Sir Alec Shelbrooke MP praises the strength of local communities
Community First Yorkshire was pleased to welcome Sir Alec Shelbrooke MP, Member of Parliament for Wetherby and Easingwold, for a recent visit to meet with Chief Executive Jane Colthup and members of the senior team.
The meeting was an opportunity to talk about the work of Community First Yorkshire, the vital role of the voluntary and community sector across the county, and how local organisations can work together to support people more effectively.
During the visit, Sir Alec highlighted the importance of bringing voluntary organisations together to make support easier to access for local communities.
“The role of organisations like Community First Yorkshire is to bring together a voluntary sector that does so much across our community,” he said. “There’s real strength in numbers and in bringing people together.”
He also spoke about the growing importance of community-led support as pressure on public services continues to increase, particularly with an ageing population.
“All of these organisations and the fantastic volunteers we have around the county are focused on lifting the burden off people. What’s happening locally is going to become more and more important as we move forward.”
Commenting afterwards on a really productive meeting, Jane Colthup said:
“We were delighted to welcome Sir Alec to our offices to highlight the work we do to support local communities through our work with VCSE organisations. He was particularly interested in our health collaboration work as he has a personal interest through the dementia directory his office runs. Sir Alec was enthusiastic about our work and is keen to ensure connections are made to benefit local people.”
The visit underlined the vital role of the voluntary and community sector in shaping resilient, supportive communities for the future.
For more information about our support for the VCSE sector, visit our ‘Get Support’ hub