Our News

Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE) is working with a major broadcaster to gather stories of inspiring rural community projects where residents have helped each other through the pandemic. If your rural community has a story to share, please send us a short video clip telling us what happened 2020 has been a tough year. Many lives, jobs and … Read More

Surrey County Council is giving local communities up to £100m over the next five years to spend on projects that improve their local area.  This is money put aside to empower YOU, Surrey residents.  The fund aims to empower communities by:  Connecting residents and community groups to build ideas  Stimulating local engagement and involvement  Providing the financial backing for community-led projects  … Read More

COVID-19 has amplified the stark inequalities that persist in our society and the impacts have been felt across all groups of the population. The Covid-19 Community Impact Assessment (CIA) explores how communities across Surrey have been affected by Covid-19, what support communities need as the pandemic continues, and communities’ priorities for recovery. Thousands of community members and people working in … Read More

Surrey Community Action’s Money Matters Project is launching a new free, informal and impartial budgeting course available via Zoom. For the last two years, the Money Matters Project has provided help and support to Surrey residents to help them manage on low budgets and heat their homes for less as well as advising people how to access specialist support. Our … Read More

This November and December, Surrey Community Action is running a series of online training sessions for just £5.00 each. 6 November 11.00am – 12.00pm:  Top ten tips for writing funding bids – Improve, diversify and make a bigger impact with your bid writing. 13 November 11.00am – 12.00pm: Marketing for absolute beginners – Aimed at very small charities and community groups … Read More

Surrey Community Action’s Warmth Matters advisers are back at Hale Community Centre offering free energy efficiency tips, ways to keep warm and save money on energy bills.  Our advisers can help anyone concerned about their fuel bills to check that they are on the right energy tariff, help them save energy and check to see if they are eligible for … Read More

Surrey Community Action has teamed up with Surrey Lifelong Learning Partnership to deliver free help and advice all under one roof. The new Community Learning Centre is based at 109, Southway (previously the Bike Shop) just outside Guildford town centre. The centre offers free help and support around job seeking, interview skills and CV building, mental health, debt management and … Read More

Do you support unemployed people? Our Inspiring Enterprise Mentor and Trainer, Suzanne Hodnett explains how the project has helped a new start-up through the pandemic. The Inspiring Enterprise team have recently had the privilege of working with Ben Mallinson, a carpenter by trade, who decided to use his skills to create lovely, high quality wooden toys for his daughter whilst … Read More

Ripley Parish Council has commissioned Surrey Community action to carry out a housing needs survey. A housing needs survey is an integral part of planning for future housing requirements. It is an independently produced document, which gives an unbiased report of the type, size and tenure of housing which is needed in the community. Surrey Community Action’s Rural Housing Enabler … Read More

  Local charity, Surrey Community Action is taking its successful Money Matters advice service on the road. Money Matters offers information and advice, usually in community settings but more recently over the phone and via online video, to make day to day budgeting easier to understand and money go further for people on low incomes. Now thanks to funding from … Read More

The Force for Change Programme  is open to registered charities with experience of working with the Armed Forces community. Grants of up to £20,000 are available to support Armed Forces communities to become less isolated and engage more in their local area. There are two rounds this year, with the deadlines of noon on 11 Sept and noon on 30 … Read More

Surrey County Council has c.800 face visors that were made on 3D printers but can’t be used by the NHS as they haven’t been tested for clinical use. If your Surrey based community group or charity would like non clinical visors please email info@surreyca.org.uk

The Community Projects Fund (CPF) will support community-led projects aimed at improving people’s local area. It is much larger in scale than previous grant funds, so will help support projects that can make a real difference. The CPF will provide £100m of capital funding over a five-year period – e.g. funding for building works, equipment, vehicles, green spaces, rather than … Read More

Cast your mind back however many years you need to, to the time when your days in school were coming to an end and you had that dreaded decision to make of what you were going to be. If those school days were in the UK then it’s likely you had a careers department available to help you but you … Read More

A £50,000 grant from the National Lottery Community Fund will help Surrey Community Action to expand its successful Money Matters project. The project provides free and accessible practical sessions that make day to day budgeting and saving money easier to understand to help make communities more resilient. The new funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, which distributes money raised … Read More

This week is Rural Housing Week – an annual celebration of rural housing to reinforce the message that housing is vital for the survival of rural communities and services. The week is used to highlight key rural issues and shine a spotlight on successful developments that offer a lifeline to local people in our market towns and villages. Our Rural … Read More

Making sure hard to reach communities like Gypsies and Travellers are well supported during the lockdown is all in a day’s work for our Community Development Worker who has helped one client who didn’t understand who she could spend time with during the lockdown and was still visiting family. Our Community Development explained the rules clearly and the client understood … Read More

Urgent help needed for Surrey’s frontline workers – can you produce PPE? Following the government announcement yesterday that there is a global shortage of PPE, Surrey County Council is urgently appealing for volunteers to help supply items for Surrey’s frontline workers. Social workers, care home staff, volunteers and others across #Surrey are fast running out of vital PPE supplies such … Read More

Charities and community groups of all shapes and sizes are facing unprecedented challenges. Some have been able to respond to the challenges with new services and activities. Others have faced catastrophic drops in funding and are having to close services or worse. Over the last few weeks, Surrey Community Action has carried out research to paint a clear picture of … Read More

Do you have staff who could be redeployed as volunteers within the sector? Do you have staffing gaps due to illness or increased demand? We can help you to manage your staffing needs.  Join our Covid-19 staff exchange. Surrey Community Action is co-ordinating a project to help voluntary, community and faith organisations in Surrey manage their staffing needs during the Covid-19 pandemic. … Read More

Our small businesses need you! As the Coronavirus changes the economic landscape, Surrey Community Action’s Inspiring Enterprise team are working hard to support their budding businesses as their business ventures face dormancy virtually overnight. For some there are some possible ways to adapt and respond to the new needs of their market. For others, it has been crippling. The Inspiring … Read More

Following Government advice, we have suspended our DBS checking service until further notice. More information about DBS Checks and Volunteering during the Covid-19 Crisis can be found here. If you need to carry out checks on new volunteers then you can get a basic check done here: https://www.gov.uk/request-copy-criminal-record.

The Community Transport Association have produced some useful guidance (below).  Find out more here. UK Government announce stronger social distancing measures On Monday 23 March, the UK Government outlined strict new measures to tackle the spread of coronavirus, including a ban on public gatherings of more than two people. You can find the Government’s full guidance on these measures here. … Read More

Advice for village halls and community buildings  UPDATE: Following the Government’s announcement that a new national lockdown will begin in England on Thursday 5 November for four weeks, here is the latest advice from ACRE. Advice from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government for the safe operation of community buildings is available: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-the-safe-use-of-multi-purpose-community-facilities/covid-19-guidance-for-the-safe-use-of-multi-purpose-community-facilities.  ACRE have published Covid-19 Safer … Read More

As you may be aware, Surrey County Council (SCC) carry out an annual survey to monitor how well the needs of Surrey’s Voluntary Community and Faith Sector (VCFS) are being met by infrastructure organisations such as Surrey Community Action and the local Councils for Voluntary Services (CVSs). For those of you unfamiliar with the term, an infrastructure organisation is one … Read More

The ACRE Network needs village helps to take part in a crucial census. Carried out once every ten years, the survey will provide up to date information about halls and the social and economic impact they deliver for their communities. This information is vital to secure funding for halls, funding for Network services, and to ensure that the  services and … Read More

Surrey’s first Warm Hub! Local charity, Surrey Community Action has teamed up with Hale Community Centre to deliver Surrey’s first Warm Hub. A Warm Hub can be any community venue – a village hall, a community centre, a church, a parish room – which provides a warm and friendly environment for people to meet over refreshments and find out more … Read More

More unemployed people in Surrey will be able to benefit from free support to start their own business, thanks to a £1.4 million funding boost to the Inspiring Enterprise project. Further funding from the National Lottery Community Fund and European Social Fund will enable Surrey Community Action – together with partners WSX Enterprise, Action Hampshire, The University of Winchester and … Read More

Want to make a difference in Surrey? Come on Board! Last year Surrey Community Action helped 1300 people to avoid fuel poverty, supported 100 good neighbour schemes across the county, provided advice to 100’s of village halls, strengthened the voluntary sector through advocacy and much more, to keep communities thriving. Now we need your help. We’re looking for dynamic people … Read More

Over 160 people took the opportunity to find out more about how community led housing could help to provide more affordable homes in their communities, at roadshow events in Guildford and Leatherhead this week run by the Surrey Community Housing Partnership. Community led housing is quickly gaining momentum across the country with a rapidly growing number of successful schemes delivering … Read More

A local enterprise project is inviting budding entrepreneurs to take advantage of the support on offer thanks to National Lottery funding. Inspiring Enterprise offers free support to help develop the ideas, confidence and skills to set up a business or social enterprise. The project is funded by the European Social Fund and the National Lottery, through the Big Lottery Fund. … Read More

In the summer of 2016, 375 community organisations and stakeholders across Surrey, participated in our research into the voluntary sector; where it is now and where it needs to be in the future. The research, via online questionnaires and telephone interviews, gives us an insight into the projected needs of the community in the future, recognising that we need to … Read More