Join Connecting Communities in Berkshire: Supporting Rural Communities Across the County

Leave a comment

We are pleased to extend a warm invitation to parish and town councils to become members and support the vital work we are doing to strengthen and sustain communities throughout Berkshire.

CCB is dedicated to empowering rural communities through a variety of impactful initiatives. We help enable affordable rural housing, improve rural health and wellbeing, and address rural disadvantage. Additionally, we offer support and guidance to the volunteers who run village halls and community buildings, helping them to navigate challenges and maximise their impact. We also advise families across the county on how to reduce their utility bills, making life a little easier in these challenging times.

For more information on our work and how we are supporting communities, visit our website project pages.

Why Become a Member of CCB?

As a member of CCB, your parish or town council will join a network of communities working together to make a real difference in rural areas. Membership provides access to a range of valuable services and support that can help your community thrive. The benefits of membership include:

  • Free or discounted access to a wide variety of training courses designed to strengthen and support local communities.
  • Opportunities to participate in focus groups, giving you a direct voice in shaping the charity’s future priorities and work.
  • Exclusive invitations to our annual workshop/event and Annual General Meeting, with one vote per membership.
  • Regular e-bulletins providing updates on services, funding opportunities, and events that can benefit your community.
  • Promotion of your community events, news, or facilities through our e-bulletin, social media, and website.
  • Direct support from the CCB team for issues affecting your community.
  • Free job postings for local positions.

The membership fee for 2025 is £42 (£35 + VAT) for parish and town councils, as well as voluntary or community organisations. Your membership will help shape the direction of our work, ensuring that the needs of rural communities in Berkshire are heard and addressed.

Individual Membership: Free, but with a Request for Support

In addition to organisational memberships, CCB is also open to individual members. Individual membership is completely free, but we encourage members to consider making a small donation to help support our ongoing efforts and the essential work we do to improve the lives of rural communities.

We believe that by working together, we can create stronger, more resilient, and sustainable communities. Your support helps us continue providing essential services, from offering advice on energy efficiency to addressing health and wellbeing challenges, and much more.

We would be delighted to welcome you as a member of CCB and look forward to the opportunity to work alongside you.

If you have any questions or would like further information, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. To join us, simply complete the online membership form .

Thank you for considering supporting Connecting Communities in Berkshire. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Activate Village Halls

Leave a comment

This week we were thrilled to hear from Bev, who has been attending seated exercise classes that we helped set up in Lambourn this year with the fantastic Moveability and Everyone Active Lambourn as part of our Activate Village Halls project.

Since 2020, our Activate Village Halls project has been working to ensure physical and mental health through exercise classes is available to all abilities. These seated exercise classes provide older individuals in rural communities with the opportunity to stay active, socialize, and have fun. These sessions combines exercise with social sessions, which help improve participants’ mental health.

Recent funding from Berkshire Community Foundation and SNG (formerly Sovereign Housing Association) has allowed us to support the setup and subsidise the ongoing cost of these enjoyable Seated Exercise classes.

Here you get to meet the fabulous Debbie from Moveability and a keen participant, Bev, who describes the difference attending just 6 weeks of classes has made to her life! 😊👍

The first session is free and the next session, in Lambourn, is at 2 pm on Friday so please share with any local family and friends and encourage them to come along and try it out! Further details of class delivery (including in rural Hermitage & Chieveley) can be found here: https://moveability.org.uk/seated-chair-exercise-classes-in-berkshire/

To read a report outlining the outcomes of our Activate Village Halls project and what it has achieved please click here.

Is your community looking for funding for a defibrillator?

Leave a comment

An Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) is a portable life-saving gadget that can zap someone’s heart back to its normal rhythm if it suddenly stops beating. It works by checking the person’s heart rhythm and giving them a shock if necessary. Using an AED before the ambulance shows up can significantly increase someone’s chance of survival.

We know through organising Essential Life Saving Skills workshops with British Red Cross the difference they can make to Berkshire’s rural communities so we thought we’d pull together a brief article on where you can find funding to support your community installing one.

AEDdonate offer support to help you fund, maintain, and register your public access defibrillator.https://www.aeddonate.org.uk/apply-for-funding/  – £400 towards a defibrillator anywhere in the UK

Defibrillator funding for community spaces across England
The Department of Health and Social Care is currently running a £1 million match funded Community Automated External Defibrillators Fund, aimed at increasing the number of AEDs in public places where they are most needed and to help save lives: https://www.defibgrant.co.uk/

The number of people surviving cardiac arrests outside of a hospital is 10.8%, which is the highest level it’s ever been and is twice the rate that it was a decade ago. London Hearts help fund defibrillators throughout the UK: https://londonhearts.org/

Berkshire Heart Foundation – opens again in September 2024. A limited number of funded defibrillators are available in each annual funding cycle. Applications will be reviewed monthly against a set of criteria so awards can be made to communities that need them most. Areas prioritised include those with fewer registered defibrillators and communities where local health needs indicate a higher risk of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.  – https://www.bhf.org.uk/how-you-can-help/how-to-save-a-life/defibrillators/apply-for-a-free-defibrillator-for-your-community

Adult Community Learning in West Berkshire

Leave a comment

We recently organized a Dementia Awareness session for adults in West Berkshire in Pangbourne. The session included presentations from the Alzheimer’s Society and Age UK Berkshire to help learners become a Dementia Friend and understand how to support someone living with dementia.

All learners were provided with Dementia Friends badge and a booklet explaining how to audit and adapt their Village Hall or space to make it easier and more comfortable to navigate for those living with Dementia.

We emphasized five key messages during the session:
1. Dementia is not just about memory loss.
2. Dementia is not a normal part of ageing.
3. Dementia is caused by diseases of the brain.
4. People can still live well with dementia.
5. There is more to a person than the dementia

Learners found the session informative and useful.


One learner said, “I especially found useful the information Georgia, from the Alzheimer’s Society, shared on the difference between factual and emotional memories. It increased my understanding of the huge variances that people experience when they have dementia.”

Another learner said, “I found the tips for improving living spaces very useful.”

In the last academic year (Sept 23 – April 24), we delivered a range of courses specifically designed for volunteers and people involved in running community buildings and spaces. These courses included Key Policies for Your Community Building, Fundraising for Your Village Hall, Financial Planning & Budgeting, Low Carbon Roadshow, and How to Effectively Engage with Your Community.

We also delivered two courses with British Red Cross that supported people living and working in West Berks rural communities to ensure they can have greater confidence to help and support in an emergency situation and use a defibrillator if required.

We are now planning our delivery for 2024-25. If there are any courses that you feel would be particularly beneficial to your rural community, please get in touch with us. admin@ccberks.org.uk