Here you can keep up with the latest from Reading’s 1000+ voluntary organisations and other voluntary sector news from around the area.
Share your volunteer experiences with RNIB – Survey Deadline 30 June 2025
15 May 2025Share your volunteering experiences with us! RNIB’s latest survey on the experiences of blind and partially sighted people in volunteering is available to complete from 12 May to 30 June 2025. It takes 15 minutes to complete. Whether you volunteer or not, we want to understand your motivations to volunteer, what stops you from volunteering, and what ...
Introduction to First Steps towards Safe and Sound – May in-person session
2 May 2025
First Steps towards Safe and Sound is a free tool available to all voluntary and community groups offering services in Reading, who wish to take the first steps towards having good governance in place. Come along to our May introduction session and find out how to get started and what the benefits are for your ...
Closing the Gap 2 (RBC) bidding window open – various contracts and deadlines in May and June 2025
30 April 2025Reading Borough Council have now opened their bidding window for Closing the Gap 2 contracts for voluntary and community sector organisations to deliver services related to various themes. This is the second rendition of CTG following recent consultation with the local VCS. The contracts are for differing amounts with the Invitation to Tender (ITT) contracts requiring ...
University of Reading Charity of The Year – Apply for the 25/26 scheme now
30 April 2025The University of Reading Charity of the Year scheme for 2025/26 is now open for applications until Wednesday 21 May (23.00). The Charity of the Year Scheme aims to deliver positive impacts for both the chosen charity and the University, whilst also benefitting the local community. It will also support the University’s charitable objectives of advancing ...
Free workshops offer advice to parents and carers of autistic adults
24 April 2025The Berkshire Adult Autism Support Service is running two free online autism advice workshops for parents and unpaid family carers of autistic adults next month. The aim of these sessions is to help participants increase their understanding of aspects of autism and their confidence when supporting their relatives. The workshops are open to all family carers of ...
Tell us what you think and win £100 to spend at the Rising Sun
17 April 2025
Connect Reading would like to hear from YOU about how we can improve cross-sector partnerships in Reading, and how we can improve our offer for local organisations. Our aim is to making Reading better, connected! We’re offering the chance to win £100 to spend at the Rising Sun for everyone who takes part in our 3 ...
Dying Well Matters Event
16 April 2025
Many people feel unprepared and uncomfortable talking about death and end-of-life care, especially when it involves themselves or loved ones. Join Reading Healthwatch and Reading Borough Council for a free community conversation about end-of-life care – a safe, welcoming space to share thoughts, ask questions and to learn more.
RVA Social Prescribing Link Worker – POSITION CLOSED
10 April 2025
RVA is looking to recruit a full-time Social Prescribing Link Worker to provide social prescribing for people in south, central and east Reading. Social Prescribing enables people to take action to improve or sustain their quality of life based on what matters to them and their individual strengths. The Social Prescribing Link Worker will manage a caseload ...
Befriending Forum 24 June
9 April 2025
Walking, stretching, dancing, cycling and running together – how physical activity in the community supports people facing loneliness and social isolation Hear from a range of local VCOs about their local offer including seated exercise, heritage dance and other physical activity. Look around our VCOs ‘trade show’ of local community groups offering a wide range of physical/social ...
AskSARA RBC online learning lunch 10.4.25
7 April 2025
AskSARA for advice, support and products that make daily living easier Reading Borough Council is pleased to announce the launch of a new self-help tool on the Council Website called AskSARA. Please click here for website AskSARA is an award-winning online self-help guide providing expert advice and information on products and equipment for older and disabled people. AskSARA: ...
On the fifth anniversary of the first Covid lockdown
26 March 2025
Like many others this week, we are reflecting on the fifth anniversary of the first Covid-19 lockdown in the UK We are thanking once again the volunteers and staff who provided support and reassurance to some of the most vulnerable members of our community through the pandemic. Volunteers and volunteering at the forefront of the response Voluntary sector ...
The Earley Charity – Building for the Future Capital Grants Programme – Deadline 20 June 2025
26 March 2025
The Earley Charity has launched a new capital grants programme for 2025. The Building for the Future programme has a budget of £250,000 and is open to local organisations that work in or predominately serve the Earley Charity’s area of benefit*. By Capital they mean bricks and mortar such as new builds, extensions and large-scale ...
NEW training: Understanding Charity Finances for trustees and managers
25 March 2025
RVA is pleased to introduce this NEW training for charity trustees/ committee members and managers. This training has been gratefully funded by Berkshire Community Foundation, which means we can offer FREE of charge spaces to local groups. We will be repeating this training later in the year. The aim is to help charities and community groups ...
Do you offer corporate team day volunteering?
25 March 2025Here at RVA we have seen an increasing demand from local businesses for one-off volunteering days for teams of employees. Although RVA does not provide a brokerage service for one-off team volunteering, we do always endeavour to signpost organisations in the right direction. Alongside providing guidance on how businesses can work with local groups in more enduring ...
A Warm Welcome: Fuel Poverty, Health Impacts and Assistance
20 March 2025This fully funded half-day training course is designed for front-line staff and volunteers who work with expectant parents and families with children aged 5 and under. The 2.5 hour course looks at the causes and impacts of fuel poverty with a focus on the health impacts in pregnancy, newborn babies and children aged 5 and under. ...
Life Changers – Therapeutic Gardening
20 March 2025Thrive, the gardening for health charity, runs Life Changers, a free, four-month gardening programme for those living with a life-changing illness or injury to enable them to improve their health and wellbeing. Whether recovering from a stroke, cancer or surgery, or living with a long-term condition like diabetes, multiple sclerosis or Long Covid, people experiencing ...
Improving Physical Activity in Reading – Can you help us?
13 March 2025Get Berkshire Active, along with other partners, are working with colleagues at Reading Borough Council to improve the physical activity landscape in Reading. We have formed a Physical Activity Action Group and are working in a whole systems way to determine the barriers currently preventing Reading residents from being as active as they’d like. We ...
Get involved with the Reading Windrush Parade and Festival
13 March 2025Reading Caribbean Nation CIC (RCN) is a local Reading organisation incorporated in 2024 to organise the Reading Windrush Parade and Festival (formerly Reading Carnival). As the organizers of the Reading Windrush Parade and Festival, a widely recognized community-wide event, RCN already has strong relationships with numerous community groups. Many of these groups are represented on the ...
World Social Work Day – 18 March 2025
13 March 2025RBC’s Directorate of Communities and Adult Social Care are holding a joint event with Brighter Futures for Children on World Social Work Day – 18 March 2025. This is a day that Social Workers around the world we celebrate the amazing work that we do. We would be honoured if you could join us in our ...
Bite-size Volunteer Management – “Keeping it Legal” – May 2025
12 March 2025Do you manage volunteers in your role in one of Reading’s diverse voluntary and community sector organisations? You may be a volunteer yourself, or a paid member of staff, or even a volunteer Trustee/Committee member. RVA is running bitesize training for those who manage volunteers. These sessions are designed to give you an introduction/ refresher into ...