Strategic 3 Year Plan

January 2014 – January 2017

John Coleby, Director, Caritas Westminster

  1. Introduction

Caritas Westminster has been established to encourage our Catholic communities to engage in civil society for the common good.

This strategic plan sets out the priorities for Caritas Westminster for the next three years, and the underlying structure and resources necessary to fulfil it.

Caritas Westminster has a clearly defined purpose and is expressed in the following vision and mission:

Vision: Caritas Westminster will seek to bring about a society where everyone lives a life of dignity and worth.

Mission: Caritas Westminster will enable our Catholic communities to identify and respond competently and in charity to all forms of poverty and social exclusion.

Our work is enriched and underpinned by Catholic Social Teaching from which we discern our guiding set of Values and Principles of Action including;

  • Maintaining a preferential option to work with the most marginalised groups
  • Supporting and building communities where people participate and belong and work for a more just society
  • Providing services which extend beyond responding to the immediate need, to empower individuals, mindful of their self-worth and dignity
  • Encouraging , supporting and celebrating local initiatives (in the spirit of subsidiarity)
  • Supporting and working on projects that actively put into practice Catholic social teaching, including stewardship of the earth’s resources and respect for the dignity of workers

Caritas Westminsteris;

  • An umbrella network, bringing together all those working for the common good in the Church’s name within the diocese
  • A direct service provider work directly to alleviate poverty and social exclusion
  • A commissioner of services providing resources to parishes and other organisations to undertake social outreach work

The mission is executed by fulfilling the following aims and achieving the corresponding outcomes;

Strategic Aims / Outcomes
  1. Empower the voiceless and those most in need
/ People empowered to improve their lives - the voice of the most marginalised is listened to and responded to. Where they cannot speak for themselves Caritas will support the advocacy role of the Archbishop.
  1. Build on existing social action in Diocese
/ Improved social action alleviating the causes and effects of poverty and social exclusion
  1. Inspire and enable parish communities to get involved
/ Confident and engaged community with volunteers trained for action
  1. Draw in people, resources and partners to the work
/ CaritasWestminster established as the ‘go to’ support agency for Catholic social action.
5. Lean, effective, learning organisation. / Maximising the impact and sharing of knowledge and skills across the diocese.
  1. Strategic Objectives

There are three strategic objectives for Caritas Westminster to achieve the above aims:

a) Support existing and emerging local Catholic responses to need

  • There is a visible parish programme to support discernment and response to local needs.
  • All individuals/groups have access to quality training and support, appropriate to their level of participation
  • Caritas Westminsteris a learning organisation that supports the developmentand sharing of knowledgeand skills, including through engagementwithstrategic partners.
  • All activities and developmentspromote a Catholic ethos and are supported by scripture and the Church’s tradition. All activities arereviewed against the mission and vision of Caritas Westminster and principles of Catholic social teaching.

b) Develop diocesan responses to the following identified priority areas

  • Food Poverty and Debt
  • Social isolation of the most vulnerable
  • Intellectual Disability
  • Homelessness
  • Human Trafficking
  • Deaf Community
  • Youth Inclusion

It is to be noted that these priority areas are not stand alone and, where ever possible, Caritas Westminster will always take a holistic approach to any initiative.

c) Clarify and implement appropriate funding, governance and structure for Caritas Westminster.

  1. Activities

The following activities will support the strategic objectives;

(The operational plan will flow from the strategic plan)

a) Support existing and emerging local Catholic responses to need

i) Parish programme to support discernment, engagement and enrichment in response to local needs

Parishes will be supported by a tool kit of resources to be used by individuals, groups and the parish community which will:

  • Make Catholic Social teaching attractive and accessible.
  • Support social outreach which owned and driven by the parish community

ii) All volunteers will have access to training and support

  • Caritas Westminster field workers will provide mentoring, training and support for parishes on social action projects
  • In addition, specialised training will be commissioned where necessary

iii) Caritas is a learning organisation that supports the developmentand sharing of knowledgeand skills

  • Linking parishes so as to facilitate good practice
  • Web portal
  • Learning from diocesan projects and our partners to share knowledge and experience across diocese
  • Undertaking and commissioning research – including action research to support sharing best practice
  • Conferences and road shows – showcasing good practice (General or themed)
  • Round table
  • Involvement in local, regional and national networks – faith based and secular

iv) Monitoring and Evaluation will be informed by the vision and mission of CaritasWestminster and principles of Catholic social teaching. This will include;

  • A review of all current projects
  • The incorporation of these guiding principles in the development of all new projects

b) Develop diocesan responses to the following identified priority areas:

i)Food Poverty (FP) and Debt

  • Develop knowledge of the range of response models to FP- which include Foodbanks, lunch clubs, and supper clubs.
  • Develop effective resources (Tool kits) with the range of FP organisations in order to help match parish aspirations to tackle FP with an appropriate response.
  • Raise awareness of alternatives to pay day lenders through the promotion of Credit Union’s and similar services.
  • Develop effective partnerships with money advice organisations in order to extend service to those in need.
  • Map penetration of parish and diocesan activity in the areas of food poverty and money advice.
  • Seed fund new initiatives to meet growing demand for new schemes
  • Develop roundtable forums for developing strategy and sharing experience and best practice.

ii)Social isolation of the most vulnerable

  • Develop effective partnerships with key organisations whose mission is to combat loneliness and social isolation.
  • Develop knowledge of different resources (Tool kits) and responses to combating loneliness and isolation. E.G Clubs, tea parties, home visiting, lunch clubs, telephone befriending so that parish aspirations can be matched to an appropriate response to combat loneliness.
  • Map penetration of parish and diocesan activity in combating loneliness and social isolation of vulnerable groups.
  • Seed fund new initiatives to meet growing demand for new schemes
  • Develop roundtable forums for developing strategy and sharing experience and best practice.

iii)Intellectual Disability

  • Expand existing services through the dioceses through Connect@ model (local hubs) to provide a welcome and to celebrate
  • Develop partnerships with key organisations in localities which support people with intellectual disabilities in order to reach out to people with ID and their families.
  • Identify more Catholic families supporting children with special needs or adults with intellectual disabilities
  • Map parish and diocesan social action activity supporting work with people with intellectual disabilities and their families.
  • Seed fund new initiatives to meet growing demand for new schemes
  • Develop roundtable forums for developing strategy and sharing experience and best practice

iv) Homelessness

  • Develop key partnerships with organisations whose mission it is to respond to homelessness and housing issues.
  • Develop a range of resources (tool kits) in order to support parishes to match their response to homelessness as it manifests itself in the locality.
  • Encourage parish participation in winter night shelter networks
  • Map parish and diocesan social action activity combating homelessness
  • Seed fund new initiatives to meet growing demand for new schemes
  • Develop roundtable forums for developing strategy and sharing experience and best practice

v)Human Trafficking:

Human trafficking is a priority need for social action as identified by the Holy See and CBCEW. Caritas will develop a response to support the victims of human trafficking and modern slavery by:

  • Developing partnerships with organisations and agencies already dedicated to combating to consequences of human trafficking.
  • In partnership with other agencies develop a national resource centre for support of victims who have been trafficked. To include emergency and move on accommodation, counselling and legal advice, ESOL and employment services, resettlement in the UK if desirable or return to country of origin through safe networks.
  • Developing preventative strategies through direct work with the supply side of human trafficking, education programmes on modern slavery in schools and parishes.

viDeaf Community

Caritas Deaf Service, as it will now be known will continue to serve the Deaf and hard of Hearing community in the diocese and;

  • Spread its outreach more widely throughout the diocese
  • Integrate its knowledge and initiatives into the wider Caritas Westminster work, including advocacy

viiYouth Isolation

Whether it is through access to work/adequately paid work, affordability of independent living or meaningful participation in society, there is a recognised need in the diocese to remove any barriers to the full inclusion of the Youth in our society. Caritas Westminster will;

  • Work with other agencies to develop one pilot youth outreach project
  1. Ground work - Research and Mapping

It is important that we have a thorough understanding of the social action activity already taking place within the Diocese. We already have completed:

  • work with the University of Middlesex which has provided us with a high level understanding at borough level and a social economic and demographic profile of the diocese.
  • deanery mapping with 25% of parishes responding

We will now complete the mapping exercise by:

  • Compiling the interactive online directory
  1. Infrastructure - Hubs

We will establish hubs in key parishes across the diocese in order to provide a framework for the development of social action. Hubs will be located in Central London, North London (Hendon), Hertfordshire, West London and East London. The hubs will provide support for parish projects and also deliver economies of scale and function as resource centres.

More specifically, the hubs will provide;

  • Visibility for the Caritas network and the range of Catholic social action in the locality
  • A location from which to support ongoing social action in parishes, and the mapping of social action
  • A location from which good practice on the management and delivery of social action can be shared between parishes
  • Services to support the needs of deaf parishioners (The Westminster Deaf service)
  • St Joseph’s services- activities, clubs catecheticsfor people with intellectual disabilities
  • Training, development and support of parish volunteers
  • A location for partnership work with faith groups or other organisations
  • A base for Caritas Westminster field workers
  1. Monitoring and Evaluation
  • All new projects will have an inbuilt process of monitoring and evaluation with particular regard to the new strategic framework
  • All current projects will be reviewed in the light of the new strategic framework and clear processes of monitoring and evaluation will subsequently be incorporated into future work on the projects
  1. Communications
  • Develop the brand of Caritas Westminster
  • The initial Caritas Westminster communications strategy will be re-visited in the light of the new strategic framework and, as a result of the increase in activity and profile expected from 2014 onwards
  • A named Communications staff member will be assigned oversight of the Caritas Westminster communications effort and profile
  1. Advocacy
  • Caritas Westminster will continue to develop and share its knowledge and experience of key issues regarding poverty and social exclusion to support the advocacy role of both the Archbishop and CSAN
  1. Governance

The Caritas Advisory Board (CAB) is delegated with the responsibility of supporting the work of Caritas on behalf of the Archbishop’s Council (ABC) and the board of Westminster Roman Catholic Diocesan Trust (WRCDT) trustees. However, the governance of Caritas Westminster will enter a transitional period as St. Joseph’s Pastoral Centre (SJPC), St. John Southworth Fund (SJSF) and the Westminster Deaf Service (WDF) come under the Caritas Westminster umbrella. This will require new governance arrangements.

  1. Organisational Structure as of January 2014

Caritas Westminsterwill be supported by a team of 5 field workers including the Research and Projects Officer who will work across the hub areas. They will be a combination of full and part time staff in order to provide maximum flexibility and coverage.

  1. Budget and Fundraising

An operational budget has been agreed for 2014. A three year strategic budget will be required to support the life of this strategy together with fundraising strategy.

This strategy will also include the restructuring of the St. John Southworth Fund.

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