Community Action Northumberland

Community Action Northumberland (CAN) is here to support and help sustain rural communities in Northumberland by: Promoting rural issues – providing and supporting a ‘rural voice’ to influence and tackle rural community issues Empowering organisations – supporting and developing local community groups and organisations. Supporting individuals – identifying, developing and managing projects to address the needs of rural communities. CAN was initially set up as the Community Council of Northumberland in 1951. CAN is one of 38 Rural Community Councils across England which operate as a network under the umbrella of our national body ACRE (Action with Communities in Rural England). RCCs are charitable local development agencies, generally based at county level, which lead, support and enable community initiatives, reaching grassroots organisations. ACRE’s vision is to be the voice of rural communities – supported by the wealth of evidence and intelligence on rural matters collected from the 38 members. This evidence is used to influence national policy on rural issues from housing, health and transport to broadband, services and fuel poverty. As a member of the ACRE network, CAN is able to ensure that Northumberland’s rural communities can benefit from the knowledge and best practice gathered from across the country, and contribute to the national debate on rural issues. Locally, CAN works with a wide range of partners to share resources and knowledge, and to achieve the best results for our communities.