Thanks to the The National Lottery Community Fund, TVRA are proud to present the launch of the Tees Valley Village Hall Tool Kit during #villagehallsweek

Village halls are often the only public space/facility available to the community in rural areas, many of whom are socially isolated due to lack of public transport and face ever decreasing local services.  Village halls can provide a vital space for the delivery of services, as well as a space for many cultural, recreational and social activities. Without our army of volunteers these vital community spaces would not survive.

Village halls are generally managed by wonderful volunteers who, although committed to providing a well maintained and a well used facility, often require support around the minefield that is rules and regulations. This includes an awareness of the laws pertaining to public buildings, to name just a few; data protection, health & safety and  financial management, these ensure sustainability in an ever changing and increasingly complex and challenging world. Many rural village halls work in isolation, only utilising resources which are available in their own communities.

Over the last 12 months staff at TVRA have been compiling a resource register and an easy to read tool kit to support those first steps for new and refresh for established volunteers, a copy of which will be given to each rural village hall at our annual conference to help increase the availability of assets, expertise and resources enabling village halls management committees and community groups using the halls to tackle these issues in a more proactive way, bringing people together and building stronger relationships in and across communities.

Our Village Hall Tool Kit will be added to and updated on a regular basis, when we launch new fact sheets, which you can add to your kit and keep this useful resource up to date.

For those village halls who are not attending this years action packed conference, don’t worry we will be visiting to deliverer them to you direct over the coming months.

Feel free to invite us along to your up and coming meetings.  Thanks to our friends at County Print, Middlesbrough for all their fabulous service, support and help with the design/print.