Nova CEO Maddy Sutcliffe joined partners at the Wakefield Together Partnership Summit at WX Wakefield on Wednesday 30 September to discuss progress of the Wakefield District Plan (2025–2035) and the incredible impact of our Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector.

Over the past year, the cross-sector VCSE Collaborative has been developing a new strategy to better support and champion our local voluntary groups. Today, Maddy shared how this strategy is already delivering real results:

Agility & Resilience: Local groups adapt rapidly to emerging needs. A brilliant example is the ‘No Bulls Hit’ project at St George’s Community Centre, which created a vital social space for men to meet, play games, and boost their wellbeing.

Building Capacity: 72% of local organisations report accessing Nova’s infrastructure support to grow through advice, training, and networking. To build on this, we are launching an innovative new project this month focused specifically on sector resilience.

Fairer Funding: We’ve seen a 40% increase in funding opportunities channelled through the Community Investment Gateway this year. Recently, £40,000 was distributed to grassroots groups to increase cervical screening uptake, a perfect example of how early, local intervention saves lives and future treatment costs.

When we invest through the Gateway, we keep investment local, strengthening the Wakefield economy and ensuring residents access high-quality services right in their neighbourhoods.

We are proud to work alongside partners like Wakefield Council, West Yorkshire Police, Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust, and Heart of Yorkshire Education Group. However, there is still work to do. To ensure our voluntary sector remains strong, we must continue pushing for long-term commissioning opportunities and sustainable capacity building.