Connecting, Empowering, and Celebrating Our Community Organisations
The RBWM Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) Partnership brings together charities, community groups and organisations from across the borough to share ideas, strengthen connections, and grow together. Our mission is simple:
Support and empower VCS organisations
Create meaningful collaboration
Provide a space to learn, connect and inspire
Grow our collective impact for residents
We host in-person forums each year, open to all VCS organisations and focused on topics relevant to the voluntary sector. These free sessions provide information and resources to help strengthen organisational capacity, enabling groups to better support their members and local residents. We also deliver special events throughout the year, including a Volunteer Fair and our annual Awards ceremony.
2026 Dates
- Volunteers Fair 2nd June (Details TBC)
- VCS Forum: 1st October (Details TBC)
- VCS Partnership Awards: 3rd December (Details TBC)
VCS Partnership Steering Group
The VCS Partnership is led by the following organisations who each bring their own expertise to the group.
1. WAM Get Involved (Windsor, Ascot & Maidenhead)
WAM Get Involved was set up in 2014, to promote greater community involvement across the Royal Borough. The team works across Windsor, Ascot and Maidenhead to build capacity within the Voluntary Sector, providing a monthly e-newsletter with local and national information, a funding website, updated weekly, governance support, a volunteering platform and training, which includes the Volunteer Passport.
2. RBWM Communities Team
The RBWM Communities Team works across the borough to empower residents, strengthen local networks, and support a thriving voluntary and community sector. As part of the VCS Partnership Steering Group, the team brings partners together, helps coordinate shared priorities, and ensures that community voices shape local decision‑making.
3. Windsor & Maidenhead Interfaith Forum
The Windsor & Maidenhead Interfaith Forum contributes to strengthening community cohesion across the borough, promoting dialogue, understanding, and shared action between local faith communities. Through its involvement in the VCS Partnership Steering Group, the Forum supports collaborative work that brings diverse voices into conversations about local priorities and community wellbeing.
4. Berkshire Community Foundation
Berkshire Community Foundation plays a key role in strengthening the voluntary and community sector across the borough by supporting local groups with funding, capacity building, and insight into community needs. Through its contribution to the VCS Partnership, BCF helps ensure that organisations have access to clear guidance on funding opportunities, effective grant applications, and emerging priorities within the local funding landscape.
5. Adult Learning, Windsor, Maidenhead & Slough
Adult Learning across Slough, Windsor and Maidenhead plays a key role in supporting residents to build skills, confidence, and pathways into further learning or employment. The service designs and delivers a wide range of community‑focused courses, including English, ESOL, Maths, and Health and Wellbeing, ensuring that learning opportunities reflect local needs and promote inclusion.
6. I Love Windsor Community
I Love Windsor CIC’s main function is to help community groups get noticed. So many individuals are great at what they do for the community but are not so great at marketing themselves. I love Windsor created two directories, one for Windsor and one for Maidenhead, that give community groups and charities the ability to say in 150 words and a couple of pictures, what they do for others.
Highlights from 2025
VCS Partnership Awards
The VCS Partnership Awards celebrate the exceptional contribution of local volunteers and community organisations across Windsor and Maidenhead.
2025 winners and highly commended nominees were:
Volunteer of the Year
- Winner: Kirsty Northam
- Highly Commended: Jeremy Crame, Alma Beacon
- Highly Commended: Simon Allen, TVPS
Young Volunteer of the Year
- Winner: Leon Fernandez‑Lemplaine, Busy Buttons CORE Charity – Windsor
- Highly Commended: Alexander Wood, Achieving for Children
Group of the Year
- Winner: ABC to read (Assisting Berkshire Children to Read)
- Highly Commended: The Baby Bank
- Highly Commended: Number 22 Community Counselling Services
View the VCS Partnership Awards Photographs
Nominations for the next Awards cycle will open later this year, with the Awards Ceremony scheduled for December 2026.
Organisations interested in sponsoring the Awards are invited to contact the RBWM Communities Team.
Connecting, Empowering, and Celebrating Our Community Organisations
The RBWM Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) Partnership brings together charities, community groups and organisations from across the borough to share ideas, strengthen connections, and grow together. Our mission is simple:
Support and empower VCS organisations
Create meaningful collaboration
Provide a space to learn, connect and inspire
Grow our collective impact for residents
We host in-person forums each year, open to all VCS organisations and focused on topics relevant to the voluntary sector. These free sessions provide information and resources to help strengthen organisational capacity, enabling groups to better support their members and local residents. We also deliver special events throughout the year, including a Volunteer Fair and our annual Awards ceremony.
2026 Dates
- Volunteers Fair 2nd June (Details TBC)
- VCS Forum: 1st October (Details TBC)
- VCS Partnership Awards: 3rd December (Details TBC)
VCS Partnership Steering Group
The VCS Partnership is led by the following organisations who each bring their own expertise to the group.
1. WAM Get Involved (Windsor, Ascot & Maidenhead)
WAM Get Involved was set up in 2014, to promote greater community involvement across the Royal Borough. The team works across Windsor, Ascot and Maidenhead to build capacity within the Voluntary Sector, providing a monthly e-newsletter with local and national information, a funding website, updated weekly, governance support, a volunteering platform and training, which includes the Volunteer Passport.
2. RBWM Communities Team
The RBWM Communities Team works across the borough to empower residents, strengthen local networks, and support a thriving voluntary and community sector. As part of the VCS Partnership Steering Group, the team brings partners together, helps coordinate shared priorities, and ensures that community voices shape local decision‑making.
3. Windsor & Maidenhead Interfaith Forum
The Windsor & Maidenhead Interfaith Forum contributes to strengthening community cohesion across the borough, promoting dialogue, understanding, and shared action between local faith communities. Through its involvement in the VCS Partnership Steering Group, the Forum supports collaborative work that brings diverse voices into conversations about local priorities and community wellbeing.
4. Berkshire Community Foundation
Berkshire Community Foundation plays a key role in strengthening the voluntary and community sector across the borough by supporting local groups with funding, capacity building, and insight into community needs. Through its contribution to the VCS Partnership, BCF helps ensure that organisations have access to clear guidance on funding opportunities, effective grant applications, and emerging priorities within the local funding landscape.
5. Adult Learning, Windsor, Maidenhead & Slough
Adult Learning across Slough, Windsor and Maidenhead plays a key role in supporting residents to build skills, confidence, and pathways into further learning or employment. The service designs and delivers a wide range of community‑focused courses, including English, ESOL, Maths, and Health and Wellbeing, ensuring that learning opportunities reflect local needs and promote inclusion.
6. I Love Windsor Community
I Love Windsor CIC’s main function is to help community groups get noticed. So many individuals are great at what they do for the community but are not so great at marketing themselves. I love Windsor created two directories, one for Windsor and one for Maidenhead, that give community groups and charities the ability to say in 150 words and a couple of pictures, what they do for others.
Highlights from 2025
VCS Partnership Awards
The VCS Partnership Awards celebrate the exceptional contribution of local volunteers and community organisations across Windsor and Maidenhead.
2025 winners and highly commended nominees were:
Volunteer of the Year
- Winner: Kirsty Northam
- Highly Commended: Jeremy Crame, Alma Beacon
- Highly Commended: Simon Allen, TVPS
Young Volunteer of the Year
- Winner: Leon Fernandez‑Lemplaine, Busy Buttons CORE Charity – Windsor
- Highly Commended: Alexander Wood, Achieving for Children
Group of the Year
- Winner: ABC to read (Assisting Berkshire Children to Read)
- Highly Commended: The Baby Bank
- Highly Commended: Number 22 Community Counselling Services
View the VCS Partnership Awards Photographs
Nominations for the next Awards cycle will open later this year, with the Awards Ceremony scheduled for December 2026.
Organisations interested in sponsoring the Awards are invited to contact the RBWM Communities Team.
