As everyone’s winding down for Christmas, I’ve been thinking about things I’m looking forward to in the new year when I come back to work re-energised. One group I’m really excited to be working with more closely is Dudley Youth Council.
Back in September we invited people to help us design a programme of support for our sector who are keen to lead innovation and transformation in their teams, organisations or communities. This was part of work that Dudley CVS staff and trustees have been undertaking around five priorities we set ourselves this year, which I blogged about in August.
The group of us working on the priority around innovation, transformation and sustainability have recently fed back to Dudley CVS board, below are the highlights. These are from in depth conversations with leaders of eight different organisations in Dudley borough.
Innovation
“Seeing things that work in other contexts and bringing them to your own work and applying them in different ways, to different things.”
“The ethos and core of who we are stays the same, but the way we meet that has to be continually up for discussion.”
Transformation
“Culture change.” “It needs strong vision and leadership.”
“It is ongoing on constant.”
“It is about change, responding to change, adapting to change, including being responsive to digital technologies.”
Sustainability
“Survival – diversifying income streams, looking at a variety of funding models.”
“I used to think it was about staying where you are. Now I think it’s about pushing forward.”
“It’s not about the organisation, it’s about the customer. If the way to preserve services is that our organisation isn’t here, that’s fine. We have to help people to help themselves.”
The people we have spoke to frequently touched on ways in which the sector is becoming more like social enterprise, using tactics previously thought of as belonging to business. Publications such as the Compendium for the Civic Economy and The Convergence Continuum: towards a 4th sector in global development? highlight ways in which the boundaries between the private, public, and non-profit sectors have been blurring. Pioneering organisations have emerged with new models for addressing societal challenges that blend attributes and strategies from all sectors. They are creating hybrid organisations that transcend the usual sectoral boundaries.
The key question we explored with people we have spoken to was: how might we support voluntary organisations in Dudley borough to innovate, transform and become more sustainable? We were explicit that ‘we’ didn’t mean specifically Dudley CVS, it could mean anyone who wanted to be involved, including people supporting each other.
Five headline themes are emerging around:
Other points which stand out from the conversations include how we respond to and use digital technology to help innovation etc. Also suggestions about using assets (buildings, equipment, skills etc.) differently, and sharing assets with each other. One conversation delved into alternative forms of finance, such as social investment bonds. Another explored the importance of language and framing – the need to help overcome fear, resistance and closing in with an optimism around opportunities and a focus on what we do have (rather than what is being taken away).
Our next step is to start evolving our some of our support to respond to what we’ve found, and the ideas we heard during these conversations. We’d love to hear from you about:
Bright and early on a Tuesday morning at the end of last month, Eileen and I met for coffee with Andrew Mullaney, who is Dudley’s first ever Business Connector, seconded from Lloyds Bank to Business in the Community’s Business Connectors programme.
The Business in the Community website says: “Business Connectors are talented individuals seconded from business, trained by Business in the Community and placed in communities of greatest need to build partnerships that tackle local issues.”
I think we’ve struck gold here in Dudley because Andrew is not only talented, and experienced in business, but also hugely passionate about Dudley and driven by a mission to make a sustainable, lasting difference in the work that he does.
In his first five weeks in his new role Andrew had already made an astonishing number of connections and was working incredibly energetically as a network weaver (see video below), actively creating connections between people and organisations who hadn’t previously known about each other, or worked together.
In the weeks since we met him, Andrew has been just brilliant at connecting us with helpful people and organisations, and has very kindly been promoting Dudley Volunteer Centre and Dudley CVS in all sorts of things he’s been involved in. If you want to use and grow your networks to make positive change in Dudley I’d recommend arranging to meet Andrew for a coffee. Some great connections are guaranteed!
You can connect with Andrew on twitter @dudleyconnector, by email andrew.mullaney@bitcconnect.org or give him a call on 07834945827.
For more on network weaving, check out June Holley’s work, and the video below.
Happy Global Entrepreneurship Week!
“Global Entrepreneurship Week is the world’s largest celebration of the innovators and job creators who launch startups that bring ideas to life, drive economic growth and expand human welfare.” (From http://uk.gew.co)
What better time to let you know about events and support for local social entrepreneurs?
An exploration of opportunities emerging in the West Midlands – this Thursday
Local people and organisations are invited to run activities during Global Entrepreneurship Week, and one of our local organisations, the Beacon Centre for the Blind have signed up. They are hosting an event this Thursday. The Opportunities for Social Enterprise, Investment and Impact conference is a West Midlands wide event, and places for people who live or work in Dudley borough have kindly been subsidised by Dudley Council, so are free. Just hop over to Eventbrite to register.
A marketplace event – on Friday 27 November
A different kind of event coming up for social enterprises and social entrepreneurs in Dudley borough has been organised by the local Synergy network (@synergy_dudley on twitter). On Friday 27 November they are hosting a marketplace event at Brierley Hill Civic Hall.
Doors open at 9am, and the event kicks off at 9.30am with talks from the Leader of Dudley Council, our Chief Officer Andy Gray, along with other Synergy network leads and local MPs. A panel discussion leads into a free lunch at 12.30pm and the afternoon marketplace will be open until 4pm.
If you’d like to pop along for part or all of the day please contact Tim Jones at Higgs & Sons Solicitors on 0845 111 5050 or email tim.jones@higgsandsons.co.uk
Dudley CVS support – available any time
And finally, don’t forget that we offer free support to social entrepreneurs and social enterprises in Dudley borough. I recently interviewed Becky Pickin about the support Dudley CVS provide.
Have a listen to the short clip to hear about how we help people – from the first step on the journey of understanding what a social enterprise is, to developing ideas and undertaking market research, to setting up governance. I also asked Becky about Synergy, so if you’d like to hear more about what it is, just click the play button.
Do you have any questions about social enterprise? Are there any local social entrepreneurs you’d like to see featured on our blog? Leave us a comment or get in touch with us on twitter or Facebook.
The Trustees’ Week website has lots of useful information about becoming a trustee, recruiting trustees and topics related to running a charity.
Amongst its posts is one piece about trustee facts and figures, which says:
- There are over 1,000,000 trustee positions in England and Wales;
- Estimates suggest that almost half of charities have at least one vacancy on their board;
- Just 0.5% of trustees in England and Wales are aged between 18 and 24, (compared with 12% of the population as a whole);
- The average age of trustees in England and Wales is 57, two thirds are aged 50 and over.
- 43.4% of trustees are female, and 56% are male. (Each trustee is counted only once, though some are trustees for more than one charity. The figure for female trustees should be treated as a minimum as only those whose titles are certainly female are included).
Earlier this year, (July 2015) I had the pleasure of interviewing
Alison Sayer, Chief Executive Officer of Halas Homes in Halesowen (www.halashomes.co.uk), for an article in the Dudley CVS Echo newsletter. Alison has been a Dudley CVS Board member since 2013, bringing with her a particular expertise in Human Resources and seemingly boundless energy.
I asked Alison to tell more about Halas Homes, which is akin to lighting the blue touch paper on a firework. “Halas Homes has been caring for people with learning difficulties for over 50 years. Today, it is a 24/7 residential care home for up to 36 adults with learning difficulties,” replied Alison, adding, “the adjacent day centre is open to residents and non-residents and hosts a wide variety of daily activities to aid health and wellbeing. There are also five ‘supported living’ homes for people with a degree of independence,” and by the way, “Halas Homes won a top award last year, picking up the Creative Arts Award in the national 3rd Sector Care Awards 2014. The award was presented by TV personality and campaigner, Esther Rantzen.”
Coming from a background in hospitality, Alison refers to the residents and the people who use the day centre as ‘customers.’ “It’s really important to find out as much as possible about our customers so that we can design services and activities that provide the best possible outcomes for them,” she said.
While Alison is clearly passionate about the work of Halas Homes, she is not so keen to be in the spotlight, preferring instead to conduct a guided tour of the Halas Homes premises and let some of the residents, members of staff and volunteers do the talking.
In the kitchen, we met Ken, who has been a Halas Homes resident for 39 years. While drying dishes, Ken spoke about how much he had enjoyed installing bird boxes in Halesowen earlier this year as part of Halesowen in Bloom. In the day centre, volunteer Glynis Miles was leading an activity called Sing and Sign. The singing part was a boisterous rendition of “I never promised you a rose garden.” The signing part involved two teams of residents and visitors taking part in a highly animated and competitive version of charades.
Outside, the allotment site was awash with produce ready to be picked and prepared in the on-site kitchen. Also outside, Mark Stevens, an ‘invaluable’ Halas Homes volunteer for over four years, was busy cleaning one of the small mini-buses. “I started out as a volunteer here at Halas Homes, then I became a part-time employee, but I still do voluntary time as well because I like to help out in any way I can, such as running errands to pick up prescriptions. But most of all I enjoy helping with activities for our customers,” said Mark.
Alison also walked me the Coffee Cups Café in nearby Thornhill Road, where volunteer helper, Suzy Bury, had been preparing vegetable soup, something she was clearly very proud of. The café, which was acquired by Halas Homes in 2012, plays host to nearly 300 customers each week, providing home-made fayre at cost plus a small profit margin.
So, an interview with Alison Sayer that was supposed to last one hour extended to over three hours and I enjoyed every minute of it. Never once did Alison say “I did” it was always, ”we did.”
Dudley CVS Board Member, Tom Keys, is a busy man. To be more accurate, Tom Keys is a very, very busy man.
Despite approaching his 75th birthday on New Year’s Day next year, Tom’s diary is full of things-to-do; and most of those things-to-do are of a volunteering nature.
Tom’s current list of volunteering memberships runs to thirteen organisations spread across a wide variety of causes, including sports clubs, faith groups, health and wellbeing support groups and Neighbourhood Watch.
Tom Keys was born in Londonderry, Northern Ireland in 1941. As a youth he joined the local Boys Brigade, rising to Battalion Colour Sargent. He also served as a volunteer Special Constable, which proved to be the catalyst for some five decades of volunteering to follow. His claim to fame in Northern Ireland is that he was personally blessed by the Bishop of Derry.
Tom left Northern Ireland in 1960, but his soft Irish brogue has never left him. He came to live in Kingswinford, working at Birmingham Sound Reproducers (BSR), which at the time was the largest manufacturer of record turntables in the world. Tom developed a passion for winemaking and beer brewing and became a local authority on home brewing.
Tom Keys gathers Elderberries for another batch of home-made wine.
For four years he was President of the Midland Region of Amateur Winemakers Federation. Tom qualified as a Wine Judge in 1984 and appeared in a Channel 4 wine programme in 2012.
It was following a talk about the secrets of winemaking Tom gave to the Dudley branch of Parkinson’s UK in 1999, that he was invited to become its President; an invitation he accepted gladly, especially as his Mother was suffering from Parkinson’s disease. He is still President of the Dudley branch of Parkinson’s UK today.
From 1999 to the present day, Tom has devoted thousands of volunteer hours to all sorts of local groups and organisations, joining the Dudley CVS Board in 2008. When asked what qualities Tom brings to the Board, he said he likes to think he takes nothing at face value, questioning and probing where necessary, but always to “ensure Dudley CVS continues to go from strength to strength towards achieving its objectives.”
Tom served as a Justice of the Peace on the Dudley Bench for 9 years. Tom remains passionate about home-brewing and makes about 240 bottles of wine from local fruit and vegetables each year. His other passion is crown green bowling, a pastime he took up four years ago after giving up playing golf (Tom, is a former Captain of Wrottesley Golf Club 2006/7). Tom is currently Chairman of Stourbridge Sons of Rest, vice-captain of the Mary Stevens Bowling Club B Team.
A third passion of Tom’s is photography. For the last dozen years or so he has given fundraising photography and video presentations of places he has visited with his wife, Patricia. The next DVD show is 30th October at the Wesley Chapel, in Mount Pleasant at 6.00pm. For more information e-mail: tomkeys@blueyonder.co.uk.
“Trustees are the people in charge of a charity. They play a vital role, volunteering their time and working together to make important decisions about the charity’s work. Trustees’ Week is an annual event to showcase the great work that trustees do and highlight opportunities for people from all walks of life to get involved and make a difference.”
From the Trustees’ Week website
I’m really pleased to share the work I and my wonderful colleagues have done to support individuals, communities and organisations last year. The Dudley CVS Annual Report outlines how we’ve been connecting and inspiring people and organisations to achieve positive change and championing their work. It covers the year April 2014-March 2015.
Sharing inspiring stories of people doing good stuff in Dudley borough and how we support it
Sharing information and activities for our members
Putting people in the lead to improve lives and communities across the UK.
Supporting people to become more involved, connected and active in their communities
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