Change Up is a government initiative for investing in the development of Voluntary and Community Sector infrastructure and capacity building support. It has been developed with the voluntary sector and seeks to address key capacity needs of frontline organisations through infrastructure improvement. ChangeUp aims to ensure that by 2014 the needs of frontline voluntary and community organisations will be met by support that is available nationwide, is efficient, offers excellent provision to all, promotes diversity and is sustainable. This will be done on a local, sub-regional and regional basis.
ChangeUp originally addressed six national ‘Hubs of Excellence’ to enable frontline organisations to fulfil their potential. These were:
- Performance
- Workforce
- ICT
- Governance
- Finance
- Volunteering
Since then it has moved to nine worksteams.
At the local level, the Lewisham Local Infrastructural Development Plan (LIDP) has been written in response to the ChangeUp initiative. Based on consultation and research, 10 initial development programmes have been identified:
1. Information and Research
2. Second Tier Development
3. Organisational Development
4. Neighbourhood Collaboration
5. BME Capacity Building
6. Volunteer Development
7. Volunteer Support
8. Premises Development
9. Social Enterprise
10. ICT Programme
ChangeUp has synergy with community focussed strategies and policies adopted by Lewisham Council and Lewisham PCT. The initiative can potentially ‘add value’ and maximise investments by Lewisham Council and Lewisham PCT. Nationally, ChangeUp is managed by Capacity Builders, an agency at arms length to government. Please refer to the ChangeUp website (external link) for further information and the East London Network website (external link) for details of sub-regional initiatives and resources.
Further Information
For further information on ChangeUp please contact Brian Wagenbach on: 020 8698 6034 or e-mail: brian@valewisham.org.uk
