Find the help you need for running your community building

As the Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE) Village Hall Adviser for community buildings in rural North, South and West Yorkshire, we provide practical guidance and rural advocacy to trustees, employees and management committees of rural community buildings. You can access support on a range of areas including: good governance; safeguarding; finance and funding; policies and procedures and operational good practice.

Community Building Network for North Yorkshire

The Community Buildings Network is open to all those involved in running community buildings in North Yorkshire. It’s an opportunity to hear about new resources and policy development, explore topics of interest in detail and share experiences and knowledge with others running community buildings.

The Community Buildings Network meetings are hosted three times a year by our development officers. Meetings are currently held online via Zoom for each of the seven districts of North Yorkshire. The agendas are shaped by requests from attendees and current issues facing community buildings.

See our networks page on our Community Support North Yorkshire website for upcoming Community Building Network meetings.

If you would like to attend a network meeting or have an idea for an agenda item, please contact Vicki Sharp via email communitysupport@communityfirstyorkshire.org.uk or by calling 01904 704177.

Facebook Peer Support Group

We have a closed Facebook group for committee members of community buildings and village halls. We now have over 300 members from across Yorkshire who regularly post questions and answers, and support each other. The group is for all those involved with running community buildings a space to share their thoughts, actions and questions on all aspects of hall management. You will need a Facebook account to join, please contact us if you need help with this. If you already have a Facebook account please click here to join.

General information

We have general information available to all organisations on this site. Currently, this includes a dedicated community buildings and village hall section relating to operating safely during the pandemic.

Specialist resources

As the ACRE Network member for North, South and West Yorkshire, our members are able to access specialist ACRE resources written exclusively for community buildings and village halls. These information sheets and model documents will guide you with every aspect of running a village hall, from insurance and creating a business plan to hiring agreements and trust deeds.

Find out how to become a Community First Yorkshire member to access these resources.

Safeguarding for village halls and community buildings

Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility.

We promote good safeguarding practice to village and community halls throughout Yorkshire. We want to make sure that voluntary management committees that run halls and community buildings have the knowledge and confidence to provide a safe environment for all.

We want to improve awareness of the importance of safeguarding, provide advice and examples of best practice to ensure management committees fully understand their responsibilities and current legislation around safeguarding and have appropriate policies and procedures in place.

We have put together information, template policies and procedures, useful safeguarding links and training information all in one place for you on our Community Support North Yorkshire website.

Greening your village hall podcasts

We have a number of podcasts available for village halls to listen to here. Hall committee members share their experiences of how to make their village halls more environmentally friendly from installing an EV charge point, funding and installing a Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) and solar panels and carrying out an energy audit.

If you have any queries about a community building, please contact Vicki Sharp  via email communitysupport@communityfirstyorkshire.org.uk or call 01904 704177.

Helping you reduce your venue running costs

We’re working with Utility Aid to find ways to help village halls and community venues make those essential savings on their energy bills.

Find out how you can benefit from reduced rates, energy audits, help with installing EV charging points and more here.