Durham Community Action

As part of Safeguarding Adults Week 2025 we spoke to Lesley Jeavons, independent chair of the Durham Safeguarding Adults Partnership about safeguarding in County Durham, and also highlight the training and support we offer at Durham Community Action.

This podcast episode focuses on the Rural Durham Community Research Network. We chat to Jemma Austin, Research & Insight Project Lead at Durham Community Action about community research, the aims and objectives of the network and the work so far. We also spoke to community researchers Cath Robson from Weardale Together and Perry Gardner about the challenges rural communities face and how research can address these challenges and what benefits organisations and rural communities gain from them leading research.

In this podcast, we spoke to our Rural Housing Enabler Susan Tron about rural housing in County Durham, including parish profiles, housing needs surveys and influencing housing development in your local area. 

In this podcast, we spoke to Professor Tony Chapman from Durham University about the Third Sector Trends study. The Third Sector Trends Study is a long-standing study of the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector and it aims to understand the different aspects of the VCSE sector’s structure and activity.Have your say in the study here: http://bit.ly/4luLxZZ

We spoke to David Hall, trustee at Sherburn Hill Hub about how grant funding from the Community Spaces grant, a regional partnership funded by the National Lottery Community Fund helped improve their local community.

The role of a volunteer driver is a very rewarding position, providing transport for social journeys and health appointments for people in the local community but recruiting for the role can sometimes be challenging.To help create awareness about the role, we spoke to Jack Ball, Volunteer Officer at Supportive about the main challenges they face in recruiting volunteer drivers, the benefits of the role and how volunteering impacts their service.

Following the launch of a new toolkit to help trustees navigate legal issues about property, we spoke to Tom Wills from Sintons Solicitors about legal advice for community buildings.

This year's #VillageHallsWeek theme is celebrating, encouraging and supporting the efforts of volunteers who keep rural community buildings open.We spoke to community halls consultant Louise Beaton about her new book "Halls for All: A History of Village Halls" which highlights the crucial role village halls play in rural communities.

This podcast episode focuses on the County Durham Poverty Truth Commission. We chat to project coordinator Cathryn Gathercole and project worker Julie Gourley about the projects aims, what it has achieved so far and plans for the future.You can read Julie's blogs here: https://www.durhamcommunityaction.org.uk/poverty-truth-commission-journey-journal