Help us grow

Help us

grow

From our Chair These are challenging times, not just for TCV, but for the charity sector as a whole. Last year over 7,000 charities had to close, and a recent survey by the Charities Aid Foundation indicates these difficulties continuing. Half of those surveyed have had to use reserves to cover income shortfalls over the last year and a quarter have cut front-line services and staffing. We have had to take similar actions, and while it has been painful, we are working to renew our base.

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We are looking very carefully at changing demands from funders and beneficiaries, which requires greater financial planning, efficiency, and speed of response; as well as more robust demonstrations about the impact we achieve and the value we bring.

But most of all, we need to remember that our work in real, practical sustainability gets exceptional results.

We must keep our focus on our beneficiaries – in these hard times, they matter more than ever...

Rita Clifton, Chair

From our Chief Executive Since I joined The Conservation Volunteers in November 2012 it has been hugely rewarding and challenging. We have reduced our losses from ÂŁ3.6m in 2011-12 to ÂŁ1.5m in 2012-13 and are in the process of implementing a number of initiatives in response to this challenging external environment.

One of my key priorities has been to develop a new three year strategic business plan that will enable us to grow, a critical part of which is to diversify the nature and type of funding we receive. I believe we now have a robust plan that will enable TCV to succeed.

With each of us working as one team, having a relentless focus on delivering our goals, we can continue to help people and places, not just now, but for the long term.

Julie Hopes, Chief Executive

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Strategic Plan Now-2016 Strategic Goals The plan consists of six strategic goals that are embedded in the objectives of all the TCV team, with clear measures, and will drive all that we do. The targets and deliverables for the goals will change over the period but these key themes will set the direction for TCV from now until 2016:

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1 Work together with people and communities to help them transform their health, prospects and outdoor places for the long-term 2 Be a resilient organisation 3 Be a great place to work 4 Be a great place to volunteer 5 Have customers who love working with us 6 Be better known and supported for the value we deliver

Three distinct phases Phase 1 – Fit For The Future During this phase we embedded and completed the improvements started over the previous 18 months.

Phase 2 – Moving On This phase is about leveraging the improvements delivered during Phase 1 to grow TCV. Phase 3 – Looking Ahead During this phase we will be completing the three year plan and starting to develop a new strategy to take us through to 2020.

the ‘triple bottom line’ The phrase “the triple bottom line” was first coined in 1994 by John Elkington, the founder of a British consultancy called SustainAbility. It aims to measure the economic, social and environment improvement of a community over a period of time. In TCV, the triple bottom line applies to the well-being of the people we work with, their prospects, spaces and their wider communities.

Prospects – helping people to get back to work improves the economic well-being of an individual and their community Health – being active outdoors, growing your own food and having the opportunity to interact with others helps improve social well-being Outdoor places – people taking responsibility for outdoor places improves the environment

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Losing sight of what matters In difficult times when we are faced with more pressing concerns, the care of green spaces can seem to be a needless frivolity. However, our open places provide an essential resource for people and communities and a safeguard against ill-health, poor diet and social exclusion. But as government funding and protection for these places are scaled back or removed under austerity, they’re disappearing at an alarming rate.

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Around one-third of the UK’s natural assets, including green spaces, rivers, wetlands and important wildlife habitats, are in danger of being lost to development or degraded through neglect.* We are The Conservation Volunteers and since 1959, we have been working in a very practical way to help people and communities transform their health, prospects and outdoor places, not just now, but for the long term. Our work in practical sustainability gets real and lasting outcomes – helping people into employment, improving health and self-esteem whilst reclaiming local green spaces. Yet at a time when we face unprecedented financial challenges, our work has never been needed more.

This is why we’re asking you to Help us Grow... *[UK National Ecosystem Assessment, June 2011]

our green spaces are disappearing Our most treasured houses, parks, forests and wetlands are rightly protected and ring-fenced through well-funded organisations, like the National Trust. But it’s the everyday green spaces that are under most grievous threat – the local playing field, that small piece of urban woodland, the nearby allotment – all feeling the chill breath of neglect. These places have no special protection and as councils’ budgets are slashed nationwide, many of our everyday open spaces are being lost to communities forever.

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Help us Grow Across the UK, communities are losing what matters most of all – they’re losing hope. But we can change this by working with people and spaces to grow hope for a better future for beleaguered communities everywhere. But to make this happen, we need your support to help us grow – and here’s why...

Help us grow

communities are being marginalised In the poorest neighbourhoods, neglect of local green places can have a devastating impact and the effect on children in particular, is shocking. Without safe, welcoming places to play, children are held back in their social, physical and educational development; blighting all our futures.

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Neglecting green places is bad for people and bad for neighbourhoods, and the poorest communities are often the hardest hit. When maintenance and care is reduced, open spaces become overgrown, rubbish piles up and footpaths are choked. An air of neglect permeates, encouraging vandalism and crime. Before long, once-loved open spaces can turn into no-go areas.

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Help us Grow... protecting what matters The Conservation Volunteers are determined to care for the people and places that frequently fall through the cracks – providing hope and giving communities the confidence and skills to take control of their own lives and spaces. Not just now, but for the long term.

We do this by focusing on three key elements: Protecting Health: Physical inactivity is estimated to cost the NHS over £1 billion per year, but only a third of men and a quarter of women are meeting government targets of 150 minutes per week of physical activity. TCV have been able to help around 150,000 people to get outdoors and active, with an average activity of 120 minutes per week.

Protecting Prospects: Unemployment remains high, with the under 25’s particularly affected. In 201213 TCV worked with over 1,500 under 25’s, of whom 1,100 went on into paid employment.

Protecting Places: Local authorities remain pessimistic about their ability to maintain good quality green spaces. A recent survey found that nearly two thirds of respondents strongly agreed that “Lack of investment in parks will have health and social impacts”. TCV work across nearly 3,000 sites, with over a quarter of our workdays dedicated to the 20% most deprived wards.

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Every day, we see people and community groups taking the initiative, feeling empowered – many for the first time in their lives. Because when we believe in people, they start to believe in themselves.

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Looking after our green places means so much more than just caring for nature – it means we care for people as well. The Conservation Volunteers are the practical sustainability charity.

Working in partnership with people and communities, we underpin their vital work, helping them grow and providing the support and guidance they need.

And here’s how...

“We’re helping create a space and a legacy that can be passed on to the next generation and it’s great that the little children of the estate have somewhere safe to play. The Conservation Volunteers can benefit everyone and I encourage as many people as I can to join in – as long as I can keep going I will...”

Pam Evans, TCV Volunteer of the Year

taking action where it matters most Our volunteers are the very essence of our organisation: quite simply, we could not carry out our work without them. Their quiet and unselfish heroism is often the glue that holds communities together, especially during difficult times. Volunteer of the Year, Pam Evans, represents the true spirit of TCV. This 70 year-old grandmother was inspired to join us four and a half years ago, turning a disused car park into a safe and inviting community space. Her work rejuvenating a run-down estate in North Cornelly, Wales, has helped instil pride in the community and inspire local children and young people to take care of their green spaces.

Pam has become an unstoppable force for good in her neighbourhood.

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Help us Grow...

TCV are committed to practical sustainability Our vision is an abundance of safe and accessible outdoor places for everyone to use and enjoy. We are looking to work with donors who recognise the value of social and environmental care – who will help us grow.

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Our objectives are set out in our three year plan – the core of which is encapsulated in these commitments.

We will...

➜ Work together with people and communities to

help them transform their health, prospects and places for the long term.

➜ Be a resilient organisation, delivering value

and measurable outcomes for donors and our beneficiaries.

➜ Be a great place to work and volunteer ➜ Have customers who love working with us ➜ Be known and supported for the value we deliver

Here’s how we’ve put this into action during 2012-13: ✔ On behalf of Defra, we have embarked on a three year Big Tree Plant programme, working with volunteers and community groups to plant 150,000 trees England-wide.

✔ We work in partnership with

Scottish Natural Heritage to deliver volunteering and learning opportunities, community engagement and network development, environmental promotions, and an apprenticeship scheme right across Scotland.

✔ We have a successful employee engagement partnership with RBS Bank which is delivering positive outcomes both for RBS and local communities, nationwide.

✔ Our community-led partnership with

Mondelēz began this year with our ‘Health for Life’ garden design winning a silver medal at the BBC Gardeners’ World Live exhibition.

✔ We have strengthened our relationship with the People’s Health Trust by becoming a strategic partner.

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working together with people and communities to transform their environment

➜ Our Green hubs act as a focal point for

concern about local green places, recruiting and training volunteers, holding stores of vital tools and equipment, and acting as a base for our local community projects.

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➜ Our Chestnut Fund gives out around 50 small

grants every year to help conservation volunteering groups get started and keep going.

➜ Our community network supports over 2,000

small community groups, working to look after the green places that matter to them. We provide insurance and offer discounts on tools and materials.

➜ Our trained TCV project leaders pass on

traditional skills such as hedgelaying and coppicing – vital for conservation in action. Experience in teamworking and health & safety also ensures that our volunteers will always have a safe, welcoming and enjoyable experience.

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working together with people and communities to transform their health The work we do with people and communities to improve their health and well-being focuses on 5 ways to wellbeing*. We build these actions into our key health and wellbeing initiatives.

1 Connect – be in contact and talk with others 2 Keep learning – try something new or learn a skill 3 Give – do something for someone else 4 Take notice – look around, be aware of your environment 5 Be active – do some exercise, step outside, move about These principles are embodied in our flagship Green Gym® programme which has gone from strength to strength in 2013. We now have 138 Green Gyms in place across the length and breadth of the UK. We work in partnership with many communities and organisations such as Intu Properties plc and funders such as People’s Health Trust to deliver our ‘Natural Health Service’ but we still need your help to grow our outdoor health and wellbeing movement across the UK, so we can continue to help people like Daniel, whose story is overleaf... * Developed by the New Economics Foundation

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Case study Daniel, The People’s Health Trust and TCV

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Our partnership with The People’s Health Trust has enabled us to directly tackle health inequalities in over 30 locations across Britain. As a result, TCV helped over 2,000 people improve their health, well-being and community spaces last year. An example of this is our Cornwall Green Gym, which works with people living in some of the most deprived areas around Camborne and Penzance. Before Daniel joined the Green Gym, he had nothing to do. Now he is a key member of the TCV team, has a job, eats healthily and is more independent.

“I feel more energetic. I walk to work sometimes and am starting to do my own food shopping, packed lunches and giving my mum board money now that I am working.”

TCV are proud of our association with The People’s Health Trust because it means that we can help more people like Daniel grow.

“We couldn’t be happier to be supporting TCV – we get to see great local projects, supported by an incredibly dedicated team, deliver a true vision for bringing together local support and green spaces. We’re really looking forward to seeing how people can make where they live an even better place to grow, live, work and age with the help of TCV.” John Hume, Chief Executive People’s Health Trust

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Working together with people and communities to transform their prospects During 2012-13 TCV worked with over 750 young people who weren’t in education, training or employment in four English regions – North East, Yorkshire, East Midlands and the South West.

These young people have since gained awards and certificates in functional skills, employability and various vocational sectors. They have improved their community spaces by taking part in voluntary activity and 57% have progressed into employment, training and further education through apprenticeships.

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In 2012-13 we: ➜ worked with 14,173 people and improved their prospects ➜ helped 4,840 secure employment ➜ improved the skills and qualifications of 750 16-19 year-olds ➜ helped 427 achieve employment, training and further education opportunities ➜ helped 45% of our customers with a health condition or disability move into sustained employment

Working in partnership Our Work Choice contract in Derbyshire has helped 147 people who are disabled or have a health condition which significantly affects their ability to work. Of these, 57 people secured employment, including a medal-winning paralympian accessing our services.

One of our projects, Derbyshire Youth Mandatory Action Project (DYMAP) has helped over 76 young people this year through voluntary and community activities. Matthew attended DMYAP on the project and through his hard work and enthusiasm for the Air Ambulance was offered employment, which he loves and is now travelling all over the country with them.

“Without the help and support from TCV and the DYMAP programme I would not have had the opportunity to get a foot in the door at Air Ambulance and I am really enjoying my role.�

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Working together with people and communities to transform their outdoor spaces From nationwide to neighbourhood This year, TCV supported over half a million people in over 40,000 places across the whole of the UK. Come rain or shine our teams of staff, volunteers and Community Network members are battling to transform our outdoor places 365 days a year. This is the heartland of our work and our heritage – as vital today as it was when we started nearly 55 years ago.

We believe that by encouraging and practically helping people take responsibility for their local green places, we tackle not just the environmental issue but the social one as well – keeping local places safe and accessible for all – creating an attractive, healthy environment that promotes community involvement whilst giving nature a home.

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Reclaiming spaces

Greenwich Meantime Nursery Greening in the Meantime is a unique project using vacant development land to create a resource for nature conservation, biodiversity and sustainability. It is a partnership project between TCV, the Housing and Land Directorate of the Greater London Authority and the Friends of Greenwich Peninsula Ecology Park.

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The nursery will broaden the range of plants and supply material for biodiversity projects. This has only been possible with the support of hundreds of volunteers from many different organisations, including many local businesses, the friends of Greenwich Peninsula Ecology Park and the Wednesday work group.

We aim to spread this concept to other areas so more vacant development land can be brought into productive use. The project has already proved how quickly idle land can be used to “green in the Meantime� for the benefit of wildlife, the local community and the landowner.

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uniting neighbours

Sanctuary Housing Association Across more than eight neighbourhoods, TCV work in partnership with Sanctuary Housing Association and tenants to create the Riviera Growing Communities project, aiming to provide a variety of food-related projects to help make locally grown food accessible to communities. Sanctuary Housing Association is delighted with the outcome as neglected communal spaces are improved, tenants become more involved in the outdoors, and the residents have access to affordable healthy produce.

“Riviera Growing Communities has been a huge success locally and has provided a blueprint to help bring young people together elsewhere in the country. It has been inspiring to see how creating green, social spaces like these can transform lives for the better.”

Richard Keeley, Sanctuary’s Head of Housing Operations for the South West

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Empowering communities

Coleraine

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We currently work with over 2,000 community groups who, come rain or shine, are working across the UK to add value to their local communities and green places when local partnerships come together.

Over the last year Coleraine Conservation Volunteers have expanded the scale of their habitat management work over a six mile stretch of Northern Ireland’s North coast. The project aims to restore the dune system to a more favourable condition by removal of invasive species.

TCV has worked with Royal Portrush Golf Club since 1992, helping to sympathetically repair erosion to the sand dunes between the golf course and the beach at East Strand. Each autumn, TCV’s local volunteer team repair damage to the dunes and, with support from Coleraine Borough Council the project expanded when work was extended to the removal of invasive sea buckthorn.

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Help us grow

What it costs to help us grow

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Now more than ever, nature, and the benefits green spaces bring, are being torn from the heart of our local areas.

This creeping neglect and decline of everyday green places carries a grievous social cost, but it can be stopped. It requires skills, commitment, and continuous, small scale action, but without TCV to mobilise and support local goodwill, it won’t happen. And without donors who support our vision, we simply can’t continue to make it happen.

To find out more about how you can support us and help us grow, please contact us on 01302 388883.

We are The Conservation Volunteers, committed to working with people and communities to help them grow.

We receive no core funding from government to carry out this vital work but as funding becomes ever-more scarce, our commitment to support people and places is under threat.

Please make a donation today and protect what matters, not just now, but for the long term.

Visit www.tcv.org.uk/donate

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The Conservation Volunteers Sedum House Mallard Way Doncaster DN4 8DB E information@tcv.org.uk T 01302 388 883 www.tcv.org.uk

Registered Charity in England (261009) and Scotland (SC039302). Registered in England as a limited company No. 976410

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