A countless number of Hampshire’s VCSE organisations, particularly village halls and community centres, though many other organisatons as well, will find Action Hampshire was part of their origin story.
A lot of this is thanks to Peter Martin, who was Director of Action Hampshire (back then called Hampshire Council of Social Services and Hampshire Council of Community Services) from 1955-1986. Peter used the organisation to pilot new ideas, with his longstanding motto “promote and float”. Try something new, and then help it establish itself. It was this approach which led to the setting up of Age Concern and the district CVSes, profiled in other impacts.
Peter earned an OBE in recognition of his work at Action Hampshire in 1979. When he retired in 1986, his retirement cake was in the shape of Hampshire and covered in flags. Each flag represented a different organisation Peter had helped establish.
A former colleague who was there said:
“For every flag on Peter’s retirement cake, which were all over the county, there must be at least half a dozen more local organisations in existence, the users of village halls and community centres, the sites HVHS developed, and so on. And that process has continued. If it hadn’t been for HCCS one wonders what voluntary sector there would be in Hampshire, what social problems there would be today. It’s well worth celebrating.”
Peter Martin passed away in 2012. His obituary is available via this link.
