Echo February 2015

the echo Developing a high quality, proactive voluntary sector for the benefit of the residents of Dudley Borough by positively engaging partners in support of voluntary activity.

Dudley CVS Takes on Civic Hall Dudley CVS has taken over the running of Brierley Hill Civic Hall – and plans are being formulated to make the venue an exciting hub and Brierley Hill a vibrant destination for entertainment and leisure.

Dudley MBC will still own the building and will continue to be responsible for staffing, insurance and maintenance. However, the new arrangement with Dudley CVS will generate significant cost savings and allow for greater flexibility and increased use of the building.

In the coming months, Dudley CVS will be speaking with current Civic Hall user groups, together with the wider community, organisations, businesses, colleges and the good people of Brierley Hill to develop a shared vision for the Civic Hall and explore what local people want from THEIR Civic Hall.

Dudley CVS envisages increased low-cost day-time usage for community and charitable activities, subsidised by diverse incomegenerating events such as business conferences, trade shows, exhibitions, concerts, fayres and weddings.

Andy Gray, Dudley CVS Chief Officer, discussed the exciting prospects for the future of the Civic Hall at a recent meeting of Brierley Hill Civic Society. Andy said “Although civic centres across the Dudley borough and beyond could be under threat due to local government budgetary constraints, this new approach could be an important opportunity to rejuvenate facilities and make them sustainable, community-owned hubs.”

Andy has opened discussion about the Civic Hall on the Dudley CVS blog and would like to hear from anyone interested in how activities could be developed there. Individuals, promoters, people with big ideas and the wider community can share how they could be involved, exchange ideas and comments at: www.tinyurl.com/n5aql2v Slade played at Brierley Hill Civic Hall in the 1970’s. Were you there?

In this issue February 2015 Front Page Brierley Hill Civic Hall

News Awards for All help Princes Trust news Lotteries and gambling Integrated Plus update Synergy means together In a nutshell

Funding Plunkett Foundation Douglas Turner Trust Education Endowment Sir Halley Stewart Trust Monument Trust Buttle UK vInspired Cashpoint O2 Think Big

News Social Finance part 3 of 7 UnLtd Coutts Foundation

Volunteering Operation Santa 2014 Sector of the sector survey

Our Services What we can do for you

AVAILABLE IN LARGE PRINT ON REQUEST Visit our website www.dudleycvs.org.uk

NEWS

A helping hand with Awards for All applications…

Voluntary and community organisations based in Dudley borough can attend a free drop in session to get hands-on help with completing the most important questions on Awards for All application forms. Pop along on Wednesday 22nd April between 2pm and 5pm or between 6pm and 8.30pm to get help from Dudley CVS officers and representatives of the Big Lottery Fund and Dudley MBC. No presentations, no Powerpoint! Just bring your project ideas with you and a friendly guide will help you to develop your application.

For more information, venue details and to get the most out of the session, register at: www.awardsforalldudley.eventbrite.co.uk The local Prince's Trust is moving from its current base in Sedgley Police Station to the centre of Dudley. The move will see the Trust partnering and sharing premises with the African Caribbean Community Network in Abberley Street.

The next two Prince's Trust programmes start on Monday 9th February in Netherton and Monday 16th February in Dudley. Places are still available for 16-25 year olds who are:  Unemployed; Offenders or ex-offenders;   Educational underachievers;  Living in care.

The Programme includes •

Free travel for 12 Weeks (if household income is below £25k); • All expenses-paid residential; • No benefits to be affected; • Basic first aid certificate; • Nationally recognised Prince's Trust qualification; Two weeks work experience placement.  For more information contact Hayley Giles, Police Community Support Officer.

E-mail: gilesh@wolvcoll.ac.uk. Telephone 101 ext: 851 6401. Mobile: 07768 766 349 Twitter: @sedgleyPtrust

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Government Seeks Views on Society Lotteries The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has launched a “Call for Evidence” into better regulation of society lotteries in the UK inviting submissions from across all sectors.

Whilst the Government welcomes views from everyone, it is particularly interested in hearing from those that benefit directly or indirectly from funding provided through the National Lottery. The call for evidence includes questions asking whether: • The current regulations governing society lotteries returns to good causes are appropriate; • The regulations from the 2005 Gambling Act are still fit for purpose in dealing with umbrella society schemes; • There is a risk that Society Lotteries and Umbrella Society schemes adversely impact on the National Lottery; • It is appropriate for the National Lottery to compete with, for example, commercial online gambling and bingo products in order to maintain or improve returns to good causes.

The deadline for responses is 4th March 2015. For more information see GOV.UK website: www.gov.uk/government/ consultations/lotteries-call-for-evidence

NEWS It has been a busy first few months for the five Dudley CVS Locality Link Workers who have been out and about in communities, promoting and raising awareness of Integrated Plus – an innovative new service that will support patients to become more involved, connected and active in their communities.

Locality Link Officers have been getting to know their individual areas intimately; mapping local voluntary and community sector provision and building vitally important relationships with all forty-seven GP practices across Dudley borough.

Producing marketing materials, setting up referral processes, creating information and administration systems, as well as producing quality standards for client management have also been part of the getting-up-and-running process.

Positive outcomes are already beginning to emerge. Health practitioners now have a better appreciation of the services voluntary and community organisations can offer, services which complement medical and social care interventions and which help improve a person’s health and wellbeing.

By the turn of the year, the Locality Link team had received 73 client referrals.

Some cases are quite complex, but one of the real benefits of Locality Link Worker involvement is the ability to take an holistic approach in identifying and co-ordinating appropriate support in the community. The next few months promise to be equally challenging, as the Link Workers seek to:    

Improve the efficiency of the referral process; Encourage discussion via the Integrated Plus blog: http://integratedplusblog.com; Take referrals from other sources such as the Accident and Emergency Unit; Review gaps in provision for particular demographic or geographical communities.

Working together makes us stronger Synergy is a network of local people who are in the process of developing their social enterprises, and established commercial businesses.

The Synergy network was set up as part of Dudley CVS’s Transforming Local Infrastructure partnership project, which encouraged voluntary and community organisations to take a more enterprising approach to income-generation.

Dudley CVS continues to support local social enterprise, asset development, commissioning and procurement, while the Synergy network provides new social enterprises with opportunities to share their ideas with each other and to link with established private-sector businesses.

Synergy comes from the Greek word synergos, meaning "working together" and the network is actively seeking more members to join. Current Synergy topics include European funding, asset development and marketing.

For further information, contact Caroline Webb on 01384 573381 or E-mail carolinewebb@dudleycvs.org.uk.

In a nutshell...

Unit3sixty, the indoor recreation centre, has now officially opened! The Stourbridge facility boasts a state-of-the-art indoor skatepark for BMX, scooter, skating and skateboarding. It is open every day, 10am-10pm, and annual membership offers money off sessions and members-only events. Visit www.unit3sixty.com or call: 01384 376728.

The Dudley Area Action Plan is out for consultation from the 16th January to the 27th February 2015. Complete online at: www.dudley.gov.uk/resident/planning/ planning-policy/local-developmentframework/dudley-aap/

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FUNDING The Plunkett Foundation’s support package is aimed at helping communities save their local pub by running it as a co-operative. The £50,000 package will help the growing number of communities across England at risk of losing their local pub.

Already operating a specialist advice line for co-operative pubs, the Plunkett Foundation will now be able to extend support even further to include specialist advice, funded study visits, mentoring support and peer-to-peer learning. The cooperative model also allows enterprises to raise significant amounts of finance through community shares.

The deadline for applications is 31st March 2015.

For more information, contact the Cooperative Pubs Advice Line: Tel: 01993 810730 E-mail: info@plunkett.co.uk Website: www.plunkett.co.uk/ newsandmedia/news-item.cfm/newsid/792

The Douglas Turner Trust supports a variety of causes and has a strong preference for organisations located in Birmingham and the West Midlands.

Amongst their areas of interest are: • Disabled and elderly people; • Children and young people; • Health projects; • General community work and social support; • The arts; • Environment and heritage.

Trustees meet quarterly in February, May, August and December and letters of application (2 pages max) should be submitted in the month prior to the meetings.

For more information, contact Tim Patrickson (Administrator): Tel: 01386 792014 E-mail: timpatrickson@hotmail.co.uk

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The EEF has launched a new fund (Character and Education) to identify those characteristics and attributes that lead to success in school and work.

Non-cognitive skills such as motivation, resilience, self-control, self-confidence, social/emotional and communication are increasingly considered to be important in determining positive outcomes for children.

Evidence suggests that support to develop these skills is likely to be particularly important for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The Department for Education and EEF are interested in what can be done to help children and young people develop skills for life and work. Skills should complement and underpin academic attainment.

Projects funded must be led by not-forprofit organisations, such as charities and schools, and should test ways of developing those attributes mentioned above.

There is no set minimum or maximum size of grant; past awards have ranged from £90,000 to £1.8M. The closing date for applications is 1st April 2015. For more information, call 020 7802 1676 E-mail: info@eefoundation.org.uk Website: www.tinyurl.com/ob2d3an

Sir Halley Stewart Trust provides grants for social, educational and religious projects underpinned by Christian values and the development of minds, bodies and spirits.

Only registered charities can apply. For more information, call Ms. Vicky Chant on 020 8144 0375 or E-mail: email@sirhalleystewart.org.uk Website: www.sirhalleystewart.org.uk/ grants.html

FUNDING

Monument Trust Monument Trust is one of Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts and is interested in the following: 1. Health and community care work addressing: • HIV/AIDS projects in the UK and Africa; • Social exclusion; • Sexual health of young people; • Hospices.

2. Arts and heritage particularly cultural projects making a major contribution to improving economically depressed areas.

3. Criminal justice including prisoners’ resettlement and alternatives to custody.

4. Homelessness.

Applications can be made at any time.

For more information, contact The Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts: 020 7410 0330 Address: The Peak, 5 Wilton Road, London SW1V 1AP Website: www.sfct.org.uk/the-monumenttrust

Buttle UK was established to ensure that children and young people in desperate need are given a brighter future. The small grants programme provides funding up to £300 for vulnerable children and families to overcome immediate crisis. Grants can be spent on white goods, beds, clothing etc.

Priority is given to organisations working with families/young people (aged up to 18) living in severe poverty/suffering deprivation and facing additional social problems such as domestic violence, drug and alcohol misuse, estrangement, illness, distress, abuse, neglect, behavioural or mental health issues.

For more information, contact: Tel: 020 7828 7311 E-mail: info@buttleuk.org Website: www.buttleuk.org/pages/grantprogrammes-small-grants-programme42.html

O2 Think Big vInspired Cashpoint Young people aged 14-25 (individually or within a small community group) can apply for up to £500 for a project to solve a problem in their community. They must show they have developed a project idea and want to run the project themselves. There are no deadlines and funding will be allocated on a rolling basis until monies are exhausted.

For more information, contact: Tel: 0800 089 9000 E-mail: info@vinspired.com Website: https://vinspired.com/ opportunities/10066/events/157789

This programme supports young people aged 13-25 who want to make positive changes to their communities. Initially funding of £300 is available to get projects off the ground. If the project is completed successfully then an invitation to apply for the second level of the programme (Think Bigger) may be made where grants up to £2,500 are available.

Applications can be made at any time and projects must be started within 3 months/ completed within 6 months.

For more information, contact: Tel: 0800 902 0250 E-mail: hello@o2thinkbig.co.uk Website: www.o2thinkbig.co.uk

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NEWS Social Finance: Part 3 of 7 articles.

Ready for Investment Investment readiness is all about being ready for investors to put their money into your organisation. Investors want to be sure about how YOUR business works, how YOU create social value and how THEY will get their money back! In order to satisfy investors, organisations need to provide information about the following: 1. People in the organisation and their skills/experience, specifically senior members of staff and the staff team/volunteers; 2. The role of the board (directors/trustees) and their skills in key areas such as legal issues, finance, marketing, business development and human resources. The balance of these skills is essential, as is their position in communities the organisation serves; 3. Governance structure and levels of financial and business skills within the organisation; 4. The systems in place for managing finances and producing accounts, along with knowledge of the procedures and quality of internal financial reporting. Also, recognition of cashflow importance (historical, current and future); 5. Clarity of products and services offered and delivered and how profitable they are; 6. Capacity, resources and skills within organisation to deliver the products and services; 7. Unique Selling Point (USP) and how this fits in with the market (is it growing/shrinking or volatile?); 8. Make up of customers and beneficiaries; 9. Connections, locally and nationally and networking opportunities; 10. Track record; 11. Impact of what the organisation is doing and how this is measured; 12. Performance management; 13. Community engagement; 14. Reporting social impact and how it is measured.

Big Potential and the Investment and Contract Readiness Fund (ICRF) offer grants to develop capacity of organisations so they become investment ready. These grants (ICRF offer between £50,000 and £150,000 and Big Potential between £25,000 and £75,000) can be used to buy in specialist support. In return, ICRF and Big Potential expect organisations to be in a position to seek investments of over £500,000 (ICRF) and up to £500,000 (Big Potential).

To find out if your organisation is “investment ready” see the Big Potential diagnostic tool at www.bigpotential.org.uk/diagnostic-tool

Coutts Foundation UnLtd (a charity for social entrepreneurs) and the Coutts Foundation have launched a new pilot venture to address the challenges and potential opportunities faced by an ageing population. In particular, harnessing the experience, expertise and creativity of older people.

The Solutions for an Ageing Society Awards Programme offers support and grants for up to 19 social entrepreneurs who are tackling challenges and opportunities from an ageing population.

Three funding streams are available: 1.

Do It awards up to £5,000 – apply by 24th April 2015; 2.

Build It awards up to £15,000 – apply by 24th April 2015; 3.

Fast Growth awards up to £20,000 – apply by 16th February 2015.

For more information go to website www.unltd.org.uk/2015/01/13/unltd-launches-solutions-for -an-ageing-society-programme-with-support-from-the-coutts-foundation

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VOLUNTEERING OPERATION SANTA 2014 ANOTHER RECORD BREAKER The 2014 Dudley CVS Operation Santa Appeal once again smashed all previous year records for total donations. A staggering 12,258 donations, from small, but essential, food stuffs to huge cuddly toys; from baby clothes to mountain bikes and from every corner of Dudley the donations rolled in, all helping to bring a Christmas smile to some of the borough’s underprivileged children. Individual donors are too many to mention, so here are some of the names and images from Operation Santa 2014……...THANKS TO EVERYONE. (To request a comprehensive round-up of Operation Santa 2014, E-mail: eileenfielding@dudleycvs.org.uk)

State of our sector survey Dudley CVS is analysing the responses to a comprehensive “state of our sector” survey conducted towards the end of 2014. The survey aimed to identify the support needs and future priorities of local voluntary and community sector organisations. Outcomes from the survey so far have shown:  An increase in demand for voluntary sector services and activities over the last 12 months;  A slight increase in income for organisations, mainly from donations and securing new grants;  A lack of knowledge about future funding cuts;  Voluntary organisations are feeling optimistic and resilient, but fearful about funding cuts;  A need to raise the profile of the voluntary sector and to work together more;  A desire for Dudley CVS to support the voluntary sector with networking, collaboration, influencing policy makers, raising profile and identifying gaps in local provision.

Dudley CVS will feed back the results of the survey in a state of the sector debate on 24th March. Further details to be announced.

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How can we help?

DUDLEY CVS works with all community and voluntary groups, however small or large the organisation. We work with a range of partners, putting us at the forefront of voluntary and community sector representation.

KEEP UP TO DATE Visit our website www.dudleycvs.org.uk to find out about new developments affecting the voluntary sector, locally and nationally.

BECOME A MEMBER Membership is free to any voluntary and community organisation operating in Dudley.

Sign up today and start enjoying a range of services and support.

SOURCING FUNDING If your group is considering options for funding, Dudley CVS can help you identify sources of funding and assist in developing funding applications.

SPECIALIST HELP Dudley CVS offers support tailored to suit your specific needs. Our Core Service Officers have years of experience available to local organisations. Help is wide ranging and includes, among other services: community engagement; enterprise development; asset management; business planning; legal structures and conflict resolution.

GROUP DEVELOPMENT Established larger organisations can sign up to our Building Blocks organisational development toolkit.

New, emerging and developing small groups can receive expert oneto-one guidance through our Route Map programme.

CHILDREN’S SERVICES Dudley CVS has officers dedicated to the needs of children and young people, families and those organisations and professionals working with children in Dudley VOLUNTEERING Dudley CVS Volunteer Centre provides all the expertise that would-be volunteers and volunteer managers might need. Guidance and training on managing, legislation recruitment and retaining volunteers is available all year round.

We can also match up those seeking to volunteer to those groups looking to recruit volunteers.

PUBLICITY Our marketing and communications officers can help local groups to raise their profile and maximise their promotional needs.

Advice on producing newsletters, leaflets promotional materials and media relations.

ADMIN SUPPORT Voluntary groups requiring ad hoc or regular support with learning basic computer skills, printing, mailings, book-keeping, payroll etc. can use Dudley CVS admin services at very competitive rates.

CAN’T SEE WHAT YOU NEED? Call the number below.

HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE With health services under review, our assigned support officers are in much demand by both services providers and service users.

For additional information about all CVS services contact: Telephone: 01384 573381 E-mail: info@dudleycvs.org.uk