VAC delivers a range of support and services across the Boroughs of Calderdale and Kirklees to voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations and groups ranging from infrastructure support through to supporting organisations to deliver robust provision and services.
Our mission and vision of supporting and strengthening the voluntary and community sector remains at the heart of everything we do. Working with around 400 voluntary and community organisations, VAC’s main challenge is to build upon the infrastructure support enabling local VCS organisations through us to deliver local pathway solutions against ever increasing demands on public services due to economic pressures and funding cuts. VAC continues to champion and promote the voluntary and community sector and through our engagement and quality projects acts as a voice for our members and volunteers to ensure their views are heard and local provision meets local needs to help improve local lives.
As we continue to evolve and embrace new ways of working with partners and collaborators, VAC are looking for new Trustees who can help lead the organisation in partnership with the Chair and Chief Executive Officer, through an unprecedented yet exciting time of organisational change and development so that we remain fit for purpose and ready for the opportunities and challenges ahead.
VAC’s board is critical to help shape and drive the organisation’s strategic vision and direction. The board is committed to ensure our objectives and values remain relevant and fulfilled with the best possible outcomes for the individuals and communities we serve.
The ideal Trustee candidate will be someone who will relish the opportunity to work with our trustees and team to support the positive transformation of the organisation to ensure we are making the greatest difference to the lives of local people in Calderdale and beyond.
Our Main Objectives:
To help our partners communicate and work more effectively with VCSE sector organisations, communities and volunteers in and across Calderdale and Kirklees.
Aligned to our purpose, values and objectives, VAC has provided infrastructure support to local groups, organisations and social enterprise since 2000 and currently operates as the local hub for VCS support through our own building ‘The Resource Centre’ in Halifax, providing office space as well as training and meeting facilities as well as in Borough wide community venues.
We have recently become part of the Voluntary Sector Infrastructure (VSI) Alliance with local partners to deliver a single point of access for infrastructure support, engagement and volunteering opportunities to all across the sector in Calderdale.
In Kirklees we provide a wide range of engagement, capacity building and organisational development support.
Our Engagement Champions are individuals working in the VCS and Enterprise sector who are trained to engage with the local population on Clinical Commissioning Group’s (CCG) behalf and talk to them about changes and developments in their local healthcare. They give communities a louder voice and help to make sure that health services are developed in response to the needs of local people.
VCS groups and organisations across Calderdale and Kirklees benefit from VAC’s unique quality assurance system Quality for Health Accreditation recognised and endorsed by local Clinical Commissioning Groups. This recognised quality mark adds value to local VCSE organisations enabling them to deliver robust provision, evidence the quality of the health services they deliver and show how these services make a real difference to their service users in response to local need; to deliver local outcomes.
CALIPSO is in its infancy and is a vehicle supported by VAC to promote collaborative tendering for and management of public sector contracts in the form of a consortia made up of founding and member voluntary, community organisations and not-for-profit social enterprise. As a subsidiary of VAC, CALIPSIO is Calderdale’s VCSE sector response to the emerging preference on the part of local commissioners to have fewer or single contracts with larger providers.
Volunteer Opportunities
VAC alongside the VSI Alliance offers a number of volunteering opportunities across its projects and priorities. We proactively train and support individuals to have a voice through engagement opportunities and make a real difference for local people across Calderdale and Kirklees through volunteering in residential and community settings.
Quality Voice ensures that people’s voices are heard to help improve services, promote engagement, support quality and continuous service improvement by gathering customer feedback, listening to people’s experiences and collating vital information for organisations about the quality of their services. Local people are trained and supported to ensure a professional and robust approach to seeking feedback, providing assurance and helping to shape the delivery of local provision.
Molly & Bill (Making Our Lives Lively & Being Involved in Local Life) is our pilot project working with several residential care homes to provide an activity programme for their residents through the use of local volunteers. Creative and meaningful quality assured activities are delivered in the homes by community organisations and volunteers with particular skills or interests cultivating enrichment for individuals both participating in and delivering activities.
As VAC we continue to transform and evolve our portfolio to ensure support to the VCSE sector and wider stakeholders remains relevant and responsive to local needs and demands. Therefore although the above is the current nature of our work, this is not exhaustive as the organisation (working collaboratively with partners and VCSE organisations) is in an exciting period of creating sustainable solutions adding strength to the VCSE in local provision and economic growth.
