Past Work

Hucknall Volunteer Car Scheme

Sadly the delivery of the Hucknall Volunteer Car Scheme was a casualty of the Notts County Council funding cuts. We tried, unsuccessfully, to secure alternative funding to manage the scheme, plus ways to restructure the scheme, but this could not generate enough funds to make the programme sustainable.

So we agreed to streamline provision and made an agreement with ‘Our Centre’ to take on our clients and manage our drivers. Clients looking to avail themselves of this service should now call Our Centre on 01623 753192 to make a booking. This new system is effective from 3rd December 2018.

The Trustees of Ashfield Voluntary Action would like to thank Linda for the for 20 years she spent on administering the Hucknall Car Scheme. Whilst it is a sad loss to our organisation, the valuable service will continue for the clients, with Our Centre.

Talent Match Young and Successful Programme

The Talent Match Young and Successful Programme was a scheme for young people aged between 18 and 24 who were out of work for 12 months or more.

The programme provided one-to-one support, helping young people to access transport, training, work experience, education, mental health care, housing and childcare all aimed at helping them to get the job they wanted.

Often the young people joining the scheme had significant difficulties to overcome and the very real success of the programme stemmed from the high level of support which was on offer. Some of the young people made fantastic progress which has quite literally been life-changing and they went on to secure jobs and training they never previously believed possible.

During the lifetime of the programme 37 young people in Ashfield were supported towards developing the confidence and life skills which helped them to move towards gaining employment. In the last 18 months of the programme 7 young people secured employment, a further 7 went onto a work placement, 2 got an apprenticeship, 12 successfully completed basic skills training, 17 got a formal qualification and 11 went on to a volunteering placement.

Programme Mentor, Teresa Jackson, received a prestigious award from Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire Talent Match, in recognition of the contribution she made in working with young people. Teresa said, “ I was surprised to receive the award, but was pleased to see that they recognised the effort I put in to working with young people”.

Ashfield Voluntary Action would like to work with young people again in the future. If you are a voluntary sector organisation and would be interested in working in partnership with us, please contact our Chief Executive, Una Key, on 01623 555 551 to discuss future opportunities.

The Emergency Food Bank

For a number of years Ashfield Voluntary Action ran an Emergency Foodbank, supporting people in Ashfield and Mansfield. In these challenging times, the need for the project grew beyond our capacity to manage it effectively and to ensure that the project continued to effectively serve the community we handed over the day-to-day operation of the Emergency Foodbank to another charity who were better placed to take it forward. 

St John's Community Foodbank has been serving their local community for the last five years and agreed to take over this project and continue to work in partnership with Ashfield Voluntary Action, Mansfield CVS, Sutton Christian Fellowship and a number of other organisations so that the Emergency Foodbank will better meet the needs of people in Ashfield and Mansfield. The Chair of Trustees, Elaine Moulton, commented, "we are really quite excited at the opportunity to work in partnership with other local organisations. Working together will ensure that it will be easier for people to access food parcels in their time of need. We are a community based charity and are totally committed to supporting local people. Working together in partnership like this will mean that we will ultimately be able to provide a better and more responsive service." 

The service has been re-launched and renamed the 'Mansfield and Ashfield Emergency Foodbank' and is operated primarily as a telephone service (although there will also be additional provision for homeless people who may not have access to a telephone). The scheme went live on Monday 1st April and will run as a referral service. Those in need of a food parcel are given a unique reference number and a collection point from which they can collect their parcel. It is hoped that the scheme will offer a number of collection points to make it easier for people to access food parcels local to them. 

The day-to-day operation of the scheme has passed to St John's Community Foodbank, but Ashfield Voluntary Action and Mansfield CVS will continue to provide support by promoting the scheme, lending support with networking and volunteer recruitment, helping to secure funding and working together to identify suitable satellite collection points.

Teresa Jackson, our former Manager at Ashfield Voluntary Action, commented, "this has been a real example of partnership work at its finest and we truly believe that the result will be a more flexible service which better meets the need of the local community."