Fundraisers Network Group Meeting

Wednesday 9th April 2014, 8.30 am - 11.30 am

Hythe Community Centre

Attendees:

Vivienne Wiggins – Beacon House –

Georgina Ambrose - Beacon House –

Paul Henry – Inspire2Enterprise –

Debbi Barnes – The Ministry of Parenting –

Frankie Harrison – Age UK Colchester –

Christine Maddock – Colchester Counselling and Psychotherapy Centre –

Kath Vale – Action for Family Carers –

Andrew Wallis – Colchester Y.M.C.A. –

Caroline Robinson – Colchester and TendringWomensRefuge. –

Heather Purdey – Colne Radio –

Vanda Watling – Essex Sight –

Libby Turner – Essex Sight –

Clare Avery – University of Essex –

Linda Riley – Voluntary Sector Training –

Phyl Reid – MS-UK –

Julian Carroll – C.E.D.A. –

Edward Pentney – Age UK Colchester –

Kerry Prior – C.O.P.E. –

Nick Winch - CCVS Volunteer

Julie Hocken – Essex Carers Support –

Sylvia Jeffcock – Colchester Night Shelter –

Adam Graham – Premier Choice –

Mike Horton – Premier Choice –

Alistair Heron – Colne Housing –

Lindsay Whitehouse – Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner –

David Evans – Colchester Community Voluntary Services (CCVS) Chairman

Janeen Trundle - Signpost –

Sara Kulikowski – Signpost –

Kumar Shrestha – Colchester Nepalese Community–

Graham Courtier – Open Door Colchester –

Mariam Najjuma – Fresh Beginners –

Pernille Petersen – The Haven Project –

Dave Thomas – Sainsburys Town Centre –

Clare Lee – Butterfly Lodge Education –

Ellie Goff – Butterfly Lodge Education –

Ann Oakes-Odger M.B.E. –Knife Crimes Organiser, Victims’ Advocates –

Paul Probert – Head of Community Resilience, Essex County Council -

Joanne Hockey – Headway Essex

Tracy Rudling - Colchester Community Voluntary Services (CCVS) Chief Executive Officer

Tracy Fortescue - Colchester Community Voluntary Services (CCVS) -

Rodney Appleyard - Colchester Community Voluntary Services (CCVS)/Colchester Catalyst Charity -

Louise Willsher - Colchester Community Voluntary Services (CCVS) -

Apologies but receiving notes:

Marina Woodrow – Colchester Night Shelter –

John Martucci – Colchester Night Shelter –

Clare Avery, Research and Business Partnerships Manager, University of Essex

The University of Essex has established a worldwide reputation for top quality teaching and research since being founded in 1964. The University has grown to accommodate more than 11,000 students, including over 3,000 postgraduates, who come from all over the world to study at one of the three campuses in Colchester, Loughton and Southend.

The University has many strengths, including:

  • Research excellence – Essex was ranked ninth in the UK for the quality of their research and top for social sciences in the latest Research Assessment Exercise (RAE, December 2008).
  • 22 per cent of their research was rated as ‘world-leading’ and more than 90 per cent was recognised internationally for its quality;
  • they are the UK’s leading university in social sciences with politics and sociology ranked first, economics third and linguistics fourth nationally;
  • in the humanities, history was ranked second, art history ranked ninth and philosophy ranked tenth;
  • Essex Business School was ranked second in the UK in accounting and finance research
  • Student satisfaction – they are ranked second among mainstream UK universities for overall satisfaction according to the 2013 National Student Survey.
  • International perspective – they are one of the UK's most internationally diverse campus universities with students drawn from more than 130 countries.

The University is seeking to work with the voluntary and community sector in Essex and can do so in three ways:

  • Skills - i.e. specialist knowledge and research
  • Expertise and resources- i.e. internships and placements, venues
  • Funding - access to business and academic funders which can link to joint project work

Skills -

  • Organisations can employ academics on a consultancy basis -
    there are 800 academic experts across 17 subject-based departments, who will work either as part of a short-term consultancy agreement or an ongoing partnership. Consultancy relationships can include providing technical advice on product development and process re-engineering, product testing and analysis, developing bespoke training sessions for you and your team on a specific topic, help with market research and business planning, survey and research design or expert advice on policy, legal and legislative issues.
  • Commission or collaborate on a research project -
    If you need research in an area that you don't have expertise in yourself, or don't have sufficient resource to commit to a project, you can commission the University of Essex to conduct a research project for you. Alternatively, you can collaborate with them on strategic funded projects of significance to your industry. This can include methodologies such as Social Return on Investment (SROI). A recent project has included analysis of the impact of the Community Visitors programme. Community Visitors was a pilot project placing volunteers in care homes to spend time with staff and residents. Notably, the University facilitates the Ageing and Assisted Living Network, which is a cross-disciplinary network of researchers established to promote innovative, multi-disciplinary research in ageing and assisted living with the aim of improving the health and quality of life of older people and people with disabilities.
  • Solve a problem with a Knowledge Transfer Partnership with the help of public funding -
    Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) are a national scheme aiming to support UK businesses who want to improve their competitiveness, productivity and performance by accessing the knowledge and expertise available at UK universities. KTPs provide solutions to a specific strategic issue. Projects usually focus on a problem in a key area of your business, such as product Research and Development or developing new management processes.
  • Access our information through data sets -
    The University is home to the UK Data Archive, curator of the largest collection of digital data in the social sciences and humanities in the UK. They hold several thousand datasets relating to society, both historical and contemporary. Data is available to research professionals through the UK Data Service. Data collections include items such as UK business microdata including innovation, wages and productivity, international macrodata including energy production, UK census data, UK surveys including population, social attitudes, family expenditure and health and international social surveys.

Expertise and resources-

The University of Essex is committed to supporting the employability of its students. A key part of this is the internship programme. Through the Essex Interns scheme, you gain access to a talented pool of students and recent graduates who can inject enthusiasm and fresh approaches into organisations. They can help you plan or deliver a specific project, or simply provide extra resource for a busy workload. An intern could allow you to kick start a strategic project that might have been put on hold or not completed due to budget or time restrictions, and free up and support your permanent staff.

Internships can be part-time during term time and full-time during vacations and on graduation. They can vary in length from around six weeks to one year.

An internship must be a genuine paid work opportunity, which includes an element of learning and development. This may simply be the opportunity for the intern to gain a better understanding of the business environment, by allowing them to apply their knowledge in a workplace setting, or could involve the development of more comprehensive project-specific skills.

The University has limited funding available to help enable an internship for one of our students or graduates if you are a micro-business or charity. Opportunities are particularly being sought for health based internships to begin from April 2015. These can also receive funding.

As well as internships, the Student's Union has a pool of volunteers who work within the community on individual or ongoing projects.

There is an NGO Clinic which can provide free law support.

The University also has a number of rooms for hire, as well as back office support for events.

Colchester Campus facilities

  • Conference and event venues catering for 2 to 1,000 people.
  • The Colchester iLab - an innovative creative meeting space.
  • Accommodation in the four-star Wivenhoe House Hotel.
  • Print Essex - experienced print and graphic design agency.
  • A range of leisure, retail and banking outlets, including the state-of-the-art Evolve Gym and various restaurants.
  • A nursery rated outstanding by OFSTED.

Southend Campus facilities

  • Conference and event venues catering for 2 to 200 people.
  • The SouthendiLab - an innovative creative meeting space.
  • Two meeting rooms in the Business Hub with capacities of 24 and 15 people.
  • The campus is in the heart of Southend town centre, giving you immediate access to its leisure, retail and banking outlets. The campus itself is home to the Evolve Gym.

Funding -

The University of Essex can access funds to contribute towards joint working with the voluntary and community sector. As noted above, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships can be funded. Academics can help to secure or approach separate funders to support research, for example, the Community Visitors research project was funded by Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

This process would be discussed in conjunction with the development of any project work and would be specific to areas of interest and the nature of each project.

Additional highlights from the university include:

  • A strong focus on Human Rights with dedicated staff and student interests
  • A Masters programme in Social Enterprise
  • A BA in Community Development is about to launch
  • Well-connected networks
  • Supporting people to set up social enterprises

To find out more, please contact Clare on:

University of Essex
Wivenhoe Park
Colchester
Essex
CO4 3SQ

Tel: 01206 874976

Email:

Mike Horton, Premier Choice Internet

Premier Choice Internet is a supplier of IT and web services to businesses throughout the South East. Founded in 2003, Premier Choice have an ISO 9000 accreditation and offer a host of different IT, web, telecoms and online marketing services to SME’s, national charities and large corporate companies. Approximately 70% of their clients are charities and 30% businesses.

They work closely with their clients to help them to address their IT issues and develop their online presence. They do this collaboratively with their clients and help them to access funding and reduced cost products, improving the quality of the service they receive and incorporate efficiencies into budgets.

Their presentation focussed on five areas:

  • Fundraising - Premier Choice Internet are experienced fundraisers for IT equipment and upgrades for charities. They have worked with clients to submit and complete applications for funding and have been successful in securing this in order to allow charities to undertake work. This includes Awards for All applications (between £300 and £10,000). Previous clients have shared successful applications and these are used to make requests with new clients.
  • Cost Savings - Premier Choice Internet work in partnership with large companies, including Microsoft and Dell, to access their Corporate Social Responsibility programmes. They allocate hardware and software to charities and non-profit groups for free or at reduced costs. This includes licences with 90% off or a free email service.
  • Joint purchasing schemes - The company has worked with a group of non-profit organisations to develop a bulk-buy project, including telecoms and utilities.
  • Managing donations - This is an area that can be overlooked but has the potential to ensure that a steady income is generated through working more effectively with the people that support your cause. Premier Choice has found that donations are not always recorded and that by implementing a database of donor streams or tracking interactions with volunteers, charities can develop a clearer communications strategy that can maintain relationships with donors.
  • Windows XP - there will not be any more updates available from Microsoft for Windows XP. This will include areas such as security, compatability and compliance. This can increase the vulnerability of operating systems and will mean that new hardware and software will necessarily work with any current XP computers. Organisations will need to investigate upgrades.

To correspond with Premier Choice and find out more contact,

Premier Choice Internet Ltd

102 Station Road

Sidcup

Ken

DA15 7DE

Tel: 020 8269 6878

Email:

Louise Willsher, CCVS Update

  • Events
  • Catalyst AGM, Monday 28th April
  • Active Colchester Funding Workshop, Thursday 1st May, Leisureworld, 6.30 pm - funding workshop for Sports Clubs
  • Business Bank Breakfast Meeting, Wednesday 7th May, St Annes Community Centre - exchange event for businesses and voluntary groups
  • CTA East of England, Wednesday 7th May, St Giles Centre - meeting for groups about Community Transport services and opportunities
  • Promote Colchester, Saturday 31st May, Charter Hall, 9.30 am - 3.00 pm - Promote Colchester is an emerging partnership of the public, voluntary and commercial sectors, including CCVS and Colchester Borough Council, which aims to empower and support the local community. All sectors are facing challenges which can only be addressed by working together and utilising our assets. Colchester is a vibrant, diverse community, withskills and talents that can help us all to address local issues. The event will provide a Volunteers celebration, exhibition and workshops. To find out more visit the CCVS website, including-
  • Colchester Carnival, Saturday 19th July - to get involved visit
  • Marketing
  • Colne Radio - Radio Wivenhoe is an internet based radio station run by volunteers, providing 18 hours of programming each day, 7 days a week. The station is seeking permission for a licence to broadcast on a frequency with a 5 km radius of a transmitter in the Colne area. The group will rename itself as Colne Radio and is seeking partners to produce programmes. They will provide free training. Submissions can be recorded simply on mobile phones and are accessible to any groups operating in the local area. There will be no charges for airtime. If you would like to find out more, contact Heather Purdey by email at
  • Representation - Tracy Rudling highlighted the representative role CCVS plays and the need for groups to get in touch if they want us to address any concerns. We have been working with Essex County Council on the VCS Strategic Framework, North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group on projects including Falls Prevention, Continence and Urgent Care. There has been a focus on bundles of services, which will be commissioned in 2015. Groups are advised to keep watch on details, especially online at BRAVO, where details of provider events will be posted. To register with BRAVO go to There will be an opportunity for partnerships to develop to bid for the bundles and groups will need Memorandum of Agreement's in place. If any groups would like to explore this option in time to bid, please get in touch with CCVS.
    CCVS have been working with the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner and the Ministry of Justice to highlight the role the Voluntary and Community sector can play in the Transforming Rehabilitation agenda.
    We have also been working on the Essex Compact Steering Group and will be updating on this at the next Fundraisers Network Group meeting.

Dr Paul Probert, Essex County Council - 'Who Will Care?' Report

Launched on 12th September 2013, ‘Who Will Care?’ recommended five high-impact solutions to prevent a future crisis in health and social care in Essex and sets out to answer how we can care for ourselves and our communities right now and in the future. The five recommendations will help promote more effective and earlier identification of community members' needs including support for them. They intend to deliver seamless care and support for all Essex people. They also aim to give back to communities the ownership of their health and care and reduce all of our dependence on the State, and achieve value for money.

The Commission’s solutions are to:

•Agree a new understanding between the public sector and the people of Essex – by being up-front and honest about the realities, responsibilities and costs of care.

•Prevent unnecessary crises in care – by changing the focus of care from treating disease and chronic conditions to supporting individuals earlier.

•Mobilise community resources – by acknowledging that local approaches and local understanding can deliver care, support, value, and greater independence.

•Use data and technology to the advantage of the people of Essex – by adopting tools and techniques that better support independent living, self-care, and co-ordination and give more convenient access to good advice.

•Ensure clear leadership, vision and accountability – by bringing together key partners from the public, private and voluntary sectors to deliver co-ordinated and convenient care for us all.

The Commission brought together five individuals with deep knowledge of the health and care system. They are Sir Thomas Hughes-Hallett , Cllr. John Spence CBE, Mike Adams OBE, Professor Sheila Salmon and Dr Gary Sweeney.