This week we have together with Plunkett Foundation (Plunkett Foundation) facilitated two meetings for the Community Shop Network in Devon. The two network meetings took place in Burrington, North Devon and Payhembury, East Devon and in total there were 29 attendees representing 14 community shops.
During the meeting the representatives networked with each other and as a group we discussed how to recruit and retain volunteers, non-food items including cards, calenders, local art and local maps or jigsaw of the area as well as how they would like future meetings to look like. Each shop were sharing how they go about running their community shop, sharing best practice and challenges. Many got new ideas which they will incorporate, after the meeting many attendees visited the hosting shop.
This phase of the project has been funded by Devon Community Foundation (Devon Community Foundation Homepage (devoncf.com).
Quotes from the day;
- “Really enjoy these meetings”
- “They have been great meetings and it is really good to meet up and talk things over and share with others.”
These network meetings were a recommendation from a previous Contain Outbreak Management Fund (COMF) project, the final report can be found via the link below: