Our vision: CARING, VIBRANT and STRONG communities where everyone can fulfil their potential.

Our mission: CONNECTING and INSPIRING people and organisations to achieve positive change, while CHAMPIONING their value to partners and the wider community.

We are a learning organisation, always looking ahead and pro-actively responding to changes around us.

This blog, as well as sharing stories about things we do that you might be familiar with, will also highlight new and groundbreaking work that we are involved in.

You may be aware that we support people and organisations to be responsible by helping them to develop and implement the right policies, procedures and processes. Our programmes of support include topics such as roles and responsibilities of trustees and directors, how to keep people safe and protected, while running community activities, getting and managing money, and how to effectively run an organisation.

You may also know that we build relationships and collaboration by hosting and facilitating networks and forums such as a sports network, the Voluntary Sector Network and Dudley Carers Forum. Our work enables individuals, local groups and organisations to share their views and have a voice.

Did you know that increasingly we engage people from local communities in designing and participating in research and learning? We collaborate with researchers involved in national and international work which we can both learn from and contribute to.

We are also reinvigorating Dudley borough’s civic economy by supporting people to shape and test their ideas, and unlocking dormant or underused buildings and land for community activity that changes lives.

And we are leading radical innovation and transformation. We are working with residents in Wrens Nest to try a completely new way of bringing together their skills and passions to develop a connected, creative and open community. We also support people to use free social media tools to connect, learn and make change.