Nexus april 2018

NEWS FR OM TH E HAMPSHIRE CVS NETWORK 

Action Hampshire

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Communities First Wessex

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Community First New Forest

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Gosport Voluntary Action

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Hart Voluntary

Action 

One Community

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Rushmoor Voluntary Services

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V O L U M E

5 ,

I S S U E

4

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A P R I L

2 0 1 8

Basingstoke Voluntary Action

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Nexus

Unity

Community First and Community Action Fareham join forces—p2 Paul O’Beirne retires—p2 Hampshire’s State of the Sector Survey—p3 Room to Reward volunteers—p3 Andover in National Social Action Programme—p3 Unity involved in International Programme—p4 One Community celebrates 40 years—p4

Gosport Youth Group Receives High Sheriff of Hampshire Accolade Loud and Proud youth volunteering group, which is supported by Gosport Voluntary Action, was delighted to be chosen as a recipient of the High Sheriff of Hampshire 2017/2018 Awards. The award was presented by the High Sheriff, Mrs Mary Montagu-Scott, at a ceremony at the Great Hall, Winchester, in recognition of their impressive work in the Gosport community.

The High Sheriff Awards are a mark of distinction given to individual volunteers, groups and public servants based in Hampshire who go beyond the call of duty in their everyday work and make a significant contribution to society.

They focus on law and order related projects, particularly those that enhance safety and cohesion in our communities and make Hampshire a better place to live.

The citation to Loud and Proud said: “Loud and Proud was initially formed in 2011 by five teenagers who wanted to change the perception of young people in Gosport. The members aged between 16 and 25 carry out a wide range of volunteering activities, including facilitating the annual Gosport Community Safety Team’s ‘Summer Passport’ Scheme for secondary school children by helping with registration, refreshments and cleaning up the site. This has resulted in the police reporting a significant reduction in petty crime and anti -social behaviour during the scheme. Being part of Loud and Proud gives the young members a real sense of belonging and the chance to get involved in their local community and they are tremendous role models for the young people of Gosport.”

Produced by Hampshire Councils for Voluntary Service, who would be delighted to have your feedback. Please contact Julia Allan 023 8090 2457 jallan@1community.org.uk Featured articles represent the views of the contributing CVS

Community First and Community Action Fareham Have Joined Forces Community First and Community Action Fareham completed their merger on 1st April. The new organisation will continue to be known as Community First and now provides services and support to the community and voluntary sector across East Hampshire, Fareham, Havant and Winchester and also delivers essential community transport services in Basingstoke & Deane and Gosport.

Whilst it remains a challenging time for many charities, this merger demonstrates a commitment to serving and supporting local communities, enabling the organisation to consolidate its management and back office functions whilst retaining and investing in its local delivery teams. There are no changes to services but there are clear opportunities to share expertise and innovation across a wider part of Hampshire. The new organisation will expand its training offer to the sector, with a new and exciting apprenticeship programme building leadership and management skills in charities; seek to expand the successful Home Help services in Fareham and other health and wellbeing services work with HCC to provide innovative and effective solutions to maintaining community transport services.

The merger was driven by a desire to improve the impact and reach of the voluntary and community sector. The new organisation will continue to maintain close links with local groups and be responsive to their needs, whilst also looking outwards to ensure that new funding opportunities are pursued to the benefit of local communities. This is particularly important in the context of rapidly changing health services.

Community First is already engaging and influencing new models of care and as a larger, strategic organisation has the ability to build long term partnerships and unlock funding to make social prescribing an inherent part of these new models of care.

This is a great opportunity to create an organisation which will have real impact across a large part of Hampshire. We are putting our customers and beneficiaries first and seeking to create a more efficient and effective organisation with the scale and capacity to bid for contracts and access new funding to invest in developing NEXUS PAGE 2

services. Our partners and funders want to see as much money as possible spent directly on support and front line services for those in need; our merger will ensure that happens. Our staff and volunteers are really excited by the opportunities that the merger brings, knowing that their commitment and dedication will be sustained into the future.

Tim Houghton, CEO, Community First Paul O’Beirne Retires On 28 March, Paul with his gifts Community Action Fareham said a fond farewell to Paul O’Beirne who retired as Chief Executive of the charity after 22 years.

Members of staff, volunteers, trustees and representatives of local community Paul with Tim Houghton groups got together at wishing him well Wallington Village Hall to give thanks to Paul for all his work for communities in Fareham.

Mik Norman, long-term colleague and friend, paid tribute to Paul’s energy and enthusiasm for his work in supporting voluntary groups and individuals alike over his two decades in the borough.

Steve Irving, Chair of Trustees of Community Action Fareham said, “Paul has always put people and members first and thought about what would benefit the community. His deep knowledge of the area and its people have been key in developing the organisation and we thank him for the professionalism, kindness and energy that he has bought to the role.”

All the staff and volunteers wish Paul well for his retirement.

Hampshire's State of the Voluntary Sector Survey Action Hampshire, with the support of the district CVSs, recently carried out some research into the state of the voluntary sector in Hampshire. Please click the links below to read the report.

An on-line survey was circulated around Hampshire’s voluntary and community sector organisations in November/December 2017. A range of questions was posed, most of which were asked in relation to the organisation’s position three years ago.

478 responses were received commenting on issues including demand for services, capacity to deliver services, financial security, volunteering and planning for the future.

You can download the summary and full report here: Hampshire's "State of the Voluntary Sector" Survey (Summary) Hampshire's 'State of the Voluntary Sector' Survey (Full report) If you would like to discuss this research in further detail, please contact Kirsty Rowlinson 01962 857355.

Room to Reward A Unique Scheme to Recognise Volunteers The Room to Reward charity was created to give a little something back to volunteers who do so much for so many, and ask for nothing in return.

Hotels donate their anticipated empty rooms to Room to Reward, charities nominate their “Hidden Heroes” who deserve a short break and Room to Reward brings the two together, to give something back to those truly deserving.

Brian Lambert Nominated by Community First New Forest, volunteer Brian Lambert has been recognised by Room to Reward for his tireless work for the Volunteer Centre and

New Forest Nightstop. Volunteer Centre Coordinator Lorraine Lambert said: “Brian started helping out at the Volunteer Centre on a shortterm basis 18 months ago and now we couldn’t do without him. He is an amazing volunteer who is incredibly reliable and up for any sort of challenge.

He has become our IT guru, organising and updating records and even helping go through a complete system change, spending many hours behind the scenes to make sure everything went smoothly. It was so successful that our IT contractor said it was the best information he’d ever worked with.

“Brain enabled whole parts of the organisation to do something that lack of expertise and funding would have precluded. This new system has had a huge impact on the service, enabling us to help more local charities to find desperately needed volunteers and helping those who want to volunteer to access a range of opportunities.

“Brian has also built invaluable recording systems to help Nightstop, a service providing short term accommodation for homeless people in the New Forest. He is a fantastic volunteer who gives ongoing, long term commitment to projects and is helping some smaller organisations (who do not have any budget for IT, database development or management) to deliver high quality services.

We are delighted we are able to show our appreciation to Brian through Room to Reward.” www.roomtoreward.org

Andover in National Social Action Programme The Big Lottery Fund and Department of Digital, Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) have announced that Andover is one of 20 places in England taking part in the Place Based Social Action programme which launched last October.

The Placed Based Social Action programme aims to support communities to put social action at the heart of plans which make a positive difference in the local area. It gives people the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to the design and delivery of local services by bringing together communities, local authorities, public sector organisations, service providers, civil society organisations and businesses to address local priorities.

In Test Valley, 22% of the population is NEXUS PAGE 3

under 17 years old, which is higher than the national average. Responding to this, Unity (formerly Test Valley Community Services) will work with local people to develop a social action plan which aims to make the town a place where young people enjoy living and want to put down roots.

The plan will look at how social action could be used to support the creation of a community hub in Andover town centre. The idea behind the centre will be to encourage young people to meet together, volunteer and get involved in community life. The project will happen under the banner of the Andover Vision and will bring together local Andover residents, businesses and voluntary groups.

Terry Bishop, Chief Executive of Unity said: “Unity is delighted to have the opportunity to participate in the Place Based Social Action programme and lead this community consultation. “

An International Programme – The First to be Delivered in the UK Unity has announced another major success in partnership with the Army Welfare Service.

Almost £150,000 has been secured through the Ministry of Defence Armed Forces Covenant Grant to provide a positive parenting programme for military families called Strong Parents, Strong Children.

The international programme which has been tried and tested throughout Europe has been successfully used for over 10 years and will be adapted, providing consistency for families posted abroad. The programme will initially provide structured parenting courses over three years reaching families across Tidworth, Andover, Middle Wallop and Winchester garrisons.

Terry Bishop, Chief Executive of Unity said: “We are absolutely delighted to have secured this funding as this will enable the partnership to develop a training programme which is totally unique in the UK and has the scope to be rolled out further helping families throughout the military.”

This is another opportunity for Unity and the AWS, supported by unit welfare teams on the bases, to provide trail-blazing services to the benefit of military communities.

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Flying the Flag for One Community One Community is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year with an event each month and a set of challenges to engage its supporters.

The March event was a Mascot March down West Street in Fareham, led by the Mayor and Mayoress of Fareham, Cllr Geoff Fazackerley and Mrs Tina Fazackerley, on Saturday 24 March.

The parade of charities’ mascots was aimed at raising awareness of the work they do in the borough.

On Saturday 4 April, the Mayor of Eastleigh, Cllr Maureen Sollitt, and Chair of One Community Professor Sri Kandiah, raised the One Community flag in Leigh Road Recreation Ground, in front of a crowd of dignitaries, staff, volunteers and Friends of One Community. The One Community Young Carers Choir entertained the crowd and both the Mayor and Professor Kandiah spoke about the work and spirit of One Community.