Assembly Event 2008
This year's event took place on Wednesday 18 June 2008 at the University of Gloucestershire's Park Campus in Cheltenham. The following information will be kept until the full Report on the event is available.
Key Messages from the 2008 Event
The Annual Event, attended by over 100 delegates from the VCS on 18 June 2008, recognised that more work needs to be done to ensure that Equality and Diversity are at the heart of the work of the Assembly.
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Increasing the engagement of under-represented groups
Work planned includes:
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Research into and recommendations for future work with VCS groups that are currently under-represented in Assembly structures
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Development of a VCS Equalities Strategy Group to scrutinise and support the embedding of good practice across all partner agencies (including the VCS Assembly)
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New ways of communicating, eg redesign of Gloshub website to promote accessibility
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Stronger links with districts forums to promote understanding of the Assembly
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Implementation of a new structure for the Assembly Board to increase accessibility
The new structure builds stronger links with the VCS Strategy Groups where much debate and consultation is carried out. As well as the Chair, there will be representatives from:
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VCS Strategy Groups - Children and Young People, Economic Development, Environment, Health and Community Wellbeing, Safer & Stronger Communities, Volunteering
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Equalities strands - Black and Minority Ethnic Groups, Disability, Religion/Belief, Sexual Orientation
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6 VCS District Forums
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Cross-cutting themes - Advice, Housing, Learning, Rural, Transport, Urban
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Changes to the Terms of Reference for the Assembly
These will be available to view on the Gloshub website – www.gloshub.org.uk – and include extending the term of office for all VCS representatives from 2 to 3 years.
As usual, networking scored highly on the evaluations of the day with one delegate remarking the most useful thing was “Making individual links with people from other organisations, which will lead to some joint working”.
The day was lively mixture of debate, training and entertainment, but with a serious underlying message: the Assembly needs to reach out to all VCOs if it is to be the voice of the VCS in Gloucestershire
For more information on the Gloucestershire Assembly, the work around Equalities or the Assembly Board and Terms of Reference. speak to the Assembly Team on 01452 522600 or email
Report from last year's Event
A full report from last year's event (2007) is also available below.
Assembly Event 2007 Report (download in word format)
Contact for further information
For more information about the Event, contact Lorraine Kapp on 01452 522600 or email
