Cambridgeshire ACRE
Overview
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Posted Opportunities 0
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Founded Since 1924
Company Description
Supporting and strengthening rural communities
About us
Cambridgeshire ACRE offers support, resources and specialist advice to communities and partners across a wide range of topics areas connected to rural community life.
We work alongside people in rural communities to make a difference.
The majority of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough’s population lives in rural communities and our vision is to see these communities thrive. We’re proud to work alongside individuals and community groups across the County, helping them make a positive difference in the places in which they live and work.
Standing alongside Cambridgeshire’s rural residents, we seek to bring about social, environmental and economic change for the good of communities. We do this by:
- supporting volunteers so they have the skills and confidence to lead local action by providing advice, support and training on best practice in community ownership of assets including village halls and community-led housing.
- co-ordinating funded projects that are delivered to tackle different issues found in rural communities, such as isolation & poverty, poor access to services, low educational attainment, lack of affordable housing, digital exclusion and declining biodiversity and climate change.
- pioneering new ideas and testing innovations to establish what delivers the best results in rural communities so that good practice can be understood and shared more widely.
Our work is led by an exceptional team of expert staff who work closely with the rural communities we serve. The leadership of our specialist team is supported by our committed Board of Trustees and complemented by a network of partners to drive further expertise into the work we do. As rural community experts, we also offer a range of consultancy services to support our charitable aims, with this additional income enabling us to bolster our rural community support activity further.
We’re driven to improve the lives of those living and working in our rural communities – a role we’ve held for nearly 100 years, with 2024 seeing us reach our centenary year.
Our work is also supported by our close association with ACRE, the national charity speaking up for and supporting rural communities. The ACRE Network is England’s largest rural grouping of community support charities, with 38 similar organisations in England as part of this representative body and collectively funded by Defra.
Cambridgeshire ACRE is an independent organisation, registered charity and company limited by guarantee.
By supporting and strengthening rural communities, we can bring about positive change and help local people build strong and resilient places. Let’s talk about how you can get involved.
Our strategy
Cambridgeshire ACRE’s strategy for the period 2019 – 2024, called “Towards our 100th Year: Building stronger rural communities”, was launched by our President at our Annual General Meeting in September 2019.
Our strategy provides an overview of our long-term plans and establishes our priorities for serving the needs of rural communities over the next five years. Our strategy was developed in consultation with our staff, trustees, members and partners.
Each year we produce an annual business plan that sets our annual targets, timescales and the outcome monitoring framework. We use this to report our progress at our Annual General Meeting each year.
Our history
Cambridgeshire ACRE is one of the oldest voluntary and community organisations in Cambridgeshire. We started out in 1924 as Cambridgeshire Rural Community Council and in 1998 we changed our name to Cambridgeshire ACRE (ACRE stands for Action with Communities in Rural England).
The Rural Community Council movement was founded by the National Council of Social Service (the forerunner of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations) in the years after the first World War.
The newly formed rural community councils were charged with two principal aims during the depression between the first and second World Wars, when agriculture and its ancillary industries were at a low ebb: to work with local people to build village halls, and to revitalise the countryside and its economy.
The (then) Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire, Charles Adeane was the first Chair of the Charity and keenly supported the charity’s work.
Additionally Henry Morris – another founding trustee – took up the post of Secretary of Education for Cambridgeshire in 1922. Henry is well known for his vision of integrating secondary and community education. Furthermore, he recognised the need for better educational and social facilities in the countryside.
Some of the Charity’s earliest pioneering work included supporting communities to build village halls; organising and providing lecturers for a comprehensive programme of adult education; supporting village drama groups and competitions to aid adult literacy; and finally, campaigning for better housing conditions.
We look forward to celebrating our 100th birthday in 2024.
English