I was delighted to see that some of the fabulous voluntary and community groups that we support had been recognised for their diverse achievements at this month’s Mayor’s Civic Awards.
What we can achieve when we work together: celebrating International Women’s Day
On Monday afternoon I had the lovely honour of celebrating International Women’s Day with Diyya, a group in Lye that supports women and their families by bringing them together, building their confidence and encouraging them to take advantage of opportunities to learn new things and develop their skills.
A call to everyone that wants to build a vibrant community hub at Brierley Hill Civic Hall
What great things could happen in this space? This photo was taken during the set up of our last AGM and Volunteer Awards
On Tuesday 3rd March, 2pm-4pm, we’ll be throwing open the doors of Brierley Hill Civic Hall to anyone who would like to help us bring this wonderful venue to life.
Whether you’re a resident, an artist, entertainer or promoter, or if you belong to a business, college, voluntary group or charity, you’re welcome to come along and see the Civic Hall’s potential for yourself. I’m really looking forward to meeting people who want to make great things happen at the Civic Hall, ask questions, tour the space and share their ideas and inspiration.
There’s so much potential for Brierley Hill Civic Hall to become home to many more groups and activities, particularly during the daytime. Since my last post, we’ve already had some great ideas ranging from socials for older people, vintage cinema events, linking with local businesses, and I want to thank everyone that’s shared their ideas so far. We want to encourage local talent to use the Civic Hall as a showcase venue for their skills; we want to make sure that the Civic reflects local heritage and is a vibrant community hub for everyone.
So please join us at Brierley Hill Civic Hall on Tuesday 3rd March, 2pm-4pm, to share your ideas over light refreshments.
If you can’t attend but would still like to share your ideas, please join in the conversations here by making a comment, on Twitter or on Facebook. Alternatively, you’re welcome to contact me on 01384 573381.
I’m looking forward to working with you.
One meeting that changed everything
Image credit: Simon Huggins, shared through Creative Commons on Flickr
At Dudley CVS a common and constant challenge is that of effective internal communication. It’s a perennial topic of discussion at our staff away days. Over the years we’ve tried noticeboards in the hallway, staff meetings, various ideas involving email, a brief flirtation with Yammer, team leader meetings and more. We’ve never really got it to work.
Which is what made this morning so blindingly brilliant. Thanks to some sensible colleagues we’ve started 2015 with dates in for quarterly staff meetings with required attendance, and monthly staff meetings in intervening months which are optional. I wasn’t particularly supportive of this, I have found staff meetings in the past to be less than inspiring, and personally I much prefer deeper one-to-one conversations with people to find out what they are up to and thinking about.
I think we were all a bit surprised when we saw the agenda for this morning’s staff meeting (right). So after an update from our Chief Officer, Andy, on what our Board is focused on, we moved on to ‘interviews’. Andy asked someone to set a timer for 5 minutes on their phone, then he started choosing staff members at random to ask questions of, until everyone had been subjected to this!
Terry Gee from our Integrated Plus team was picked on first, he was asked by Andy:
- What achievement in the last 2 months are you most proud of?
- What is the biggest challenge you face in the next few months?
- What was your nickname at school?
- What is the biggest bit of work you are getting your teeth in to next?
- What do you want to be written on your Dudley CVS epitaph?
These are great (and fun) questions, which clearly I noted down so I could begin to prepare my own responses. But as Andy moved on the the second round of questioning he changed the questions! Then Terry, who by now could relax, started to scribble questions down and slid them across the table to Andy. I loved this natural and welcome disruptive behaviour and we were also all enjoying hearing about each other’s work in a different way.
Then it got even better. Andy asked Nicki whose work she knew least about. She looked at me. He asked her what she was going to do about it. So now Nicki and I are meeting next week for coffee (in a cafe, of course) to catch up on our respective projects and work. Given we haven’t managed to arrange something as simple as this for 5 years I really welcomed the nudge.
Then it was my turn to be interviewed. I think Andy really has a sense of what his staff need at any given time, so amongst other things I was asked to identify a colleague who could be a listening ear to support me around some challenges I am struggling with. This was just brilliant. I looked around the room at these familiar faces in a completely new way, with a different pair of eyes. Suddenly they had shifted from being people who are busy and do great work that’s not much to do with me, to a hugely rich pool of skilled, experienced and supportive friends and mentors who might give a bit of time to listen to what I find difficult. And though I was asked to choose one colleague on the spot, I have already approached a second and got a time to meet next week. I hope that I will continue this, as there are so many different perspectives and ways of thinking and doing among our staff that could really help me to have insights in to my work, I would be daft not to ask for a bit of time from everyone. And yet I don’t think I’ve ever really asked before.
Lots of pairings were made through the meeting, and we even had the most constructive conversation I think we’ve ever had about creating useful and effective staff meetings, so now we have clear topics for the next two optional staff meetings. This makes them feel much more appealing and likely to be attended. Might we have nailed it?
We’d love to know:
- What internal communication strategies or activities work well for your group or organisation?
And invite you to reflect on the following:
- If you could have coffee (or tea) with one of your colleagues who you don’t know so well, who would it be and what’s stopping you?
- Who in your organisation could be a great listening ear and source of support when you are facing challenges? What would prompt you to ask them for half an hour of their time?
Brierley Hill Civic Hall: Unlocking potential and creativity together
Dudley CVS will take on the running of Brierley Hill Civic Hall from next month in an arrangement that aims to make the venue an exciting hub and to make Brierley Hill a vibrant destination for entertainment and leisure.
More than just bricks and mortar; community assets are about the people and activities they attract. This photo is of Volunteer Award winners packed into the foyer of Brierley Hill Civic Hall.
Social Media Surgery dates for February and March 2015
You may have read recently about how a nationwide community of surgeons have supported people and groups to get started with social media at social media surgeries, including how social media surgeries have helped people across Dudley borough.
Now my colleagues Lorna and Melissa have announced dates for the next round of surgeries for Dudley and Stourbridge. So come along to one of the friendly and informal surgeries to find out how to get started on social media, all over a cuppa and cake! Maybe I’ll see you there!
Melissa Guest and I will be running Social Media Surgeries throughout 2015.
Social Media Surgeries are completely free advice sessions for community and voluntary groups, clubs and societies. Find out how to use how to use blogs, video clips, photo sharing sites, Facebook, Twitter or other free web tools to help your group. We can help you to use the web to communicate, campaign or collaborate easily and for free.
Upcoming dates and venues are:
- The Talbot Hotel in Stourbridge on Monday 23 February between 10am and 12pm – register places here
- Cafe Grande in Dudley on Thursday 19 March between 6pm and 7.30pm – register places here
Deepak from Dudley Libraries giving his time and social media know-how to help John from Community Transport at a recent Dudley Social Media Surgery
Completing your Awards for All application
Here’s a useful post from the Big Lottery Fund on the mistakes to avoid when completing your Awards for All application. As incomplete applications can’t be assessed, it’s really worthwhile doublechecking your application before submitting it, to avoid unnecessary delays to your project. Have a read and learn more below.
You can always get help with your Awards for All application from Dudley CVS and we have loads of experience with building good quality projects and applications. And remember, Dudley borough is currently under-subscribed to Awards for All (see our last post on this here: http://wp.me/p4qxlT-5m), so it might be a good time to get planning your application!
We’re busy planning our Awards for All event with staff from Big Lottery Fund and Dudley Council where you will be able to work on some of the most important questions on the application form. The event will be in April and we’ll post details very soon.
When we announced our latest round of Awards for All grants this January, we took a look at some of the most common mistakes made when applying for our small grant funding, and how you can avoid them.
It seems obvious, but you’d be amazed by the number of application forms we receive that are incomplete. If your application is not complete then it can’t be assessed. Make sure you thoroughly read through the application guidance first and ensure you answer all the questions in the form.
Again, it might sound simple but please double check that all of your personal information, such as names and addresses are spelled correctly.
The most common application mistakes we see are:
- Contacts not being suitable; ensure your senior contact is able to be legally responsible for any grant we may offer.
- The main and senior contact being the same person.
- Home addresses, dates of birth and landlines not included…
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Dudley borough projects can get their hands on Awards for All funding
We’ve recently learned that Dudley projects are missing out on funding from Awards for All, a Big Lottery Fund programme that offers grants of between £300 and £10,000 for activities that run for 12 months or less.
You can learn more about Awards for All by watching this short video:
Extraordinary Lives CIC achieves Building Blocks award
Extraordinary Lives CIC provides one to one and group NLP (neuro linguistic programming) life coaching workshops for people with learning disabilities amongst other disabilities and their carers. The coaching promotes a better outlook on life for these individuals and equips them with the necessary tools to live as independently as possible and increase their sense of well being. As a result, the coaching has a positive effect on many other areas of the individual’s life.
The workshops are delivered in fun, creative and innovative ways. Extraordinary Lives Coaching Services is unique because it enables, empowers and motivates people with learning disabilities/ disabilities and their carers in ways that have not been used before. The main aim of Extraordinary Lives is to move away from traditional approaches of support and works to equip people with learning disabilities with the skills and confidence they need to make the most of their lives and achieve their dreams.
Getting to grips with social media to communicate, campaign and collaborate
Alison, Mel and Becky at Dudley Social Media Surgery
An ever increasing number of people who volunteer or work for our local groups, clubs, societies and charities are using social media. But for the uninitiated it can feel overwhelming and difficult to know where to start, never mind the technical requirements of how to start.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could just sit and talk to someone who knows about social media? Ask them questions which might feel a bit daft, but which they will understand why you’re asking and how you’re feeling. Perhaps they might show you the basics of how something like Twitter or Facebook works, even how to set up an account and profile and post your first message.
Wouldn’t it be just amazing if all this social media support was available for free, in a relaxed environment, over a cuppa ? And available regularly, so you could come back if you had forgotten something, or wanted to go further, or find out about something else new?
This is exactly what the clever people from Podnosh in Birmingham thought, so they made it really easy for this sort of support to be made available anywhere in the world. They called the idea Social Media Surgeries and set up a website to help people who want to run them.
Melissa Guest and I have been hosting Social Media Surgeries in Dudley for nearly 4 years. The most recent one took place at Cafe Grande in Dudley town centre on 25 November, and is a great example of the diversity of things which happen.
It was John Sanders’ first time to a Social Media Surgery. He was paired up with Deepak Rana, who by day works for Dudley Libraries service and expertly manages their social media channels such as the @dudleylibraries twitter account and their Facebook Page. It was Deepak’s first time giving his time as a surgeon (that’s what the helpers are called). John works for Community Transport in Dudley and Sandwell and wanted to learn how he could use Twitter and Facebook to help communicate with people who might enjoy volunteering with Community Transport, and generally to raise awareness of the service. Deepak talked through and showed John how to use Twitter, then they set up a twitter account for Community Transport. Next they looked at Facebook. John was shown how to set up a Facebook Page (which is different to the personal profiles people use on Facebook to connect with family and friends) and how to link Twitter and Facebook to each other.
Deepak showing John how to use Twitter
John was surprised to learn he could come back to Social Media Surgeries whenever he wanted to. He was interested in learning about blogging – he said he had heard the word blog, but didn’t know what it was or what it meant. This is exactly what Social Media Surgeries are here to help with.
Alison Sayer works for Halas Homes, a charity based in Halesowen who care for people with learning disabilities. Alison had come along to Dudley Social Media Surgery in July last year and learned to use Twitter, and has never looked back! (There is a Digital Dudley post about that surgery and you can find Alison’s fantastic twitter feed at @HalasHomes) This time she booked places for herself and Marion, Jennifer and Libby from her staff team. They wanted to learn together how to use Facebook in an appropriate way for their charity and people they support. Surgeons Becky and Mel listened to what their particular needs and concerns were, then helped them to set up a Facebook Page and use the privacy settings. Alison said at the end of the evening “Mel engaged all of us in to it, which is what I wanted. I think we’ll be coming back for WordPress!”
Karl and Quasia
Karl Denning is a guide dog owner from Dudley who campaigns for equality and raises awareness about behaviours which make day to day life difficult and even dangerous for partially sighted people – see this great video he made with Dudley Police. Karl first came along to Dudley Social Media Surgery a year ago, when he learned some new tips and tricks to use Twitter more effectively (he’s on twitter as @KarlDenning). He returned to the next surgery for help to set up a new blog on WordPress.
It was great to welcome Karl and his guide dog Quasia back to Cafe Grande last month. Karl wanted some help get started on Instagram, which is a free online photo and video sharing service. It was the first time anyone had been to one of our surgeries asking about Instagram, and as someone who enjoys using it I was keen to help Karl get to grips with it. As usual, the surgeon learns from the person they are helping, as well as the other way around. I was fascinated to see how the software on Karl’s phone made using social media a breeze for people who are partially sighted. Looking at a photo based site with Karl was a great reminder of the importance of adding alternative text descriptions to photos when uploading them to blogs and so on. And Karl introduced me the most amazing Instagram account which I hugely recommend having a look at: NASA’s. It truly is out of this world and the images are jaw dropping.
Social Media Surgeries will be running through 2015 in Dudley and Stourbridge, dates to be arranged. We arrange and host them in our own time, surgeons give their time and knowledge freely, the cafes we use give us their spaces for free, and Dudley CVS help to promote them. Please get in touch if you’d like to know more – I’m lorna@dudleycvs.org.uk on email and @dosticen on twitter.
Dudley CVS blog 