Village Halls Week 2021

Village Halls Week is a national campaign led by ACRE which aims to celebrate the 10,000+ Village and Community Halls in England and showcase the vital services they offer and the volunteers that help run them.

The 2021 campaign will focus around how village halls are survivors. Many halls have been supporting communities since the 1920s and this year has been one of the toughest yet.

In the past year, the volunteers who are responsible for the management of these buildings have shown great determination and resilience in the trials of 2020. It only seems right that the 2021 Village Halls Week campaign focuses on these challenges and how they have been overcome and how volunteers will continue to overcome them.

Due to restrictions, this year events will take place online with ACRE boasting a full programme of events for the week. You can view their programme here. The week is sponsored by Norris & Fisher, Utility Aid and Allied Westminster.

The week will begin with opening speeches by Lord Gardiner, ACRE’s Executive Director Richard Quallington and our in-house expert Deborah Clarke celebrating a century of village halls. Tuesday offers a chance to learn about the different activities and events hosted by village halls and how they combat loneliness and support the local economy.

On Wednesday and Thursday, there are two online events to sign up to. The first is a session led by Norris and Fisher, on how your village hall can recover from Covid-19. And on Thursday, Utility Aid will be leading a session on how your village halls can contribute to a zero-carbon future.

Friday brings the week to a close with a podcast by Allied Westminster discussing the history of village halls and also offers the chance to sign ACRE’s Doomsday Book to send a message to MP’s.

We at GRCC also have some exciting social media activities planned, so make sure you are following us during the week!