June 19, 2026

As I come to the end of my time as Development Officer for the GDF South Copeland Project, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on what we’ve achieved together over the past three years, the challenges that remain for our voluntary sector, and to introduce the person who will be carrying this work forward.

 

What We Set Out to Do

When the Project began on 1st July 2023, the brief was simple to state and harder to deliver: support the voluntary and community sector across South Copeland, an area stretching from Millom in the south, up through Drigg, and across to Eskdale Green. That support has covered everything from funding and business planning to governance, volunteer recruitment, and the day-to-day issues that every voluntary organisation runs into sooner or later.

Three years on, the numbers speak for themselves. Against a target of £100,000 in incremental revenue for local VCSEs, we helped secure over £1.27 million. Against a target of supporting 40 organisations, we supported 73. We delivered more than 2,400 hours of expert business advice, ran 18 training and networking events against a target of 8, and supported 55 organisations with governance and 36 with volunteer recruitment.

But the figures only tell part of the story.

 

What the Figures Don’t Show

Behind those numbers are real changes in real places. Six village halls and a church now have state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment, opening their doors to live events, training, conferences, and film screenings for their communities. The playground at Slag Bank in Millom has a new surface that isn’t just safer for every child who plays there, but has, for the first time, made the space properly accessible to children with sensory needs. The Millom Palladium has secured funding for a brand new roof — a £280,000 investment that protects the building and paves the way for its interior to be restored. The Millom Folk Museum now has a dedicated Outreach Coordinator building relationships with local schools. A new footpath links Holmrook to St Paul’s Church in Irton and on to Irton Hall, built to be accessible to wheelchairs and prams alike. And BEAT Route, a new initiative to develop active travel across South Copeland, has just got under way.

Each of these started as a conversation with a local group who had an idea and needed help turning it into a fundable, deliverable project.

 

The Harder Truths

It would be wrong to end on the easy wins without being honest about what’s still difficult.

South Copeland remains a remote and rural area, and that geography makes everything harder: getting to meetings, bringing organisations together, accessing facilities that are simply further away than they would be elsewhere. The funding landscape has become tougher over these three years, volunteers are harder to find and increasingly older on average, and many trustees still don’t have a clear sense of what their role actually involves. Too many groups still don’t have a business plan or strategy document, which quietly shuts them out of larger funding opportunities before they’ve even applied. And too often, organisations doing similar work in the same area aren’t talking to each other at all.

If there’s one lesson from these three years, it’s that collaboration has to stop being optional. With funding becoming scarcer, the question every group should be asking before starting something new is whether someone else nearby is already doing it — and whether working together would get further than working alone. Alongside that, governance and trustee training, looking after the volunteers we do have, and building a genuine plan for what happens if grant funding dries up all need to become standard practice, not afterthoughts.

 

The Work Continues

I’m genuinely pleased to say this isn’t where the story ends. NWS has recognised that this work cannot simply stop, and Cumbria CVS has submitted a further three-year grant application to continue it.

I’m delighted to introduce Kat Hercberg, who will be taking over this role from 1st July. Kat is currently being inducted into the position and will be working from my office on Tuesdays and Thursdays, picking up the relationships and the work we’ve built together over the past three years and carrying it forward into the next chapter. She can be reached at kat.hercberg@cumbriacvs.org.uk

 

A Personal Note

It has been a genuine privilege to do this work. Coming to the end of nearly fifty years in hospitality and community work, this Project has been a fitting way to close that chapter — getting to know so many dedicated people across South Copeland who give their time, often quietly and without recognition, to make their communities better. I’ve learned as much from the trustees, volunteers, and committee members I’ve worked alongside as I hope they’ve gained from the support on offer.

To everyone who let me into their village hall, their committee meeting, or their funding application process over the past three years: thank you. There has been times of laughter and there has been times of blood, sweat and tears. It’s been an amazing experience and thank you for welcoming an off-comer, like me, into your community. And to Kat — welcome. South Copeland’s voluntary sector is in good hands.

 

Beresford Moyle Rosser
Development Officer, GDF South Copeland Project
June 2026