The 'Village Hall Challenge'

Rural village halls or community centres have, historically, been a key ingredient of the glue which holds communities together. It's a role they have struggled to maintain though as rural populations have aged and younger people have acquired the mobility to head for the brightest lights. For the MySpace generation the idea of community is increasingly a virtual, online one.

A recent Charity Commission report notes, unsurprisingly perhaps, that many village halls and community centres are struggling to respond to these changes and community cohesion inevitably suffers. If they are not to decay terminally radical solutions need to be explored.

The Village Hall Challenge is designed to begin this process by firing peoples' imaginations to see their community spaces in a new light and create opportunities to explore the full range of ways in which they could operate to meet the needs of their communities and secure their long-term futures.

Communities are invited to stage events which will challenge preconceived ideas about what a village hall is and what it can be and to engage the wider community in finding innovative approaches to revitalising them.