About Us

Douglas Valley Community is an independent Charity registered with the Charity Commission as a Company Limited by Guarantee and has been established since 1994. It has the formal ability and responsibility to undertake general charitable activities in the Wigan Borough and strongly believes in the principle of self-help and local action for local problems.

Douglas Valley Community is focused on identifying, mobilising and strengthening ‘community assets’ – seeking out skills and knowledge in the community and working collaboratively to explore how these can be maximised for the benefit of our communities.

Douglas Valley Community works with a wide range of partners and stakeholders from the public, private and voluntary sectors and through these partnerships we are able to provide a wide range of services that enable community organisations to have the support and capacity to effectively govern, and manage their community buildings.

The core work of Douglas Valley Community can be themed around 4 key priorities

Community Centre Management

Douglas Valley Community, currently has a portfolio of eight community resource centres across the borough of Wigan. Three of our centres are directly managed by Douglas Valley Community. By providing professional day to day direct centre management, Douglas Valley Community ensures our community, customers and user groups of these centres receive an excellent experience and have access to a wide range of activities and services that continue to meet the needs of local people.

Our Centres

Supporting Social Enterprise

Douglas Valley Community links with Wigan Development Company to provide support for small scale social enterprise development. We work together primarily to promote community centres for office space or ‘hot desking’ for individuals or small businesses to help them grow and develop.

Community Asset Transfer

Douglas Valley Community works in partnership with Wigan Council as part of ‘Progress with Unity’ to provide independent support to organisations who wish to apply for an asset through Wigan Councils’ Community Asset Transfer process. Providing professional expertise and advice to organisations applying for assets.

Find out more

Capacity Building

Douglas Valley Community offers 2 strands of capacity building support to organisations.

Pre-capacity Building Support – this strand will suit small groups that have limited resources and new groups starting up. The focus will likely be on establishing governance structures and processes, setting up the appropriate legal structures.
Core Capacity Building Support – this strand will suit most voluntary organisations that are keen to build on their strengths and improve their capacity by strengthening existing structures and processes. The focus will likely be on closing any capacity gaps in the key areas of organisational development and helping organisations develop appropriate strategies for growth and sustainability.

Douglas Valley Community has developed a Diagnostic Toolkit to assess the level of support organisations may need to build their structures, systems, people and skills to help them achieve their objectives. The Diagnostic focuses around key areas of organisational capacity:

Constitution and Legal Structure
Governance Structure and Processes
Business and Action Planning
Funding
Marketing and Communication
Partnership and Networking

The Board of Trustees

Chair – Councillor Fred Walker

Vice Chair – Councillor Janice Sharratt

Treasurer – Mr Martin Honor

Council Representatives

Councillor Chris Ready

Councillor Lawrence Hunt

Councillor Mary Callaghan

Community Representatives

David Rainford

Jim Moodie