Spring Greetings from Helen Wilkinson, Chief Executive, DVSC

Spring is a time of growth, and we’re delighted to finally be in a position to launch our new website. A huge thanks to Damon, and Phil who have done the hard work behind the scenes.

DVSC today is significantly different to the organisation of the past both in terms of turnover, and the size of the team. In this respect, our challenges reflect the challenges facing the sector as a whole as we try to navigate through what sometimes seems a perfect storm of reduced resources, and increased demand.

We are a small but agile team, committed to having a positive impact on the people we support and to provide high quality services to volunteers, members, partners and stakeholders and with lots of plans and activities underway. Our focus is our members, and delivering the best possible services to them thanks to core funding from the Welsh Government.

DVSC is a member of Third Sector Support Wales. As a member of this partnership, we have been reflecting on our own identity and our core service activities and looking to make some improvements.

Our new logo and corporate identity is part of this; as is the soft launch of our new member focussed website. Built and designed in house, by a customer focussed team with no formal technical or web development skills it has been quite a learning journey, and we’d welcome constructive feedback about how it works for you and what could be improved. And we will do what we can to implement your feedback.

Although DVSC’s logo has changed, with a new strapline to focus on what we see as our core mission – Building Resilient Communities - our aims and objectives are still fundamentally the same. We continue to work to promote and grow the third sector in Denbighshire and across North Wales working with our members, partners, supporters, neighbouring County Voluntary Councils, the Wales Council for Voluntary Action and public service stakeholders and funders.

We also look to you – as volunteers, members, partners, supporters and funders - to support us in achieving this. You do fantastic work and we want to work with you to promote and celebrate that great work.

We host a number of DVSC Networks, Forums and events throughout the year. The DVSC Annual Forward Planner provides key diary markers for the year. We aim to publicise diary reminders every three months via email, and social media so you don't miss any of our meetings and events along with upcoming training on offer.

So do make sure you reply to our emails about GDPR to ensure you are keep in the loop and subscribe to news updatesl

A key event is Volunteers Week, which will run as usual from the 1st – 8th of June. We will also be taking part in the Living Wage Week celebrations in the first week of November as we are an accredited Living Wage Employer. Trustees Week will also be running the first few weeks of November; exact dates to be confirmed. If you have any ideas for events or activities that you would like to see or help co-ordinate for these celebrations then please do get in touch or discuss your thoughts with members of the team. You can also email your ideas direct to: office@dvsc.co.uk.

Increasingly we are using social media channels - primarily twitter and Facebook - to share timely news and information and post information and regularly update our DenbighshireVolunteers.net and DVSC's website to minimise as much email overload as possible so do please follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.

We publish the monthly #DenbighshireVolunteeers bulletin which we launched towards the end of 2017 and which is also going to have a new logo coming soon. If you want to submit any information for future bulletins (preferably bilingual content) please email clareevans@dvsc.co.uk.

We also plan on launching a membership bulletin every quarter and we have designed an interactive members area of our new website just for you. Please give us feedback on this in the soft launch phase and use it to promote any projects, events or activities you have as a member in this. If you would like to feature some information in the membership bulletin please email membership@dvsc.co.uk.

Finally, on behalf of the team at DVSC, I'd like to thank you for all the fantastic work you do and ask you to join us in building a movement for change in Denbighshire. We look forward to building on current relationships, developing partnerships and exploring how we can work more effectively together to ensure the third sector continues to flourish in Denbighshire and North Wales.

Kind regards

Helen