Our Annual Conference for the Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise Sector.
Communities 1st hosted our annual conference for the local VCFSE sector on Tuesday 16 July in the spectacular setting of St Peter’s Church in the heart of St Albans.
It was wonderful to welcome over 130 delegates representing more than fifty voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise organisations as well as our public and statutory sector partners, providing opportunities for networking and forging new partnerships.
Twelve of our member organisations had stalls in the marketplace to promote their services, sharing valuable information with attendees. The workshop programme included six engaging sessions on cybersecurity, funding opportunities, environmental sustainability, building diverse income streams and more. The event concluded with a thought-provoking keynote speech on engaging young volunteers from Emma-Jane Hampsheir-Gill, National Youth Participation Lead from St John Ambulance.
Click here to view the day's programme in a new tab.
In the drop-down section below, you will find detailed information about the talks and workshops delivered at the conference. Scroll down further to read the biographies of each of our speakers.

Keynote Address
Our keynote address was delivered by Emma-Jane Hampsheir-Gill. She's the National Youth Participation Lead (volunteer) for St John Ambulance and a trustee for Oxfordshire Youth.
The address was on the Approaches to Engage Youth Volunteers.

Talks and Workshops
Explore the talks and workshops from this year’s edition, covering the following topics:
- Building Diverse Income Streams
- Communities 1st Conference and AGM
- Chief Executive's Introduction
- Environmental Sustainability and the Role of the Voluntary Sector
- Funding Challenges and Opportunities in 2024 and Beyond
- How Local Businesses Can Help You
- Keeping Your Charity Safe
- The Relationship between the CEO and the Chair
Speakers
Emma-Jane Hampsheir-Gill, St John Ambulance

Emma-Jane delivered the keynote speech on the topic of Approaches to Engage Youth Volunteers.
Emma-Jane is the National Youth Participation Lead (volunteer) for St John Ambulance and a trustee for Oxfordshire Youth. She works with Participation People designing and delivering a range of youth participation initiatives with young people for charities, local authorities, brands, and education providers. She is a trained facilitator working within the Lundy model of practice.
Passionate about youth social action, and a strong advocate for the importance of volunteering, Emma-Jane is a self-proclaimed 'serial volunteer'. She has been an Assistant Leader with Girlguiding, an #iWill Alum, and National First Aid Advocate and Regional Youth Development Officer with St John Ambulance. Emma-Jane attended our AGM and conference in 2023 and hosted a brilliant workshop on Engaging Young Volunteers.
Alix Bedford, Zurich Municipal

Alix hosted the Environmental Sustainability and the Role of the Voluntary Sector workshop.
An enterprise risk professional with 20 years’ experience working both with and within the public and private sectors, Alix is passionate about the value of risk management as an enabler and in driving improved resilience of organisations and communities. Her current role involves looking at key emerging and evolving areas of risk now and in the future and leading Zurich’s response to these, particularly through thought leadership and insight. Alix is also a Sustainability lead at Zurich, both internally and externally, with a focus on environmental and social risk areas.
Alix has experience in a variety of fields including strategy and policy development, corporate planning, performance management, programme and project management and business resilience. Starting her career as a Strategic Risk Consultant, Alix then spent 7 years as a lead officer at a unitary local authority before returning to Zurich to manage the Public Services segment.
Ben Jowitt, CAF Bank

Ben hosted the Building Diverse Income Streams workshop.
Ben has been providing support to a wide range of charities and not-for-profit organisations with CAF Bank (Charities Aid Foundation) since 2015. He has over 10 years’ experience working exclusively with charities, and previously worked in retail and commercial banking for 25 years. Before joining CAF Bank, he worked for a firm that designed and implemented the application and monitoring processes for grant-making organisations.
Ben has helped clients do more with their funds – by maximising the return they receive on cash surpluses and increasing income by looking at different methods of fundraising. He loves the steps involved with this; the process of meeting such a wide variety of people, all highly-motivated to do the very best for their charity.
Frances Warwick, Lloyds Bank Foundation

Frances hosted the Funding Opportunities and Challenges 2024 and Beyond workshop.
Frances is Regional Manager at Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales. She supports funding and development relationships with small and local charities across London and the East of England. An experienced grant maker, Frances has been helping charities build their resilience through access to funding and tailored capacity building support for over a decade. She passionately believes that a thriving third sector is key to delivering a more just and compassionate society.
Joel Hogan, Charity Digital

Joel hosted the Keeping Your Charity Safe Online workshop.
Joel Hogan is the Customer Success Manager for Charity Digital and has been delivering impact to the UK and global nonprofit sector in a variety of ways for 7 years. Managing many of the product programmes via Charity Digital such as Cloud implementation and Cyber Security Solutions, Joel also provides consultations on services available via Charity Digital to UK charities.
Joel also regularly presents webinars and Q&As on various topics, such as ‘Moving to the Cloud with Microsoft’, ‘Best Free Tech for Charities’ and most recently ‘How Charities Can Use Meta Quest to Improve Their Services’. Joel's legacy knowledge of Charity Digital provides support to the Customer Success team from frontline support to strategic perspectives.
Rob Varney, Communities 1st

Rob hosted the How Local Businesses Can Help You workshop.
Rob leads is Assistant Manager for Community Engagement and Enterprise Development, and leads on Communities 1st’s Better Business programme. Better Business creates and encourages partnerships between local businesses and the voluntary sector. This takes several forms including skill-share, employer-supported volunteering, Communities 1st’s Inspire Education programme, partnership opportunities, and projects. Rob also oversees the delivery of our Community Engagement at the Communities 1st Better Day hubs across Hertsmere, St Albans & District, Broxbourne Borough, and East Herts. Rob represents Communities 1st externally on the Abbey Line and New River Line Community Rail Partnerships and the local Employment and Skills Partnerships.
Sue Pearlman, Hertfordshire Community Foundation

Sue hosted the Relationship Between CEO and Chair workshop, with contributions from John Archer and Gary Bell.
Sue has worked in the charity sector for over 30 years. She is a former charity CEO and since 2004, has been a consultant to charities, advising boards of trustees and senior management of charities of all sizes. She is passionate about good governance and understands the challenges for both trustees and their staff. She mentors charity CEOs and is also a trustee of a new charity, Wellspring. She is an associate with the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, the Lloyds Bank Foundation and Hertfordshire Community Foundation where she is the Lead Trainer on Governance. She was formerly a Chair of the predecessor of Communities 1st, Community Action Hertsmere, and is delighted to be part of Communities 1st. She relaxes by singing in a choir, watching ballet, and being with her grandchildren in the UK and Spain.
About Hertfordshire Community Foundation Communities 1st Board of Trustees
John Archer, Headway Hertfordshire

John contributed to Sue Pearlman's Relationship Between CEO and Chair workshop.
John is an experienced charity leader who has been our CEO since November 2016. Before joining the charity world, John had a long career in business acquisition and automotive technology. John is passionate about helping people affected by a brain injury – both those recovering and their carers.
Gary Bell, Headway Hertfordshire

Gary contributed to Sue Pearlman's Relationship Between CEO and Chair workshop.
Gary is one of Headway Hertfordshire's trustees and has worked in and around the public sector for his entire career. He has focused on improving outcomes for people in housing, health and social care settings along with major projects at a national level. Having worked for registered charities and alongside the voluntary sector, he appreciates the unique challenges we face and the vital services we offer our clients.