Thursday at the Marlene Reid Centre in Coalville

Today I spent time seeing first hand the what the voluntary sector are doing to help support the lives of some of our most vulnerable local residents and those who need support be it short term to get back on their feet or for the long term.

Mr David Ahlquist the chief executive of North West Leicestershire Council for Voluntary Services (CVS) gave me a tour of the facility and I got a chance to meet some of the people who work in the groups providing the community support, I also got an opportunity to find out a little about the projects they are delivering. These included Community transport, , Play schemes, The play bus, Carers support, NWLCVS toy library also Money and Welfare benefits advice and attracting volunteers and brokering volunteering opportunities in our area.

Several of the team leaders remarked at the increase in demand for the services provided by their group as the economic situation has deteriorated. I was very impressed by the knowledge, motivation and the can do attitude of all the leaders and volunteers.

The picture shows me with some volunteers at the React project which provides new and re-used furniture at an affordable price to those in need. It also works with the woodwork project providing training for people with learning difficulties, assembling flat pack furniture and repairing donated items. the other spin off benefit is that because of the 10 000 items of furniture collected and delivered to households approximately 250 tonnes was diverted from landfill. A real win- win scenario.