VSNW were pleased to hold our Festival of North West Thinking 2020 over four weeks from 23rd October through to 12th November. The theme of this year’s festival was Covid-19 recovery.

Last March the world as we knew it changed dramatically. Since then, the sector has been working harder than ever – adapting to new ways of working to continue delivering essential services and support to communities across the North West. Over these past six months, the conversations VSNW have been working to support and facilitate across the region have increasingly shifted from co-ordinating the sector’s immediate emergency response to Covid-19 to looking forward to how we rebuild, and what we want this new world to look like.

The Festival of North West Thinking was VSNW’s attempt to bring together the different threads of Covid-19 recovery conversation taking place across the region. It was an opportunity for us to listen to and learn from one another, to identify and analyse the salient issues we’re collectively facing; and to strategise around how the sector can capitalise on the opportunity to rebuild a more equitable, socially just society.

The Festival was comprised of four online events. For more information please click on the event title:

Covid-19 Recovery: VCSE Leadership Voices Assembly with a focus on Inequalities
(Friday 23rd October – 10am-12pm)
Video

Covid-19 Recovery: The VCSE Infrastructure Perspective
(Wednesday 28th October – 2pm-3:30pm)
Video

Beyond 2020: The Role of the VCSE Sector (including VSNW’s AGM)
(Thursday 12th November – 2pm-4:30pm)
Event Summary
Video

No Going Back: In Conversation with the North West’s Metro Mayors
(Wednesday 9th December - 4:15pm-5:15pm)
Video

Thank you to everyone who took part and attended these events. We will be presenting our next steps and further events early in the new year.

VSNW is the regional VCSE sector network for the North West of England. We work to ensure the sector, in all its diversity, takes its full part in shaping the future of the North West. VSNW is a membership organisation; we connect to the sector through infrastructure organisations, equalities networks and regional and national providers. If your organisation fits this description, we’d like to invite you to join us as a member of VSNW. Membership is free and joining us will ensure we’re able to keep you linked into the strategic conversations we help facilitate across the region. To find out more and apply for membership, please take a look at the membership page on our website.