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There are thousands of ways to help communities grow and prosper, whether through simple acts of generosity such as a donation or by sharing some of your time and skills as a volunteer.

Taking part in the community pledge can bring great rewards, whether you run a business or have some spare time to give, together we can all support each other to make a big difference to our communities.

Take Part – Take the Community Pledge

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”

Arthur Ashe, tennis player and community activist.

The community pledge is a new campaign with two aims to celebrate what we are already doing to make a difference within our local communities, but also to encourage people and organisations to ‘do what you can’ and commit to doing a little bit more.

If we all commit to doing a little bit extra, and the impact will truly be life changing for our communities. Community Pledge is a campaign of

6 Ways to Pledge to do a little more

  1. Pledge to continue to give or do a little bit more to the local charity of your choice.
    If you are already supporting a local charity, community group, sports club, etc. please continue, but let us know what you are doing so that we can acknowledge and celebrate your contribution to the local community.
  2. Pledge to raise funds for Blackburn Community Foundation.
    Blackburn Community Foundation is a new charity dedicated to raising funds to support local charities, community groups and good causes within Blackburn. 100% of your money will be distributed as grants to deliver charitable activity within Blackburn. It is designed as an easy way to give to the local community. If 1,000 Blackburn individuals or organisations pledge to give £100 each – we will have £100,000 to make a massive difference to our communities.
  3. Pledge to raise funds for Darwen Community Foundation.
    Darwen Community Foundation is a new charity dedicated to raising funds to support local charities, community groups and good causes within Darwen and its surrounding villages. 100% of your money will be spent in delivering charitable activity within Darwen. It is designed as an easy way to give to the local community. If 100 organisations pledge to give £500 – we will have £50,000.
    If everyone gives a small amount each year (something that you will not miss) we can make a massive difference, but equally importantly we will build our communal sense of belonging that we are all supporting each other to help our local community.
  4. Pledge to offer your time as a volunteer by signing up to our Volunteer Bank.
    The Volunteer Bank is a virtual place where you can pledge to deposit or give a proportion of your spare time to volunteer and help others. Charities, community groups and good causes will be able to call on your time (at your discretion). You will always have the right to say no – but it is a way of making connections and encouraging people and organisations to support each other.
  5. Pledge to do something within Volunteers Week or sponsor the Volunteer Awards Ceremony.
    Volunteers Week’ is a national celebration that occurs in the first week of June every year. We want to celebrate volunteering. If you can arrange a volunteering offer for the week that would be great. If you could be a sponsor for the volunteer awards ceremony (minimum £500) that would be fantastic.
  6. Pledge to volunteer with an existing local charity or community group of your choice.

If you already volunteer with a group or know who you want to volunteer with, pledge how many hours you will give to that group over the next year and let us know. We want to acknowledge and celebrate all the volunteering within Blackburn with Darwen.

There are approximately 115,000 adults living in the Borough and 66,000 people working in the Borough. If we each pledged to volunteer one hour each month we would have over 2 million volunteer hours to help our local communities.

Contact: for more information please e-mail :- communitypledge@communitycvs.org.uk or talk to any Community CVS staff member or volunteer on 01254 583957 otherwise someone from the team will be in touch with regards to your pledge.