A couple of weeks ago, I thought I’d start an experiment. I’d been working on collating all the data, stats, facts, figures and stories for our annual report – yes, it’s that time of year again! We always like to include some of the feedback we’ve received over the year, because we recognise that it brings our work to life.
This year’s annual report will be a story of the exciting stuff we’ve been involved in over the past year; it’ll show how we’ve helped people make connections, how we’ve tried to inspire others and how we’ve championed great things going on across Dudley borough. But it’s not only our staff who’ve been characters in this story; our story simply wouldn’t be as rich without others – the people, groups, communities, partners and places that are crucial ingredients for nurturing caring, vibrant and strong communities in Dudley borough.
So, I took a chance and posted an invitation on Twitter, asking people to let us know how we’ve 1) helped them to connect; 2) inspired them; 3) championed great work. This is essentially crowdsourcing an element of our annual report to get some authentic voices to demonstrate what we’ve done together.
I’ve been staggered by the responses we’ve received so far. Here are a few of them:
The people who responded were:
- Anna Gillespie from housing association CHADD (Churches Housing Association of Dudley and District)
- Dudley CIL (Centre for Inclusive Living)
- Dudley Voices for Choice (DVC)
- Giselle Browne from the Big Lottery Fund
- Halas Homes
- Jane Clarke, former CEO of CHADD and still very passionate about the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector
- Leslie’s Care Packages
- Dudley Macular Society
- Dudley Mind
- Tracy Tomlinson, Dementia Friends Champion in the Halesowen area
- Andy Mullaney, former Business Connector for Business in the Community
- Bryan Gould from Black Country Neurological Alliance
- Nick Comley from sight loss charity Beacon
Thank you so much to all of you for so readily responding!
If you’d like to share how you’ve been part of our story you still can! Simply comment below or use the #dcvsstory hashtag on Twitter or Facebook and join in!
Dudley CVS blog 
Reblogged this on Volunteering Counts in Dudley borough and commented:
Love this post and it’s nice to see that we’re making a difference 🙂
Becky, It’s like a biblical story, they look for you, you guide, advise, show the way, and are there when called upon to support them on their path. Can’t get better, Well done!