Voluntary Action Lewisham

Following on from the insert with the February edition of Grapevine we are pleased to report that work on the project VAL is undertaking for Lewisham Council is now underway.

Bids will be invited in two categories of up to £2,000 and up to £10,000 to support activities that bring together people from different social groups, ethnic backgrounds or communities of interest, and intergenerational activities. 

Application Procedure

The grants will be awarded using a participatory budgeting process during which groups develop their projects and present their project proposals at an event to be held for participating groups in June.  In between groups submitting expressions of interest and the participatory budgeting event VAL will be working with groups to develop their proposals and their presentations for the event.

More Information

VAL is now inviting groups to contact us for more details and guidelines and an expression of interest form.  We will be holding an information event in March which will give groups an opportunity to find out more about the process, the support  available and meet the project team.

For further information, an expression of interest form and details of the information event in March please contact Elaine Sammarco.  Alternatively leave a message and your contact details for Elaine at VAL on 020 8314 9411 e-mail: elaine@valewisham.org.uk

The Lewisham Compact – an agreement between the Council (and other statutory agencies) and the voluntary & community sector about how we work together was agreed and launched in 2001. It continues to form the foundations of our relationship.

The on-going development of the Compact and oversight of Compact activity is led by the Compact Steering Group, administered by VAL.

The Steering Group comprises representatives from Lewisham Council’s various Directorates, NHS Lewisham and voluntary and community sector organisations. It meets bi-monthly, normally at 2pm on a weekday (day varies).

At present we are short of voluntary & community representatives – and would welcome 2 or 3 more volunteers. At a time when the partnership between statutory and voluntary agencies is becoming ever-more important, it is vital that we have strong VCS representation. A revised National Compact has just been issued and we will need to look at this early in 2010.

If you would like to volunteer to be part of this group, or want to find out more information, please contact Martin on 020 8314 8876 or martin@valewisham.org.uk

We’re pleased to invite you to our next CYP Forum meeting

Support from the Start

6 – 9pm, Tuesday 2nd March 2010
Leemore Centre Community Hub, Clarendon Rise, London, SE13 5ES

Click here for a location map

As ever, the meeting will be packed with updates on key developments in Lewisham, and offers excellent networking opportunities with both VCS and statutory colleagues.

• Focus on early intervention and preventative work supporting children, young people and families
• Updates and discussion with colleagues from Lewisham’s Integrated Youth Support Service (IYSS), Children’s Centres, Extended Services, Play and Recreation, and Youth Offending Service
• Meet your new VCS Reps on Lewisham’s CYP Strategic Partnership – get feedback and feed in to local decision making
• Share opportunities, information and ideas in the Open Mic session

Hope to see you there! Best wishes,
Kate

To register

To register, please:

• email Kate;
• phone 020 8314 7018; or
• register online

We will need your name, organisation and contact details.

We are delighted to invite you to the re-launch of the new quarterly VAL Community Health & Social Care Forum at our themed event:

Building Partnerships & Healthier Communities
1.00pm – 4.30pm Tuesday 2nd February 2010
Venue: Lady Florence Hall, 21 Deptford Broadway, London SE8 4PA

Agenda

1.00 pm - Registration, Lunch and Networking from 1.00pm

1.25 pm - Introductions & Icebreakers

1.35 pm - Presentation: Working Together Towards a Healthier Community

•         Rosalind John, Health Inequalities & Social Care Officer VAL

•         Martin Howie, Director of VAL

•         Aileen Buckton, Executive Director for Community Services, LB Lewisham

•         Dr. Danny Ruta, Joint Director of Public Health for NHS Lewisham and LB Lewisham

2.10 pm - Q & A – a chance to ask questions and put your views forward

2.30 pm - BREAK: REFRESHMENTS and DISPLAY MARKETPLACE

2.40 pm - Reducing the Health Inequalities Gap: Working in partnership to engage communities to access health services and improve health outcomes

          Workshops (led by voluntary sector representatives) – choose from:

•         Asylum Seekers’ & Refugees’ Health

•         BME Communities’ Health

•         Carers’ Health

•         Disabled People’s Health

•         Men’s Health

•         Older Adults’ Health

•         Women’s Health

Together, we will brainstorm and identify the challenges faced by these particular communities to access health services and then move on to focus on the perceived solutions to those challenges.

4.00 pm -Summary and Closing Comments

This partnership event commences at 1.00pm with lunch and networking opportunities among representatives from many of the local VCS groups and organisations working in the arena of Health & Social Care.

There’s the chance to display posters or a small stand: display space is very limited and must be booked in advance, so contact me to secure yours.

The forum will be an excellent chance to develop links both with colleagues from other voluntary and community groups AND from statutory organisations interested in building partnerships and commissioning services, including L B Lewisham and NHS Lewisham.

The VCS voice in Lewisham really does count!

After the event your views, concerns and comments from the Q & A session and workshops will be collated and used to inform the new post 2010 Health Inequalities Strategy being undertaken jointly by LB Lewisham and NHS Lewisham.  Your views will also be used to set priorities and agendas for future Community Health & Social Care Forum meetings.

To attend, you MUST register in advance by calling 0208 314 9841 or emailing rosalind@valewisham.org.uk:

• Your name,
• The name of your organisation,
• Your 1st choice of workshop
• Your 2nd choice of workshop

Or why not register online

We look forward to meeting you!
Rosalind

Rosalind John
Health Inequalities & Social Care Officer

The new Joint Director of Public Health Dr. Danny Ruta has recently visited VAL and shown a keen interest in spending a day meeting some of the VCS groups who work within the health and social care field.

We have arranged Wednesday 20th January 2010 for Danny to meet 4-5 groups.

Would you like your group or organisation to be visited on that day? If so please send the following details to me by noon on Monday 21st December 2009

• Name of contact person
• Name and address of group 
• Who your service users are
• The services you provide

We hope to see a different range of services on the day and will let you know by Wednesday 23rd of December if we will be visiting you.

If you are interested contact Rosalind on 020 8314 9841 or rosalind@valewisham.org.uk

Please consider nominating yourself as a Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) Rep on Lewisham’s Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership for 2010!

This is an exciting opportunity to engage in strategic decision making in Lewisham on behalf of our sector.

For detailed information about the Partnership, the Rep’s role and the time commitment you would need to make, please see the attached Guide.

Nominations are open to all individuals who work or volunteer in a VCS organisation in Lewisham. Your organisation MUST be a full or associate member of VAL (for more information on this please see www.valewisham.org.uk).

Partnership Boards

There are fifteen Boards and Panels for which you could stand:

• Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership Board
• CYP Joint Commissioning Group
• Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB)
• 14-19 Strategy Forum
• Children’s Centres and Extended Services Board
• Integrated Youth Support Services Board
• Child Poverty Working Group
• Disability Multi-Agency Group
• Emotional and Mental Health Working Group
• Healthy Eating/Healthy Lifestyles Working Group
• Family Support and Parenting Board
• Play Partnership Board
• Teenage Pregnancy, Parenthood and Sexual Health Programme Strategic Board
• Youth Crime Management Board
• Children’s Workforce Development Working Group

Each Board/Group has spaces for two VCS Reps, except the LSCB, which only has one.

You may nominate yourself as a Rep on more than one Board. Please complete a separate nomination form for each.

Nomination Procedure

To nominate yourself, please return completed Nomination Forms to Kate English by 23rd November 2009. Reps will be elected by secret ballot at our next CYP Forum meeting on 9th December at the Albany, Deptford.

Please don’t hesitate to contact Kate by phone to discuss this opportunity further, if you wish. Tel: 020 8314 7018.

The old Chinese saying that "we live in interesting times" is apposite for VCS organisations as we look at the current economic and political situation. The delivery of public services is the subject of much review and debate and the changes that result will affect us all. This will be the theme of our Compact Week event, to be held on 4th November, 2.00-4.30pm at the Civic Suite.

Lewisham’s Mayor, Sir Steve Bullock, has suggested previously that there are likely to be more opportunities for VCS organisations to be involved in public service delivery, and he is one of our main speakers at the event. Our other speaker is Michael Richardson, Chair of NHS Lewisham, who will talk about the many changes in the delivery of health services and opportunities for VCS involvement.

The event will include opportunity to ask questions of our two speakers, and to discuss issues with both VCS colleagues and Council and NHS Lewisham staff.

Pre-registration

Pre-registration is not essential but it would be helpful to us for organisational purposes to know if you are planning to attend. Please phone or email Sheila at VAL.

Tel: 020 8314 9411, sheila@valewisham.org.uk

This promises to be an important event for VCS, Council and NHS staff. Can you afford not to be there?

VAL's AGM (7.00-9.00pm) will be followed by a presentation by Elaine Sammarco on her experience of spending a year working in Tanzania. Elaine will be known to many as VAL's previous Chair of Trustees.

Alongside the brief business agenda, which will include adoption of VAL's Strategic Plan for 2010-2012, we will be having a short address from the Bishop of Woolwich, who is visiting Catford.

Before the AGM (1.45-5.30pm) VAL will be hosting a FREE event on Facing the Recession with confidence.  To find out more about this event click here: http://www.valewisham.org.uk/content/facing-recession-confidence

We would appreciate it if you could confirm your attendance for the AGM for catering purposes (a hot buffet will be served on the day).

To confirm your attendance please contact Sheila on:

020 8314 9411 sheila@valewisham.org.uk

We look forward to seeing you on the 15th!

This free event will bring together representatives from Lewisham groups to look at how the recession is affecting the voluntary and community sector in the borough. 

This is an opportunity to:

• get up-to-date information on the recession’s local impact
• reflect on how the recession is likely to affect your own organisation’s funding, staffing and service delivery
• give feedback on your organisation’s experience of the recession so far and what support you need
• find out what support VAL can offer

This event is suitable for managers and trustees of established organisations.

To Book:

Please either:

1. download the attached booking form and return the completed form to Voluntary Action Lewisham, 120 Rushey Green, London SE6 4HQ; or
2. Fill in the online booking form.

More information:

More information about this event is available from:

• Allan Pearson on 020 8698 6034; email allan@valewisham.org.uk (until 2nd October only); or
• Chris Wykes Driver on 020 8314 6576; email christine@valewisham.org.uk

This event is followed by the VAL Annual General Meeting.
Participants are welcome to stay for the AGM.

Both the Facing the recession with confidence event and the AGM will be held at the St Laurence Community Centre, 37 Bromley Road, Catford SE6 2TS

Update: 25 August 2009

Unfortunately the VAL website was not available for most of yesterday due to our hosts needing to carry out work on our web server. They have carried out temporary repairs, but will need to carry our more permanent repairs meaning that our website may be temporarily unavailable towards the end of this week.

Update: 28 August 2009

The problems we experienced at the start of the week seem to be ongoing. We apologise for any inconvenience this causes. We are in ongoing discussions with our host and hope to resolve these problems as quickly as possible.

Update: 02 September 2009

We have now been told that our website host will be replacing the server at some point during this week. This is likely to mean that the website will not be available for a number of hours, but we hope to minimise this as much as possible.

THE LEARNING PARTNERSHIP PROJECT

The Learning Partnership Project was launched by Voluntary Action Lewisham in August 2008. Its aim was to develop a partnership approach which would use resources more effectively to deliver a package of support to the voluntary and community sector (VCS) in Lewisham.

The project had two key elements; to facilitate access to training and learning opportunities for VCS staff that could enable career development and aid organizational sustainability. This involved working with other voluntary and community organisations in the borough as well as statutory and private training providers.  The project also built on previously developed relationships and actively engaged with and fostered relationships with appropriate agencies, working to implement referral processes and systems to meet individual needs.

The second was to promote economic growth within the VCS by encouraging the sector to be more enterprising. Working with Simple Business Solutions and the London Borough of Lewisham a comprehensive programme of support to Lewisham’s VCS was established and delivered to equip organisations in maximising their resources and reducing their dependency on grant funding.

The Training Programme

The Training Programme was designed to provide a wide range of courses that would provide learners with personal development opportunities for learners, capacity support for organisations and important legal information for the VCS. Courses offered and the numbers that attended have been included in the table below:

Learner’s Feedback

1. How to Win Funders Attention
   • Learners felt that more courses should be offered in this area.
   • That detailed documentation should be provided for reference.
2. Reaching the Hard to Reach
   • All learners joining this course did so in order to widen the reach to more excluded groups
   • The course attracted a number of staff from the statutory organisations whose role it is to work with harder to reach groups.
3. Managing and Sustaining Community Buildings
   • The course was described as one of the most ‘helpful courses ever attended.’
   • Participants felt that information given would help to improve their organisation.
4. Quality Assurance
   • After attending this course participants felt better equipped to choose the appropriate quality mark for the organisation.
   • Most participants said their immediate course of action after completing the course was to apply for funding to carry out their quality assurance.
5. Roles and Responsibilities of a Management Committee
   • Course was attended entirely my management committee members all of whom stated they were unaware of most of their roles and responsibilities as the course had highlighted.
6. Train the Trainer
   • Some attendants expressed the desire to pursue an accredited qualification on the subject.
7. Marketing Master class
   • Attendants felt that they had gained tools they could bring back to their organisation.
   • Some felt that the subject was too large and needed to be broken down into smaller modules.

Promoting Economic Growth by being more enterprising

VAL commissioned Simple Business Solutions to run a Community Organisations Capacity Building Pilot Project. The objective of this project was to practically help 5  targeted voluntary and community sector organisations (VCSOs)  in Lewisham to become better positioned and equipped to maximise their resources and eventually reduce their dependency on grants. The pilot project started in August 2008 and ended July 2009. Simple Business Solutions (SBS) has been providing support to the following VCSOs:

A number of areas that required attention were identified and an action plan drawn up. For each group offering them a menu of support, advice, and assistance.

This came in the form of :

• 1-2-1 advice and coaching sessions
• Management document review
• Financial reviews
• Ideas generation sessions
• Business support
• Signposting to: other organisations, courses and training opportunities (e.g. custom or offered by VAL, commissioning or funding opportunities).

This work brought to light the different types of problems and challenges that the organisations were facing.

These included:

Resource – time, money and people. All of the organisations claimed to suffer to some degree from a shortage of these three things. Funding and the need for income diversification was a factor in the creation of this pilot. In some organisations, much of people’s time and effort is focused on identifying and performing paperwork for small-scale grants thus preventing any form of action towards developing a strategic direction.

Some organisations have human resource in the form of volunteer staff and yet are unable to make the most use of them. Often the reason for this is that operational management is focused on the low level detail of day to day activity and are therefore unable to take a step back and actually manage the organisation.

Fear and apathy. Many of the problems stem from people’s fear of the unknown. Management sometimes seem reluctant to try something different. This fear can come from a lack of experience, knowledge or skills to take on what is required. There can also be a reluctance to delegate as this may feel like a loss of control. SBS have adopted the approach of taking small steps so as not to overwhelm management.

Decision Making. The decision making process in most of the organisations is slow and sometimes over cautious. The level of change that will move these organisations forward requires less risk averse management or boards. SBS have taken a bottom up approach by helping with some fundamental processes to make the overall running more efficient. This will need to be complimented with a top down initiative that works directly with the boards to get things done.

Jacqui Henry
Learning Partnership Officer
August 2009

VAL has updated its course fees for 2009/10. The new fee structure is simpler and fees have been kept at 2008/09 levels for full VAL members.... read more.

Voting for the LSP elections closed at midday on Tuesday. Joel Hartfield from the LSP team supervised the ballot count.

As a result of the ballot, the 5 organisations with the most votes were:

We are currently in the process of moving our website to a new host. Unfortunately we have encountered some technical difficulties with this. In particular some of you may have noticed that the website has been unavailable at times recently. Please bear with us over the next couple of weeks as it is possible that the website may continue to be inaccessible intermittently.