Support with managing your community venue
We provide practical guidance and advocacy to trustees, employees and management committees of community buildings across rural North, South and West Yorkshire.
You can access support on a range of areas including: good governance; safeguarding; finance and funding; policies and procedures and operational good practice. We facilitate a regular support network for people managing community venues and host a closed Facebook peer support group.
Upcoming Network meetings
Share your experience of running rural community buildings, learn about new resources and policy development, and explore mutual topics of interest. In these inclusive network meetings, members set the agenda. Open to all people managing community run venues.
Previous network meetings
An overview of previous network meeting discussions, useful links and resources.
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May 2024: The Truth about Committee: Roles and Responsibilities
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Here is a link to the post session PowerPoint for all that registered for the meeting.
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February 2024: Go Green Village Halls Week and funding update
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Here is a link to the two presentations on funding and energy savings given at the meeting, plus some other supporting documentation:
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Previous meetings
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October 2023: Digital connectivity for your community building
July 2023: Diversifying your community building
Useful links
Food hygiene requirements:
- Food Standard Agency – Food safety for community cooking and food banks
- North Yorkshire Council – Food safety and hygiene
- Leeds City Council – Register a food business
Energy Saving and Bill Support:
- Utility Aid – How to Manage Rising Energy Costs
- Community First Yorkshire – Climate Change Toolkit, including an energy audit example
- Community First Yorkshire Green Communities podcast series, including one on solar panels
Community Engagement:
- Community First Yorkshire – Easy Guide to Community Engagement
- Community First Yorkshire – Effective Community Engagement Toolkit
Other links:
- Little Bird Markets
- Ryedale Community Grants
- British Pilgrimage Trust – Sanctuary Scheme
May 2023: Decarbonisation and energy saving
- Utility Aid Energy Outlook April 2023
- East Hanningfield Village Hall Case Study
- Monk Fryston and Hillam Sustainability Project
- Utility Aid Remote Discovery Document
- Smart Box reading examples
- Utility Aid presentation
- Action with Communities in Rural England Information Sheet 26 – Dealing with VAT on fuel and power
November 2022: Hire agreements
August 2022: online booking systems
- List of online booking systems for village halls and community buildings
- ACRE information sheet 26 – Dealing with VAT on fuel and power
May 2022: Planning significant refurbishment, extension or new builds for your hall
- Extensions, refurbishments and rebuilds – PowerPoint presentation
- Village halls and VAT on building work and other purchases – ACRE Information Sheet 18
- Planning an extension, refurbishment or a new build village hall – ACRE Information Sheet 23
February 2022: Dementia friendly halls and asset registers
- Dementia Friendly Village Halls and Guide and Checklist
- Dementia how can I make a difference
- Dementia Forward support in North Yorkshire
- Asset Register information sheet
- Why have an asset register, a halls perspective
January 2022: Village Halls Week. Meet your community buildings advisors; an introduction to Community First Yorkshire and how we can support you and your hall.
Facebook Peer Support Group
We have a closed Facebook group for committee members of community buildings and village halls. We now have over 400 members from across Yorkshire who regularly post questions and answers, and support each other.
The group is for all those involved with running community buildings as a space to share their thoughts, actions and questions on all aspects of hall management. You will need a Facebook account to join, please contact us if you need help with this. If you already have a Facebook account please click here to join.
Specialist resources
Because we are the ACRE Network member for North, South and West Yorkshire, our members are able to access specialist ACRE resources written exclusively for community buildings and village halls. These information sheets and model documents will guide you with every aspect of running a village hall, from insurance and creating a business plan to hiring agreements and trust deeds.
Find out how to become a Community First Yorkshire member to access these resources.
General resources
We have a wide range of general information available to all organisations, which includes good governance; finance and funding; policies and procedures and operational good practice.
Useful links
We are the Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE) Village Hall Adviser for community buildings in rural North, South and West Yorkshire. To find out more about the work of ACRE and how they support Village Halls and Rural communities visit Action for Communities in Rural England.
Contact us
To find out more about the network please contact the team at communitysupport@communityfirstyorkshire.org.uk or by calling 01904 704177.
