Blog | Middlesbrough Voluntary Development Agency

No Two Days the Same: Connecting South Tees for Positive Change

23 September 2025 - 4:12pm

One of the things I love most about my role is the variety – no two days are ever the same. At the heart of my work is making sure we truly understand what local communities need, and then supporting the voluntary and community sector (VCS) to provide safe, relevant, and effective services.

Lets Work together to get basic digital access for Middlesbrough residents - follow up

15 June 2023 - 11:07am

Guest blog by Sue Kearney, CEO at The Hope Foundation

On the 24th June 2020 I had my blog published with the title 'Lets Work together to get basic digital access for Middlesbrough residents'.

Since then the collaborative work has continued and spread across the Tees Valley to address the issues of

My whistlestop tour of Boro with Paul Streets

30 March 2022 - 3:40pm

John Atkinson, Community Action Development Officer at MVDA took Paul Streets, the CEO of Lloyds Bank Foundation on a whistlestop tour of Middlesbrough in March.

Paul has been a driving force behind LocalMotion, a 10-year programme supporting System Change activities in 6 towns across England and Wales including Middlesbrough with the backing of 6 major funders. Paul was in Middlesbrough to get a sense of the town, its brilliant people and inventive Voluntary and Community Organisations.

Minority communities, people with learning disabilities and Annual Health Checks – a role for the VCS?

16 March 2022 - 1:32pm

The uptake of Annual Health Checks (AHCs) by people with learning disabilities is low in all parts of the Country. It appears to me the NHS needs all the help it can get to ensure numbers increase in general and, in particular, for those from minority groups. However, in a meeting we were invited to of health practitioners in the Midlands area there appeared to be the same old, same old in terms of who is being involved, what is being funded and lack of understanding about the VCS.

Going Green Together

2 February 2022 - 1:17pm

Guest blog by Georgia Goncalves, Partnerships and Projects Support Officer at VONNE

If you type 'climate action' into Google you get millions of results – there’s so much information out there it’s hard to know where to begin and hardly any of it is aimed at supporting VCSE organisations.