Krupa Joshi-Bhatt
Thought
Leaders Leading by example, one opinion, one idea, one lesson at a time, our thought leaders are significant in the Leicester and Leicestershire business scene. With authority in their field of expertise, passion for sharing ideas, and commitment to helping others, they’ve been asked to express their most current brainwaves in print. Selected organisations and individuals share how and why they go about their business, reveal their ambitions, provide clarity on matters within their industry, educate on complex or novel subjects, inspire with their forwardthinking and progressive perspectives, or look backwards to evaluate what’s been learnt.
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Development Officer at Voluntary Action LeicesterShire
What it means to thrive rather than survive
T
he voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector needs to collaborate and work better together, now more than ever. This was clearly evident from the conversations at our recent Future Focus event. With partners from the health sector, charity sector, and business community, everyone seemed to be singing from the same hymn sheet. But how can this be implemented successfully? This is where Voluntary Action Leicestershire (VAL) play a vital role. As part of this work, VAL relaunched their VCS manifesto which will identify priority areas for the sector and hold the sector accountable to ensure they progress partnership opportunities to thrive rather than survive. So, what do we mean by ‘thrive rather than survive’? The VCSE organisations that we support run on a shoestring budget, delivering one month at a time, with little understanding or confidence to think about the longer term strategy and plan. During conversations at our event, we identified some
key areas that are essential to ensure the sector thrives instead of merely surviving. This includes peer support networks to strengthen leadership and share best practices, a more businesslike approach to encourage financial independence, easier access to information and data through localised research, increased collaboration, partnership and cohesion amongst groups and organisations providing similar or complementary services, and greater resilience and adaptability accounting for different eventualities and safeguarding services, service users and staff. As a reputed community asset, VAL’s role historically has been to provide opportunities for all of the above, however, with reducing resources and staff, priorities have leaned towards survival rather than encouraging discussions and planning around the long term vision for organisations. Following the event, it is apparent that the sector and wider partners are enthusiastic to have these conversations and VAL will be pivoting their focus to facilitate this work.
