networks and partnerships

Centre for Warmth funding and how it’s helped C3 Impact (The C3 Church)

September 22, 2025 by Lorna Gough

Support Cambridgeshire received a grant in 2024, administered by NAVCA and funded by Cadent under their Centres for Warmth Programme.

The Centre for Warmth Programme aims to support people who are living in vulnerable situations by keeping them warm, safe, and connected. The project is based on identifying and partnering with local charities in areas of high deprivation, fuel poverty, and risk of carbon monoxide poisoning, who are located close to areas where Cadent are carrying out mains replacement work.

Through this programme Support Cambridgeshire have been able to give small grants to community initiatives in Cambridge, Huntingdon and Wisbech.

This is the story of C3 Impact (The C3 Church), Cambridge, highlighting their important work and the difference this grant has made.

Who is C3?

C3 is a vital lifeline for many local residents—it’s grown into a place where practical support, kindness, and community go hand in hand. Over the past few years, its C3 Impact Programme has developed into a deeply trusted and much-needed service. The Programme, the social action arm of the C3 Church, offers help with everything from food insecurity to language learning, mental wellbeing, and support with everyday struggles.

What makes C3’s work so distinctive is the holistic way it supports people—not just in crisis moments, but by walking alongside them over a period of time. The church has become a warm, welcoming space where people can find food or advice, and also dignity, encouragement, and human connection.

How has the Centre for Warmth Programme supported and broadened the work of C3

In recent months, additional funding through the Cadent and NAVCA Warm Centre Grant has made a profound difference. Thanks to this support, C3 has been able to extend and strengthen many of its services. Crucially, the funding allowed the church to restart its Citizens Advice signposting service, helping residents access benefits, advice and personalised support at the moment they need it most. At a time when navigating the benefits system or finding accurate information about energy bills and debt can feel overwhelming, this one-to-one help is invaluable.

The grant has also enabled the church to continue running its free weekly community hubs, including Wednesday’s Impact Hub, Food Truck Fridays, and the new Evening Community Space. These aren’t just drop-ins—they are safe havens. On any given day, guests might arrive cold, hungry, isolated, or worried. But they leave having had a hot meal, a warm conversation, and a genuine sense of being cared for. Many say it’s the only place they truly feel seen.

The warm space element of C3’s offer is more than just physical comfort. It’s about emotional safety too. With energy costs still high and social isolation on the rise, having a welcoming space where people can simply sit, chat, and feel part of a community is now more vital than ever. The Warm Centre funding ensures these spaces can remain open and resourced—not only in the coldest months, but throughout the year.

C3 also offers a wide range of volunteering opportunities, where people can clearly see the positive impact they have on others’ lives and the wider community, while also building their own skills and confidence.

A quote from The Centre C3 Impact Team:

Maps Murmurations Project: Where Generations Meet

September 18, 2025 by Lorna Gough

Since last autumn, CCVS Volunteering for All has been working in partnership with Cambridge City Council and a range of community organisations to deliver a creative, intergenerational project that celebrates connection, place, and wellbeing. Partners have included InCommon, Find Your Wild, Active Life Team at CCC, Museum of Cambridge, Cambridge Room, Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination, and others interested in the project.

The project was developed in response to growing awareness that people of all ages—older adults, young people, and everyone in between—can face barriers to getting outside and engaging with their community. Frailty, social anxiety, lack of confidence, or simply the absence of nearby friends or family can prevent full participation in everyday life. This initiative shifts the focus from vulnerabilities to strengths, experience, and local knowledge, creating opportunities for connection, activity, and shared learning.

Creating Connections Across Generations

The project brings together people from different generations to explore what Cambridge means to them. Through collaborative activities, participants share stories, experiences, and perspectives—building new memories and enhancing both physical and psychological wellbeing.

Young people from local schools volunteered and participated alongside older residents from council-supported housing schemes. Activities included creative sessions, group discussions, and supported local walks across various city wards. The outcomes—artworks, stories, and reflections—contribute to community-created maps showcasing Cambridge through the eyes of its residents, young and old.

GET group – what does the future look like?

July 8, 2025 by Lorna Gough

CCVS, and now Support Cambridgeshire, took over the GET group when the original charity closed. We want to see the network continue but also want to ensure it is meeting the needs of the sector and our partners. As such we are doing a bit of work on how things could work moving forward. This article sets out some of our initial thoughts and we will be asking all those signed up to the GET group for their views.

Where we are now

We continue to run the network but have moved meetings to quarterly online, this replaces the in person meetings of the past. Part of the rational for this is that the meetings were Cambridge centric and the GET Group is a county wide network. Online allows people from everywhere to attend, it saves people time but it does not support the same level of networking and updating from groups.

We have closed both the GET website and the Facebook page as both were unused, there is a GET holding page on the CCVS website.

We have set up a google form that allows groups to share what they are doing. This has been used by a small core of organisations and we have seen a drop off in people adding to it.

We have started an email newsletter that goes out after each meeting and we can also send alerts about time limited issues like funding and consultations.

We ran an online conference that shared a number of events over a week that were skills/employment related.

We have not continued with the adult learner celebration event.

Moving forward

We want your views on what will work for you around the learning and skills agenda.

We want to continue the networking meetings, but should these still be quarterly and should they be online or in person? We also want to know if the content works for you and how you think the networking could be improved without everyone wanting to share at every meeting.

We’re considering how a resource section on the new Support Cambridgeshire website could give us somewhere to store important documents and things that may be of use to you.

We want to run some sort of annual event, this could be an in-person conference or a celebration event. It could also be a more hybrid series of events and could be linked to ‘learning at work week’ or ‘lifelong learning week’.

We want to do more to demonstrate the impact the VCS has around skills, employment and guidance. This could include a celebration event but could also include sharing learner stories and impact reports. This could resemble the volunteer stories we share on the Volunteer Cambs website.

We want to look at how we develop formal partnerships or consortia that would allow the sector to bid for bigger pieces of work that would not be possible for individual organisations to deliver. A fantastic local example of what can be achieved is Fullscope.

There is more we can do around a number of other areas.

Digital badges and how we can promote these to learners and to employers
Apprenticeships in the voluntary sector
Internships in the voluntary sector
Work experience in the voluntary sector

Conclusions

The VCS is a bit of a sleeping giant when it comes to guidance, employment and training. Many organisations are working to equip individuals to build the skills and confidence they need to find work or take part in learning. We know the importance that volunteering can play in this process. We have the trusted relationships with individuals and communities that others lack.

There are opportunities available now and there will be more in the future that we need to be in a position to grasp.

The question is how can Support Cambridgeshire and the GET Group facilitate this – over to you to help us.

What’s in a name?

My final question is does GET group mean anything to people?

Should we become something more like the ‘Cambs employment and skills network’ – again over to you.

Please complete the survey below – just a few quick questions so that we can ensure that we, as the GET Group and Support Cambridgeshire, are providing the support that you need and want.

Thank you.

If you have any queries or comments, please email: enquiries@cambridgecvs.org.uk