History of the VSA
The roots of the vsa go back to 1997 and an event called Jigsaw, held at Belmont Abbey, where community and voluntary groups got together to discuss common issues of concern.
It was called Jigsaw because the community and voluntary sector was seen as many different pieces of a jigsaw and we were putting them all together to give a clear picture of common concerns and issues. It was good for community groups to meet and share experiences and see what could be done to address issues.
In 1999 Herefordshire Council launched the Herefordshire Partnership Plan, (now the Community Strategy); it became clear that there was a need for the voluntary sector to be involved. Funding was secured from the European Social Fund, Objective 2 (45%) and the Home Office – the Active Communities Unit (65%).
The Active Communities Unit and the European Social Fund were willing to fund this project because:
- The VSA increased the capacity of the voluntary and community sector in Herefordshire through providing support to organisations and individual representatives, to become actively engaged in Herefordshire Partnership.
- It was innovative – this was the first known rural assembly of community and voluntary groups in the country.
- It recognised the VSA was breaking new ground, and could provide a good model of learning for other parts of the county.
- It recognised that representing the sector was not simple or straight forward, but never the less is very worth while
(See JRF Research Report The value added by community involvement published July 2006)
It valued the idea of democratically elected representatives who would represent the sector. They recognised the need for a co-ordinator, wto administers the election of representatives, training, pay expenses and bursary, make sure reports are circulated with in the Voluntary and Community Sector.
Further funding has come from a variety of sources such as 'Change-up', 'Capacity Builders' and the restructured Herefordshire Partnership.
