Village Halls Week 18-24 March 2024

Village Halls Week is a national campaign, shining a spotlight on the contribution England’s 10,000+ village halls make to rural communities. It is an opportunity for hall management committees to celebrate their work and get inspiration from others.

The theme of Village Halls Week 2024 will be environmental sustainability. This is in response to concerns about rising energy costs and the need to make community buildings more energy efficient. And it’s hoped the Week will help to encourage initiatives that contribute to Net Zero in local communities.

Community Action IW are encouraging village hall and reading room committees across the Island to plan an event during Village Halls Week (18^th-24^th March 2024) to help raise your profile, show how important village halls are to the local people, engage with the wider community and perhaps recruit new volunteers. We can support you by promoting your events and sharing volunteer opportunities through the IW Volunteer Centre.

A Celebration of Village Life & Future Sustainability

We are also working with the National Trust to put on an event at the end of the week, Saturday 23^rd March, at Mottistone Manor (11am-3pm). This will be a free event, celebrating village life and the contributions of the Village Hall.

You are invited to create a 3 part display board showing:

1. Past –  the origins of your hall and past heritage
2. Present  – what happens there now, who is involved with contact details
3. Future – plans for the future, engaging the next generation, sustainability

Other elements ofthe day are:

• Talks about sustainability
• Promoting Volunteering
• Community Engagement
• Networking between Village Halls

At the moment these are simply our ideas and we welcome your thoughts and contributions.

Why not plan an event in your village too – hold a coffee morning, afternoon tea or soup & roll lunch to fundraise for your Village Hall, showcase all the events and activities in the Hall and explain how trustees are working to make their Hall more energy efficient.
This does not have to be a specially organised event – maybe a coffee morning happens every week in the hall and VHW could be part of that with an opportunity for new people to drop in and see what’s happening. Open days don’t have to be complicated – they could simply be an opportunity for people to pop by for cake, coffee and a chat whilst keeping warm! 

Ask the people coming to give you feedback about how the hall serves the community and if there are other activities they would benefit from? 

The national campaign will share inspiring stories online and encourage halls to host open days during the week.

We would love to hear what you are planning during the week, so that CAIW can help to support and promote activities across the Island. lt would also be great if you could help to highlight the campaign by sharing your activities on your own social media accounts using the hashtag #VillageHallsWeek

Please do let us know if your village would like to take part. If you would like to arrange for someone from CAIW to call or visit your village hall to discuss further, please contact: sciccognani@actioniw.org.uk