Blog | Middlesbrough Voluntary Development Agency

Full of hope for 2022

10 January 2022 - 5:29pm

It’s a new year and a fresh start. Like many people, I can’t help but become reflective at this time of year. It feels like some things just won’t go away – Covid-19 seems likely to be a feature of our lives for the foreseeable future. There is always a lot of hot air in the media that seems at odds with our lived reality.

Minority communities, people with learning disabilities and Annual Health Checks – what next?

3 November 2021 - 1:52pm

If you’ve been following my series of blogs about this project you'll know I was getting excited about a forthcoming ‘Roundtable’ meeting which I had organised for commissioning staff and community groups and leaders, to come together to discuss and agree what needs to happen over the next few months.

The desktop research report which I wrote initially was considered as a good starting point, but the consensus was that action needed to be guided at a local level. Those around the table agreed with the themes I had outlined:

#NeverMoreNeeded campaign

8 September 2020 - 11:56am

Charity and voluntary organisations have responded to the urgent needs of people across the country – quickly, effectively and without question.

In Middlesbrough we've seen amazing examples of response to need:

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

Guest blog: Reporting Anti-LGBT+ Hate Crime

14 October 2019 - 1:34pm

Guest blog by Andrew Towers, LGBT Action Development Worker, Hart Gables

Last month I was on a bus on Stockton High Street. We were parked at a bus stop. I shouldn’t judge on appearances but the two people who were sitting right in front of me looked like a respectable young couple. They were smartly dressed and soft-spoken. They were laughing between themselves, looking at the woman’s mobile phone. Then they lifted the phone and took a picture through the bus window.