Voluntary Sector Liaison Forum Minutes

Thursday 20thSeptember 2012 at 4.00pm

Forum members present: Councillor Emad Al-Ebadi (Chair), Councillor Bhagwanji Chohanand the following voluntary and community sector representatives:

Paulo Pimentel / Brent Bereavement Services
Tsige Dejene / Brent Active Citizens
Charmaine Goodridge / Brent Active Citizens
Ann O'Neill
Sadida Trozic / Brent Mencap
Bosnia and Herzegovina Community Advice Centre
Ian Kane / Brent Community Law Centre
Carmel Brown / Relate London North West
Gulfam Mohammed / Pakistan Community Centre
Almaas Ali / Help Somalia Foundation
Ayan Hassan / Women of the Horn
Maria Gmur-Pierre / 4th Brondesbury Brownies and Guides
Iqbal Mansoor / Brent Heart of Gold Group
Ken Luxon / Age UK Brent
Eleri Butler / ADVANCE (UK)
Tessa Awe / CVS Brent
John Slocco / Brent Carers Centre
Jacqueline Carr / Brent Citizens Advice Bureau
Verna Ridge / Victim Support
Amna Badri / Brent Children’s Centres Volunteer Programme
Phillip Sealy

Officers present: Joanna McCormick, Augusta Morton (Strategy, Partnerships and Improvement), Reehan Mirza (Strategy, Partnerships and Improvement)

Apologies

Received on behalf of the following:

Jenny Melrose Brent Active Citizens

Natasha FisherBrent Samaritans

Zahra HassanWomen of the Horn

Zara SweetP3

Sharon O’ReganBrent Irish Advisory Service

HyniOkosun Brent Irish Advisory Service

Tariq DarPakistan Community Centre

  1. Welcome and introductions

The chair was delayed so Cllr Bhagwanji Chohan kindly stepped in to chair until Cllr Emad’s arrival.

  1. Minutes of the previous meeting and matters arising

Decision:The minutes of the previous meeting were approved as an accurate and correct record of the March meeting.

  1. Presentations from Voluntary Sector Organisations

a)Bosnia and Herzegovina Welfare Advice Centre (Sadida Trozic)

Key Points arising from Presentation:

The community is not yet well established in Brent and live predominantly below the poverty line.

BHCAC has strong local, regional, national and international networks.The original remit was to serve the Bosnian refugee community, this was expanded to cater for all people of west Balkans heritage and not just Bosnians.

Like the majority of organisations, it has been hard to attract financial support and secure funding to ensure a sustainable future. The mission is to attract support and also encourage beneficiaries to contribute.

A comprehensive needs assessment will take place in May 2013 to inform future work to help people of the west Balkans.

At this moment in time, beneficiaries find it difficult to engage with other organisations who support older people and there is a need to address some of the barriers encountered.

BHCAC will consider any partnerships that benefit their beneficiaries and is keen to hear from others.

b)Brent Active Citizens (Tsige Dejene + Charmaine Goodridge)

Key Points arising from Presentation:

BAC is running a quarterly, 3 week Business Enterprise Programme which consists of training and six half-day workshops covering marketing, finance and business development.

Volunteers of all ages and backgrounds are available for other organisations to benefit from. To access the volunteers, organisations are required to register with BAC.

The Creative Minds Youth Project aims to encourage young people aged 16-25 to become involved in the community. An added incentive to participation in the project is that it provides an ASDAN qualification for all participants. This qualification is similar to an NVQ.

  1. Group Exercise

The group exercise sought to capture key issues for the sector at present and support was sought from both the council and the CVS in relation to these challenges. The Forum split into three groups and Joanna McCormick, Tessa Awe (CVS Brent), Augusta Morton and Reehan Mirzafacilitated a group discussion on:

‘Voluntary Sector Initiative Fund – Highlighting the upcoming funding opportunity’

Facilitators highlighted that applications for three year project funding with an exit strategy were sought. Bids have to be for between £1000 and £25000 each year for three years and offer to support Brent residents in relation to the following themes: community safety, regenerating the borough, supporting children and familiesand enabling young people to thrive, addressing health and well being and protecting our environment and enhancing our cultural offer. Details of the deadline and dates for workshops were provided.

The forum broke into small groups and considered how to address the common areas for improvement highlighted in the last round of grant funding including: evidencing of resident need, partnership, linkages between activities and proposed measures of success and how projects fits with others in the borough. They also had an opportunity to raise any questions about the funding process and highlight things which would be beneficial for fundraising, medium term financial planning and future bid writing.

Key themes arising from the group discussion included:

  • A need to have provision for organisations that don’t have access to internet or email. Jo McCormick highlighted that they would be happy to hear from groups for whom this was an issue for this round. She also highlighted the work of CVS Brent to improve the use of IT in the sector.
  • The onus lay with organisations themselves to look for and apply for funding. A need was identified for further support in accessing a range of funding streams. Tessa Awe highlighted the way in which organisations can access information about upcoming funding and the signposting the CSV can offer when specific needs for funding are identified by an organisation
  • Councillors were keen to learn more about organisations working in their ward. Jo McCormick said she would feed this back to the Community Directory project and see what could be done to show where different organisations were based in the borough. She also reiteratedthe way in which services are provided across a whole borough and sometimes further afield, irrespective of where the main office is situated
  • Some people felt that access to funding was too complex. A few organisations were keen to have a longer time to apply for funding
  1. Voluntary Sector Issues

a)A & E (Cllr. Emad Al Ebadi)

Cllr. Emad spoke about changes to A&E provision and encouraged everyone to participate in the consultation which closed on 8th October. Cllr. Emad went on to say that theissue had been addressed in a meeting of the Executive a number of weeks ago and was also raised in Area Consultative Forums .

b)Responding to issues raised (Joanna McCormick & Tessa Awe)

It was important to collectively understand the changes to national policy and their impact locally. The forum would provide an overviewwith more detailed sessions on particular topics being delivered as required. The focus would be on helping organisations bring funding into the borough to run projects for the benefit of residents. This would be further strengthened by enhancing the information and data available to support bids.

One of the issues that had been raised previously was the necessity of on-going dialogueto influence policy development and more face to face opportunities for residents to engage rather than online or written paperwork.

Another issue that was the importance of understanding the range of specialist provision available in the borough through a proper directory of voluntary groups – contacts/awareness.Work by CVS Brent and Brent council to update the key contacts profile and community directory was well underway.

Also, the point was raised about how organisations could balance meeting the needs of those served whilst fundraising. CVS Brent said that organisations were encouraged to build the internal skills within the whole team to pitch in to the fundraising.

c)Civic Centre Consultation

Cllr Emad, in response to a question about the spend on the new Civic Centre building responded that in the long term it made economic sense as the cost of the new building would be absorbed by the amount of money saved in having to pay for the maintenance and upkeep of old buildings.

There was a discussion about the costs of hall hire for smaller organisations. The point was raised that costs particularly for smaller organisations were prohibitive so civic centrecosts/ charges for hire should be modest and that there should be a 3 tier costing allowing organisations to collaborate to hold events. It was agreed that a presentation would come to a future meeting of the forum looking at this issue

  1. Any Other Business

Cllr. Emad highlighted the need for the development of consortia for smaller organisations who were finding it difficult in the economic climate to compete effectively for funds.It was agreed that the next meeting would focus on consortia/match funding in the group sessions.

Cllr. Emad also highlighted the importance of youth and community centres and encouraged the use of these premises.

Eoin Quiery, Senior Diversity Practitioner at Brent Council introduced himself and the work that he does and highlighted the Equality Forum and invited members to attend.

  1. Date of Next Meeting

Thursday 6th December2012 6pm – 8pm.

The meeting finished at 4.00pm.

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