About the film
Cumbria Council for Voluntary Service (CVS) is what is called an infrastructure support organisation. That is to say it provides support, advice and training to other "third sector" groups, charities, voluntary and community organisations. Though Cumbria CVS is a relatively new set up in the county, it was born out of a merger between five previous Councils for Voluntary Service namely; Barrow, Eden, South Lakes, West Cumbria and Carlisle all with their own history, some more recent than others.
Significantly the history of the CVS in Carlisle goes back to 1904 (and perhaps even further) to Carlisle Charity Organisation Society. It is this long history of charitable activity in the city that provides the basis for this film, Faith, Hope & Charity, and it is 110 years of annual reports detailing contemporary work and case studies over eleven decades from which we have extracted the stories within the film. From a paternalistic charity who helped poor families emigrate to a new life, to the provider of social service before the welfare state, there are many stories to tell, but in the film we can only tell a few. "It seems a long time ago now. Tony Brown and I were at Moorclose Community Centre, Workington in September 2013, when we got the call from Heritage Lottery to say they wanted to fund our project. Faith, Hope and Charity is a film charting 110 years of voluntary sector activity in Carlisle dramatised through the potted history of Cumbria CVS and its antecedents, Carlisle CVS, Voluntary Action Carlisle, Carlisle Council for Social Service (CCSS) and Carlisle Charity Organisation Society (CCOS). As we say in the film 110 years is a long time in the history of a city and its people and it proved difficult at first for Tony and I and the film’s director Paddy Sweeney of Eden Films to work out how best to tell that story. An advert for the sector and the CVS? Maybe, but for us it was important to use the words in the annual reports and ask the questions posed there. The aim of the founding organisation was “the cure, not merely the relief of distress”, and surely “the improvement of the condition of the poor is an aim which must appeal to everyone.” The original charity perhaps did not foresee its existence 110 years on. Nor perhaps would it imagine a society still unable to relieve distress and poverty let alone cure it. Certainly after the Second World War with the development of the welfare state and planned economy, the notion of charity became anathema. Rightly so? Perhaps, yet charities like the CCSS evolved and took on new challenges such as community development and social and recreational services. Well this film asks some questions about charity and charities and dramatises some key times, the early part of the century, the creation of the community centre movement in Currock, establishment of Carlisle’s Tourist Information Centre and the incubation and hosting of organistions such as the Citizens Advice Bureau and Campaign for Homosexual Equality. Yes 110 years is a long time and there are so many more stories we could have told, but we believe the ones that feature in the film are a good starting point for us to talk about our history and discuss our future. There was a lot of good will involved in making the film with lots of volunteers giving their time to the project. We thank them all." Mark Costello June 2014 |