Lancaster District Street Aid raises money to help former rough sleepers access the sort of life essentials which could help them stay off the streets for good. As one man who benefitted explained, “me and my family were in a…
Nearly a year ago we launched our new website, which included an online volunteering portal, giving local volunteer involving organisations the chance to upload their current roles, and allowing local people to find and apply for new opportunities. An additional…
There is no part of life in the UK, private or public, that is untouched or unsupported by volunteers. Often those volunteers are the grease to the wheels, ensuring that things run smoothly, while at other times they are the…
September often feels like the year is beginning to wind down, as the nights draw in and daylight wanes. But September is also about new starts, with kids returning to, or starting, school and college, new students arriving for university,…
Receiving a medical diagnosis can often be an anxious time. Even if the news might be expected, there are always unknowns, gaps in knowledge and experience that can in some ways be more troubling than the diagnosis itself; when we…
ICANN stands for Independent Community Advocacy Network North and is an advocacy service based in Preston that delivers a range of projects across Lancashire, providing professional and experienced advocacy support to the most vulnerable in our local communities. Like many…
The voluntary sector doesn’t work in isolation. Most groups are part of much bigger networks, either thematically or geographically, and are constantly working together to address needs, fill gaps, or maximise existing local assets. Increasingly, these organisations find themselves part…
Volunteering for wellbeing has been at the forefront of our minds this week at the Volunteer Centre. Partly this is due to preparing for the Health Festival (which has just begun at time of writing), but partly it is also…
Do you ever talk to people with a completely different life experience to your own? We tend to find our bubbles and stay inside them, which can be comforting but disconnecting. The UK has such a broad, deep society and…
We are seeing more and more electric vehicles on our streets, but one of the challenges to owning an electric vehicle is finding a chargepoint, and indeed the lack of chargeoints is seen by many as a barrier to moving…
