A big thank you to everyone who attended the last meeting in early February. It was a really positive and productive meeting and lovely to meet some new organisation representatives!

We presented back the Group's chosen main 7 C's priorities for moving forward together as voted for at December's meeting as follows; 

Community– Inclusion;
Understanding our roles as a group and individual organisations.
Where we fit together & complement each other to best serve ourparticipants, staff, volunteers and communities

Contribution– Group Mentoring;
Share areas of expertise with 30 min workshops at these meetings  

Communication– Speaking with One Voice;
Creation of a closed Facebook Group
Follow each other & support on social media

Convey the passion within the Group for all that it does within our communities  

Collaboration– Sharing;
Knowledge, ideas, experience, external resources, funding opportunities – to be done at the meetings during the intros

Collateral (Intellectual) – Analysis;
What gaps do we have?
What skills do we have?
Who/What can we bring in?
What else is going on that we can access?

Collateral (Physical) - Feel free to bring any fliers for others to share at their venues

Connection& Celebration
You all want EVENTS!!
Stalls, Networking, Speakers, Volunteer Representatives, Volunteer Recruitment
Invite EVERYONE – circular economy
Celebrations / Awards

We also heard what the different organisations currently need but also what skills and resources they can each bring to support our membership. 

Big New Name News!

The group voted for the new name 'Connecting Wakefield' and a new look will follow soon!

This change reflects the fact that the meetings are for any staff member, representative and/or volunteer of a Wakefield-based VCSE organisation, you don't have to be a CEO or senior leader!

‍Next Meeting - 6 April

‍The date of the next meeting is Thursday 6 April, 9.30am to 11am at Featherstone Rovers (Post Office Road, Featherstone, WF7 5EN). Book your free ticket on Eventbrite.

So, what's planned for the Meeting?

We will be feeding back your top ideas and priorities collected in February and looking at how best we can make those happen with the relevant partner organisations.

Guest speaker Nigel Wainwrite, a Consultant Clinical Psychologist working as one of the Clinical Leads for the West Yorkshire Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub, and lead for Staff Psychological Wellbeing Services at Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, will give a short presentation on the Schwartz Rounds talks.

The presentation will introduce the Schwartz Rounds and its benefits, as well as covering the development of Rounds for Wakefield Place and the range of services the West Yorkshire Hub has on offer to staff and volunteers working in Wakefield.

We will also be hearing about #WeCan - free training for women that's open to small and medium-sized incorporated organisations in Wakefield District.

If you've got any questions about booking or need some help, contact Nova at 01924 367418 or info@nova-wd.org.uk. And if you'd like to speak to Paula and Andy, email hello@evergreenactive.co.uk.‍

Other information about Connecting Wakefield

Join the new Connecting Wakefield private Facebook Group.

Catch up on previous meetings with the recordings on Evergreen Active's YouTube channel.