East Devon's voluntary and community organisations have played a huge part in supporting people through the Covid pandemic, and now they're being asked how the district council can best support them.

The council has drawn up a discussion document and is inviting feedback on it from all voluntary and community groups, and social enterprises, in the area.

The council would like the views of:

• a wide variety of organisations involved with wellbeing, health, sports, social isolation, community transport, children and young people, older people, heritage, arts and culture.

• rural groups and town based groups.

Why is this being done?

East Devon is the only part of the county that doesn't have a Council for Voluntary Service, providing support, guidance, networking opportunities and training.

During the first wave of the pandemic, where community organisations were so crucial, the lack of this provision locally caused a few problems.

A temporary support arrangement was commissioned by Devon County Council to provide basic guidance and advice, but this was limited and this contract has now ended.

Cllr Megan Armstrong, East Devon District Council Portfolio Holder for Sustainable Homes and Communities, said: "We witnessed an impressive and overwhelmingly positive effort by voluntary, community and social enterprise groups during the pandemic, which clearly demonstrated the value of their work in communities.

"We recognise that community groups of all shapes and sizes would benefit from support allowing them to focus on what they do best, by helping them in ways that they would find useful. We would like to work with the groups to develop a proposal for provision of this support, then further consider the funding options to pay for it once we know what is needed."

How to have your say

Organisations are invited to fill in a questionnaire before 5pm on Monday 16 August 2021. The questionnaire can be found here.

Anyone who would like a copy of the consultation on paper, on paper in large print, or in any other format, can email: [email protected] or call 01395 517569.