Blog | Middlesbrough Voluntary Development Agency

Let's work together to get basic digital access for Middlesbrough residents

24 June 2020 - 1:48pm

Guest blog by Sue Kearney, CEO at The Hope Foundation

Digital connectivity and access is a social justice and social inclusion issue. COVID-19 has demonstrated the basic lack of access for many Middlesbrough residents leading to loneliness and isolation at this time. The move towards more digital services (health, GP’s shopping online) means that local people will become further and increasingly disadvantaged due to one or all of the following

When you think you know it all, you stop listening to understand!

6 August 2019 - 3:11pm

One of the best parts of working at MVDA is getting to meet lots of great people passionate about making life better for Middlesbrough’s people. I love the ‘cuppa and a natter’ approach and how we get to some really deep issues in the context of a ‘thinking out loud’ discussion. I’m always inspired by what people are doing, often in some of the most challenging circumstances, and this really stirs up my curiosity to really understand what life is like on a day-to-day level for the organisations we work with and the people they support.

All I wanted was something nice to go with a baked potato…

26 July 2019 - 12:17pm

Last night was exceptionally warm; the second warmest day on record in the United Kingdom. I wanted something simple for tea, a baked potato with something nice. The choice was limited at my local Co-op so a went a bit further up the road to a big Sainsbury’s store, but the shelves were oddly empty – all the chilled shelves had been cleared. I thought they were probably just moving the stock around.

Back to the Future for social prescribing

21 March 2019 - 1:02pm

I feel a bit like Marty McFly having just stepped out of Doc's DeLorean and being transported back to 2014. Scotland voted to stay a member of the United Kingdom in an independent referendum, Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi won the Nobel Peace Prize, Friends celebrated its 20th anniversary making me feel very old, Conchita Wurst won Eurovision, Ed Sheeran and ‘thinking out loud’ makes number one twice and we were watching ‘The Theory of Everything’ and ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ at the cinema.

Losing control

7 February 2019 - 3:56pm

So… this week I have spent two days in Birmingham being energised, inspired and challenged with bells on* by the people I met at Losing Control (a conference hosted by Practical Governance and the Social Change Agency).