bureau’s (CAB),   Councils for Voluntary Service (CVS), Volunteer Bureau’s Cumbria Rural Enterprise Agency (CREA), Cumbria Rural Housing Trust,  Cybermoor Ltd, Cumbria Farmer Network, Cumbria Youth Alliance, Cumbria Community Foundation, Growing Well, Cumbria Waste Management Environment Trust (CWMET), Cumbria Asset Reinvestment Trust (CART) now Enterprise Answers                   

The Charity now known as ACTion with Communities in Cumbria was formed in 1948, was born of a need for effective collaboration and concern about changes affecting the rural economy.

In the early days the Rural Industries Sub Committee led projects intended to help rural people manage dramatic economic change, an example being the retraining of blacksmiths as motor engineers. The Charity also began a continuing programme of support for other groups, in its early days providing the secretariat for the Guild of Lakeland Craftsmen, the Churches Group for Social Responsibility and the Parish Councils Association.

With the creation of Cumbria in 1974 and operating initially as Cumbria Council for Voluntary Action the organisation very soon adopted the working name of Voluntary Action Cumbria (VAC) that was to badge its work for the next 34 years.

Sponsored by the Development Commission, VAC pioneered the use of a community development approach with rural communities with two key ways to help communities to set the agenda – community planning and social enterprise!

VAC secured the first LEADER programme in the County, Fells and Dales in 1990, which under the LEADERII and LEADER+ programmes made a crucial contribution to social and economic development.

Social enterprise (business with a social purpose) was used to meet the social, service and economic needs of communities challenged by a lack of public sector support. VAC delivered major support programmes to emerging social enterprises and continues to support Cumbria Social Enterprise partnership .

In the later 1990’s VAC was also a pioneer in understanding and trying to address the particular challenges faced by women wishing to set up business. Two major projects followed, the Farming Women’s project and later the Rural Women’s Network programme. Both demonstrated the power of tailored support to stimulate new business formation and growth. This work was sufficiently notable for VAC’s Chief Executive at the time, Kate Braithwaite, to be awarded the MBE in 2000.

In 2001 Cumbria was, of course, hugely affected by the Foot and Mouth Disease crisis. VAC played a significant role; its contacts with grass roots communities, and its flexibility as an organisation, enabling it very quickly to adapt to meet short term needs such as running help lines and managing welfare programmes. VAC played its part too in the subsequent regeneration of the rural economy.

In 2012 VAC started trading as ACT – ACTion with Communities in Cumbria.  Our current work is best described by the diagram below.

We are firmly committed to community development and enabling and facilitating relationships so that people in communities can achieve their aspirations. We work closely with ACRE, appreciating the policy briefings and joint projects that help to make rural communities places where people are not disadvantaged by where they live. 

Supporting communities since 1948  Registered in England as Voluntary Action Cumbria; Charity No: 1080875; Company No: 3957858

Cumbria