About North Herts Council For Voluntary Service

North Herts CVS was established in 1985 and has grown significantly since then.  We became a company limited by guarantee on 11 March 2003 and a registered charity on 3 June 2003.  We have a board of directors composed of representatives from our member groups, plus a number of District Council nominees. We currently have around 150 local groups affiliated to us and we are in contact with many more. Our core task is to support and encourage voluntary and community activity within the North Herts District Council area, thus we assist new groups to get started, help groups going through difficult times, offer training and advice and encourage partnership working. Our oldest minute book dates from 24 November 1949 when a special meeting was held at the Howard Cottage office in Letchworth to formally close down the 42 year old Letchworth Guild of Help (founded in 1907) and beginning of the Letchworth Council of Social Service.

This CVS forerunner was born on 28 March 1950 at a meeting held in the Brotherhood Hall, Letchworth - 45 persons being present and Miss K M Kaye being elected first Chair and a certain Mr E G Gardiner being our first President (well before the Day Hospital was named after him).

For the first eight years the minutes were written in the copper plate handwriting with titles of topics underlined in red ink! ; Then in July 1957 technology arrived and from then on minutes were typed and then stuck into the minute book. By 1995 we were operating out of premises in Bedford Road, Hitchin and the Free Church Hall in Gernon Road, Letchworth.

Since then we have moved three times plus acquired the lease on a building on the Works Road Industrial Estate to run an ever expanding furniture reuse and recycling project.  We also run a variety of projects such as a rural social enterprise project and manage budgets for a number of small organisations.  We are now based in the town centre and enjoy the numerous visitors to our flourishing organisation.