For its Centenary year, Cambridgeshire ACRE has a full programme of celebratory events planned. An overview of these is given below.

Centenary Rural Services Survey
We will kick off the next 100 years with the launch of our Centenary Rural Services Survey that will give an up-to-date picture of what living in a rural community looks like in 2024. The results will be revealed at Rural Conferences later in the year, with topics such as rural services, health and social care, transport, environment and affordable housing being top on the agenda.

Village Halls Week (18-24 March)
This annual national campaign aims to raise awareness of the important role that England’s 10,000+ rural community buildings play at the heart of rural communities. We will focus on celebrating 100 years of village halls in Cambridgeshire. We will seek to raise the profile of these important community assets amongst policy makers and funders by providing press articles, radio interviews and social media content throughout week-long campaign. For those volunteers running village halls, there will be an event to bring them together to share ideas, learning and advice.

100 Years Exhibition
A mobile exhibition showing the history of the Rural Community Council’s work and community action through the decades will be a particular highlight of this year’s celebration. The exhibition will travel the County, being available to book by communities for display at community events, community hubs, village halls, libraries and museums.

Staying Connected Online Seminars
Our popular Staying Connected online seminars will celebrate by invite guest speakers to spotlight the challenges ahead for our rural communities such as health and wellbeing, housing, landscape changes, carbon zero and technology. These seminars will bring together learning around best practice, case studies, latest research findings and new innovations.

Rural Housing Week (1 – 5 July)
Rural Housing Week is an annual campaign to highlight the fantastic work housing associations do in rural communities. We will be showcasing the work undertaken through the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Rural Housing Partnership to build community-led rural affordable housing through online seminars, blogs and case studies.

Rural Conferences: The next decade: What next for rural communities?
Working in collaboration with local authorities and other partners, we will organise a rural conference in each district locality. Looking to the future, the Rural Services Survey results will be revealed and the voice of rural communities heard. This will enable us to deepen our work with statutory agencies, the community & voluntary sector, town & parish councils and village hall committees to identify rural concerns and make plans for the solutions and funding support needed for the years ahead.