Your Essex Community
The place-based module
Active Essex were awarded the Your Essex Community place-based module from Essex Public Health to build capacity and capability locally, encouraging open, inclusive collaboration amongst the voluntary and community organisations in Essex.
Utilising the place-based working model that Active Essex have now been adopting for several years, they were keen to work with local partners to understand what was working well and where unmet support needs of the voluntary community sector organisations in every place could be developed, recognising that this will differ across the county. As a result, this helped to dive deeper into understanding community needs and unlocking barriers.
Based on initial research from 138 voluntary community sector organisations across Essex, as well as a series of listening events, the hub teams found that the biggest unmet support for the sector was sustainable income generation, access to free and low-cost training, help creating new partnerships, building networks and volunteer recruitment/capacity, as well as local nuances such as governance support required.
Through the online learning series, and following the completion of place plans, Active Essex are helping support the delivery of local aspirations, providing local training, events and learning opportunities for the organisations in the voluntary community sector.
Of the delegates attending the Your Essex Community place-based support, feedback has been very positive:
- 94% of delegates rated their experience as very satisfied
- 82% of delegates stated that have key takeaways to use in their work
- 100 individuals attended the fundraising and small grant workshops
This work is creating the conditions that help build a thriving, connected and resilient sector that meets the needs of local communities. Working with local community organisations and Active Essex partners we have already been able to excel in providing support to the sector, and the impact we’ve seen just from the first 12 months, has been very positive.Louise Voyce, Active Essex Relationship Development Lead
Participant attending Effective Leadership workshop
A delegate attending the Effective Leadership for VCS during change – Leadership in our sector comes with care and compassion, and the need to help others is something deeply rooted and comes naturally. This is part of the company’s core objectives. We can be more proactive to support change, and this does mean more resources are needed within our company and more volunteers within the community to create meaningful impact. It is important to reflect on the approach to navigate through change and building from within the strengths of an organisation. Ultimately passion and dedication from individuals help to make a strong organisation.
As part of the place-based offer, a huge focus has been around the organisation of fundraising and small grant workshops held in each hub areas across Essex.
These workshops have helped voluntary community organisations to understand how to submit strong applications, make the most out of the funding awarded and how to ensure their governance is strong.
Key learnings
It's important to take time to reflect and understand the learnings from work undertaken, to focus on ways to improve in the future.
Knowledge
Continue to tap into organisations and communities to build our own awareness of the sector.
Funding
Specific focus on funding and grant opportunities should be looked into to provide more support.
Feedback
Important to gain feedback on opportunities, but responses can be difficult, especially with onli...
Next steps
Reviewing the locality place plans will be a priority, as well as ensuring the events and learning opportunities held so far have been useful to the sector. This will help Active Essex to ensure they continue to be data and insight led in their decision-making.
Meet the Funder events are organised for this year, alongside large grant workshops and opportunities to work on organisational sustainability.
