SCVS Networker - June 2015

thenetworker The newsletter for Sutton’s Voluntary and Community Sector

In this issue:

How to win friends and influence people, The Grove update and the Envirobus

June 2015

In this issue Page 3 - news The latest on our plans for the Grove Pages 4-5 - news Read about our PQASSO journey Pages 6-7 - news Sutton together update and a milestone for CPS Payroll Page 8-9 - Healthwatch Sutton What matters to you?

Page 10-11 - How to... ...win friends and influence people Page 12-13 - Local organisations It’s Small Charity Week!

Pages 14-15 - Local organisations Finding out about the Vine Project’s Envirobus Pages 16-17 - Local organisations We talk to Sutton Talking Newspaper Pages 18-19 - What’s on The best things to do this summer in Sutton

Susanna’s column Welcome to the June edition of the Networker.

The weather finally seems to be improving—we just hope it stays like this! We’re busy gearing up for our 50th birthday celebrations but we still need your input.

What do you remember about Sutton’s voluntary sector in 1965? Do you have any old photos? Get in touch!

Together with the Volunteer Centre Sutton, we’re planning to carry on the celebrations in Sutton High Street on August 20th with a lovely afternoon tea party and bake off - Keep the date free and watch this space!

We also have two big pieces of good news since our last edition - we have moved on with our plans for The Grove, and we have been awarded our PQASSO level two accreditation. Moving forward with both these projects is a great achievement and you can read more about these successes in this issue.

This month we also have a look at the work of one of our local organisations, Sutton Talking Newspaper, who provide an invaluable service for visually impaired people in Sutton. We also take a look at one of the projects we recently funded through the Sutton Community Fund - the Vine Project’s envirobus - and find out how they came up with such an innovative idea.

Finally, next week (15th-20th June) is Small Charity Week and we’ll be taking the opportunity to have a look at some of the great work some of our smaller organisations in Sutton are doing. You can join in with our Small Charity Week celebrations by following us on Twitter (@SuttonCVS) and Facebook (SuttonCVS).

Susanna Bennett Chief Executive SCVS

Cover pic: - Reuse and Recycle with The Vine Project’s Envirobus

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news

Plans for the Grove move forward As many of you will know, together with our partners, SCVS is working on exciting plans to transform Grove House, Carshalton into a heritage and voluntary sector hub for the local community.

Together with the Volunteer Centre Sutton, the London Borough of Sutton and the Friends of the Grove we plan to: 

Restore the house – open up approximately one third of the ground floor for community and heritage activities and use the rest of the building as a base for voluntary organisations and volunteering.

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Open the house to the community to access its heritage and use its facilities.

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Keep the house in community ownership as a local asset.

Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF Bid)

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Produce exhibitions about the history of the house and the people associated with it, and about the history of the voluntary sector in Sutton and the many people involved in its development.

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Develop a guide in the form of a leaflet/map and app which would explain the heritage of the house and park.

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Set up a heritage volunteering programme to train local people to act as guides around the house and park.

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Include The Grove in the heritage tours of Carshalton alongside Honeywood, Little Holland House and the Water Tower.

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Work with young people to introduce them to the heritage of the Grove, the area and the voluntary sector.

Securing the future of The Grove In the long term our aim is to establish a Trust of local people and organisations to run the building and potentially take over the ownership of Grove House to ensure that it remains as a community asset for the future.

The house If we get the go ahead with the second stage application we plan to: 



 

Remove the modern partitioning to open up the hallway and staircase and create a large reception and exhibition area which will be What next? open to the public on a daily basis.

We are currently recruiting a project manager Restore the drawing room (council chamber) (see page 7) to support us to carry out the detailed to provide a space for meetings, events and work for the second stage application, and over the summer we will be carrying out consultation exhibitions. in Carshalton to speak to local people and visitors Create space for local friends and residents about what they might like to see at The Grove. groups to use.

If you would like to get involved or would like further information please contact Susanna Provide office space for voluntary Bennett at SCVS (susanna@suttoncvs.org.uk or organisations and volunteers.

020 8644 2867)

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The Grove, c1923

The partnership has been successful with a first stage bid to the HLF which provides funding and support to carry out further planning and preparation to develop detailed plans and costs for the building and activities. These will enable us to submit a second stage application in the Spring/Summer of 2016 in order to secure funding to carry out all the work.

This will again be a competitive process and we are not guaranteed success, but Sutton has a good track record with HLF bids and we will do everything we can to produce the best possible application!

There are three elements to the HLF bid:

Developing a programme of heritage activities Again if successful at the second stage we will:

news

PQASSO accreditation for SCVS We spend a lot of time encouraging and supporting voluntary organisations to achieve the PQASSO award - and now we have the award too!

so we had to organise this whilst doing the selfassessment. We also needed to have a monitoring and evaluation system in place, fortunately we had developed a fairly robust system as part of our 2013/14 business planning process.

PQASSO is a is a well recognised, national award endorsed and accepted by both the Charity Commission and funders. It provides external recognition that an organisation is robust, effective and well run and it is the most appropriate, relevant and achievable quality standard for small, local charities.

Sutton CVS started on the PQASSO journey over two years ago. We wanted to try and eventually achieve level 2 but our journey started with us completing the level 1 selfassessment in order to achieve the NAVCA Quality Award in 2013 (NAVCA – National Association for Voluntary and Community Action – is our national body and we successfully renewed our NAVCA award demonstrating that we fulfil (and in many cases exceed) all the requirements of an effective centre for voluntary service).

During our journey from 2013 – 2015 there were a number of changes to SCVS as an organisation and the staffing but we managed to achieve the following: • New strategic and financial plan • Revised, outcomes-based monitoring and evaluation framework – linked to the strategic plan • Survey of the sector (to feed into the strategic plan).

• Staff survey (which has resulted in the implementation of a new flexible working system) • Ensured all our policies and procedures were up to date and put in place a programme of ongoing review and updating • Reviewed and updated our finance and communication systems • Reviewed our governance

Susanna Bennett, our Chief Executive, commented at the time “Achieving Level 1 for an organisation of our size and age (!) should be fairly straight forward, we have most things in place so we just need to bring them all together across the 12 quality areas” however she now acknowledges “this took more time than we hoped because all the things you have to do as an organisation get in the way, you need to make time and be quite persistent”.

A core group of staff met fairly regularly throughout 2014/15 to review the selfassessment, check progress and take action in areas in which we felt further work might be needed to meet the standards. This was quite time-consuming and sometimes got postponed because we had other priorities! We also presented the original plan and the final selfassessment to the Board to make sure they were kept up to date and could both support the work and contribute to it.

Once we achieved the NAVCA award we decided to undertake the work on the level 2 selfassessment. Fortunately for us Razia Sattar is a PQASSO mentor and she led on the process for us, however one person cannot do this alone and all the staff and trustees got involved at some stage in the process.

Susanna commented that “one of the good things about undertaking PQASSO is that you do review all your basic systems and policies, make sure they are up to date and reflect current legislation and good practice, and then put in review dates for the future. We had definitely let some of our policies slip and this was a good Level 2 required a lot more robust evidence than way of getting back on track again!”. level 1 - for example we needed to have a staff We finally felt ready to submit our PQASSO survey in place which is not needed at level 1.

We hadn’t carried out a staff survey since 2010 review in February 2015 to the Charities

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news Evaluation Service (who are now part of NCVO), who then gave us a date in March when they would visit and carry out the two-day assessment.

During February and March we had to compile and collate all the evidence mentioned in our selfassessment and send this to the assessor, to ensure he had full knowledge of the organisation and our work and was able to prepare for the site visit. This was also quite a lot of work and involved finding documents we knew we had but couldn’t remember where we had stored them!

The assessor also asked for quite a lot of additional information and was very thorough in checking everything we sent, our website and the Charity Commission website.

The site visit lasted two days and the assessor had asked to speak to the Chief Executive, members of staff (a mixture of levels) and three trustees (including the chair and the treasurer).

So, as Razia explains “this is why it is important to ensure everyone is aware of PQASSO. I regularly feedback at the staff and board meetings as well as meetings with the Chief Executive and the Senior Management team to ensure everyone is aware of the self-assessment and the evidence was gathered.”

The assessment was fairly straightforward because most of the work is done in the preparation beforehand (CES won’t make the visit unless they consider everything is in place).

There were quite long and detailed meetings with the Chief Executive and trustees but the individual staff meetings were shorter and looking for confirmation of what had been included in the self -assessment or reported by managers. Again as Razia emphasises “ The assessor is not there to ‘catch’ anyone out he/she is simply finding out how the organisation is running and what we have said on paper mirrors what staff and trustees are saying”.

Key points • The process can be time consuming, due to other commitments PQASSO can often take a back seat so be flexible with the approach and the time it takes whilst not letting it drag on for too long!

• Understand how the indicators in the 12 quality areas link into your organisation.

• Make sure that you have robust evidence which demonstrates how you can meet the indicators (this doesn’t all have to be written, much of ours was online) • Involve the whole organisation – trustees, staff and volunteers.

• Take your time to complete it – it’s a learning process for your organisation which you should make the most of.

• Get a mentor like Razia to come and check the self-assessment and give your organisation ideas about the easiest/best ways of completing it.

• PQASSO can be time consuming so you need to keep the momentum going.

• It is definitely worth going for - you get charity commission endorsement as well and it demonstrates to funders that you are a robust organisation.

If you are interested in getting PQASSO accreditation for your organisation, contact Razia on 020 8641 9544 or email her at Razia@suttoncvs.org.uk

At the end of the site visit it was great to get feedback and find out straight away that we would achieve level 2 subject to a few, minor actions. We are now the proud owners of the certificate and can put both the PQASSO and Charity Commission logos on all our work.

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news 

Sutton Together, our consortium of local voluntary organisations continues to grow – we now have 14 full and 9 associate members with more applications still coming in. Since our launch in June 2014, almost 1 year ago, we have: 



Secured funding to look at developing a Care Delivery Partnership so that the voluntary sector can take on more social care services in response to the Care Act. We produced a detailed report for the December ASSHH Committee and since then have been producing a fundraising strategy and working in partnership with LBS to look at the options.

We are now developing work and funding bids for opportunities both within and beyond Sutton.

Won 3 contracts to contribute towards Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, To find out more about Sutton Together please Community Mental Health Services and to email susanna@suttoncvs.org.uk. deliver the Infrastructure Support & Capacity Building (the annual value of the 3 contracts is £872,000).

CPS reaches new milestone This month SCVS’s trading arm, CPS Payroll, reached a new milestone - the payroll bureaux is now paying over 1000 people in the voluntary sector every month!

CPS Payroll, the specialist voluntary sector payroll service provided by SCVS, has achieved an impressive milestone - as of May 2015 we have 129 client organisations with 1042 employees between them!

SCVS started running a payroll over 20 years ago in response to a real need across the local voluntary sector for affordable, expert support to take the headache out of calculating and processing salaries. The number of clients has grown gradually over the years, most of our new clients come through recommendations from other local organisations who are really pleased with the efficient service and expert advice provided by staff who really understand the voluntary sector because they are part of it.

Voluntary organisations also know that when they pay for CPS Payroll they are getting huge additional benefits – we try to make a small profit and this goes back into SCVS to improve and expand our services to the voluntary sector!

“Outsourcing our payroll was a step we took with some trepidation as it involved entrusting

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the care of our staff salaries and confidential information to an outside agency. However, over the last two years of using CPS Payroll they have scored top marks—what sets them apart is the quality of their staff who are responsive, professional, friendly and flexible.” - Janine Stolz, Stratford Arts.

Mel and Karen from CPS Payroll

If you would like to know more about how CPS Payroll can help you please contact Karen Adorjan (020 8641 9546) or Mel Brannan (020 8641 9547)

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news

Changes to SCVS admin charges For those organisations that use our administration services, our new charges are below.

advert which will go out via all the above costs £15 for a month.

Room Hire

We have a meeting room at the SCVS offices at ...And if you don’t already use us for Granfers Community Centre we can hire out if photocopying, advertising jobs etc - have a look at you’re looking for a space to meet with people. our great rates!

Photocopying (price per sheet) A4 single sided - 8p A3 single sided - 9p A4 double sided -10p A3 double sided -11p A4 card - 15p

£10 per hour £30 per half day (4 hours)

Recruitment Let SCVS take on the administration when you need to recruit. We can provide a complete package to suit your needs including arranging advertising, sending out application packs, collating applications and setting up interviews.

Coloured paper is an additional 1p per sheet Copying in colour is an additional 3p per sheet If stapling a document an additional 1p per sheet. To find out more about any of our administration services please email jackie@suttoncvs.org.uk or Job adverts call 020 8644 2867.

We advertise jobs on our website, on our ebulletins and via social media. To place a job

Grove House Project Manager Hours: 21 per week Contract: Fixed term until 30 April 2016 Salary: PO2/38 - £34,867 pa pro rata We have an exciting opportunity in Sutton to restore Grove House (Carshalton) and transform it into a vibrant heritage and voluntary sector hub. We have received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to develop our plans and are now looking for an experienced heritage project manager to support us with this work.

We need someone with experience of supporting or managing a heritage building project (previous experience of HLF work would be an advantage). You need to be skilled in historical research and interpretation, able to work with the local community to carry out consultation and audience research, and experienced in developing heritage activity plans and funding applications.

Interested? Please email jackie@suttoncvs.org.uk for an application pack.

Closing date: 12noon on Wednesday 1st July 2015 Interview date: Monday 6th July 2015

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Healthwatch Sutton

You told us…

On 12th May Healthwatch Sutton held an Information & Engagement Event.

The aim of the event was to inform participants about the new way in which Healthwatch Sutton has started to collect information regarding health and social care from the local community. Guest speakers spoke about their organisations priorities, setting the scene for lively group discussions around what matters most to local people.

The event also gave participants a chance to share their views and contribute towards the priorities that Healthwatch Sutton could work on during 2015-16. 79% of participants felt they had the opportunity to have their say.

Finding out what your priories are has been a driver in helping us to set our priorities and decide what areas of work we will be concentrating on over the next year...

If you haven’t already had your say we want you to share your experiences of local health and social care services with Healthwatch Sutton.

You can do this online at www.whatmatterstoyou.org.uk Or by collecting a ‘What matters to you’ feedback form from Granfers Community Centre, Sutton SM1 3AA

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Healthwatch Sutton

New projects for Healthwatch Sutton We have just announced our new work programme for 2015-16.

In May we set up ‘What matters to you?’ (www.whatmatterstoyou.org.uk). This is the way that we find out local people’s views about health and social care. It’s really easy. You select a category of health and social care and then add more detail about your choice in a free-text box.

It’s as simple as that. It can take less than a minute. Go on, try it now!

To celebrate the launch of ‘What matters to you?’, we held an event at the Salvation Army in Sutton in May. We invited speakers from Epsom & St Helier NHS Trust, Sutton Clinical Commissioning Group and the London Borough of Sutton Council to come along and tell us what mattered to them. Over 60 local people including Healthwatch Sutton members came along to hear the speakers and also to tell us about their priorities.

We took all this information, which included 450 ‘What matters to you?’ responses, and used it to find out which areas we should focus on for our work programme for 2015-16.

Our new work will be to investigate: 

Outpatient services (issues including;

appointments, time with clinicians and waiting areas) 

Inpatient care (issues include weekend staffing, bank staffing, food and noise at night)

We will also continue our work that we have already started. This includes: 

Improving access to GP services (by supporting action to be taken in response to our GP Access report)

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Making a film that shows young people talking about ‘body image’ and what they think we could do locally to address issues that arise due to ‘body image’

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Creating case studies from the Dementia Diaries that we are putting together by interviewing people with dementia and their carers

If you would like to get more involved please contact us to become a member. Membership entitles you to regular e-bulletins, our printed newsletters and invitations to take part in our events and other activities.

Want to know more? Please visit our website at www.healthwatchsutton.org.uk

Do you need information about a health or social care service?

Have you ever wondered how to easily find a NHS dentist? Who you can go to if you have been discharged from hospital and need extra help?

The health and social care system can be confusing with people sometimes left wondering how they can access services and what their choices are.

The Healthwatch Sutton Information team is based at SCILL and they can help people to

navigate their way through the system by providing local, accurate and current information.

You can also often find the team out and about in the community. They hold regular outreach sessions in different parts of the Borough. Contact SCILL using the details below to find out when they will be at a venue near you.

Phone: 020 8770 4065 Email: healthwatch@scill.org.uk Visit: the SCILL Centre, 3 Robin Hood Lane, Sutton, Surrey SM1 2SW between 10am & 4.pm.

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development

How to…

Win friends and influence people

When was the last time you took the time to reflect on how you engage and influence your existing and potential supporters and stakeholders? SCVS’s Hilary Chisnall looks at how organisations can improve their relationships to win support.

As a sector we are generally very good at networking, however we have a tendency to rely on ad hoc, instinctive and opportunist methods rather than a planned strategic approach to winning support and influencing people.

While you may not have the time to develop a written networking, collaboration and negotiation strategy perhaps you can take ten minutes to think about your current practice and take note of any of the following tips that may work for you and your organisation.

The following ten points can be broadly applied to a wide range of networking occasions whether face- to face meetings or events.

others? If there is no difference, can you find a way to create one?

Remember to follow up with people: 1. Networking only produces good results when it is followed up.

2. Following up with contacts builds trust, reputation, and relationships.

If you find that you are not feeling enthusiastic about follow up and referrals because of lack of time or relevance then you should most certainly re-examine. You might be chasing the wrong groups and connections and could need to rethink what you are doing.

Your efforts will produce much greater results when applied consistently in a strongly focused way. Much more effective than the same amount of effort spread over several wider activities, especially if over a time frame that is too long too!

Know your Working Style

Five working styles have been identified and it is 1. Describe yourself /your organisation concisely helpful for you to know which trait(s) you commonly display. It’s possible to associate with a 2. Be different, aim high, talk about what you’re combination of styles however, there is usually best at, your organisational strengths one dominant characteristic that you can associate yourself (or others) with. Which are 3. Help others and you will be helped you?

4. Integrity, trust and reputation are vital for effective networking Perfect - Good at accuracy and detail although can often expect others to be perfect too!

5. Ensure targeting of groups and contacts are relevant to your aims and capabilities Strong - Great in a crisis, can take control of 6. Ensure you follow-up meetings and referrals situations, people feel safe around them to make things happen Try Hard - Great pioneers, love new projects or a new thing to do. Likely have a great wealth of 7. Plan your networking in some way. Know information. Best working under pressure what you want out of it although not always able to finish.

8. Give a sustained focused effort Please others - Great team members can see both 9. Less can be more, powerful points made in sides of any argument and good at calming things very few words make a much bigger impact than down. Decision making not usually a strong point a lengthy statement.

Hurry Up - Gets a great deal done in a short 10. Look again at how you describe your amount of time, can take on too much and be organisation and service offering. What is prone to overlooking some important aspects. different or special about it compared with

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development It is helpful to recognise these in ourselves and others so that we can make the best use of them rather than be driven by them. It is equally helpful to try to apply a style to the people with whom you are in a negotiation situation with and, then adapt your negotiation tactics to appeal to their style.

opportunities than networks with lots of holes and weak connections.

What do you offer?



Be careful in the use and avoidance of certain words when seeking to influence responses, for example the word 'how?' is more likely to produce a positive response than 'why?'

Top Tips 1. Develop slightly different descriptions of your  organisation for different situations so that you are as relevant as possible. Continue to refine and adapt these statements. Get feedback from  people, and notice what works best for different situations.

2. Use positive language. Smile. Be known as a really positive person. It rubs off on others and people will warm to you.

3. Be passionate and enthusiastic, but not emotional and subjective. Avoid personalising situations. Remain objective.

4. Seek feedback and criticism about your ideas and organisation from others. It is amongst the most valuable market research you can obtain and it's free!

5. Be tolerant, patient, and calm. Particularly when others are not. Followers gather around calm people.

6. Always carry a pen. Always carry a diary.

Always carry your business cards. (Or modern electronic equivalents) 7. Only promise or offer what you can fully deliver and follow up. Always aim to underpromise, and then over-deliver.

8. Take great care with electronic messages (texts, messages, emails, etc) misunderstandings and breakdowns in relationships can occur because a message is wrongly interpreted. Check and read twice everything you send.

Words like 'situation' and 'challenge' are more positively stimulating than words like 'problem' and 'difficulty', In communications designed to motivate, using the word 'but' usually prompts a negative feeling, compared to 'and' or 'also'.

Single clear positive messages/instructions/ requests work better than communications which carry more than one main message.

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A request to 'do' something generally produces better response levels than a request which instructs 'not to' or 'don't' do something.

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Remember when not to negotiate (Know when and how to say “No” ')

People say lots of different things when they really know the answer is "No." "I'll see what I can do."

"I'll let you know.""

"Maybe."

"I'll ask."

Although difficult in some situations, try not to negotiate if there are unrealistic demands being made. This is for three reasons.: 

It prevents you having to concede substantial ground unnecessarily.



It avoids raising false hopes, which would make it difficult for us to satisfy later.



It stamps your personal authority and professionalism on the situation.

A clear and honest "No, I'm afraid not," with suitable explanation is often all it takes!

So next time you’re speaking to your stakeholders, supporters and potential funders, 9. Always follow up everything that you say you remember the difference that the way you speak will do, however small the suggestion. can make, follow this guidance and see the difference it makes!

10. Networking is about building a wide and relevant network of meaningful contacts - not just Good Luck! having lots of one-to-one meetings. Big strongly connected networks inevitably capture more

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development

Calling all small charities in Sutton — it’s nearly your week!

Small Charity Week celebrates small charities across the UK, recognising the excellent work they do. To mark the occasion, we’ll be taking a look at some of Sutton’s small organisations who make an invaluable contribution to our borough...

Small Charity Week celebrates and raises awareness of the essential work of the UK’s small charity sector that make an invaluable contribution to the lives of millions of individuals, communities and causes across the UK and the rest of the world.

A lot of the work you do as a small charity can go unnoticed – maybe because you are so busy doing and don’t have the time to tell everybody what you’re actually doing. Small Charity Week is your time to shine and get noticed so take advantage of the extra publicity you can get during this time.

Get involved If you would like to take part in Small Charity Week visit the website at www.smallcharityweek.com to find out what is going out and how you can get involved.

Wednesday 17th June — Policy Day Policy Day is a chance for small charities to engage with policy makers and influencers via a reception in London and local events across the UK. Thursday 18th June — Volunteering Day A chance to bring small charities and volunteers together. Advertise your volunteer position with Small Charity Week or take part in one of four free events.

Friday 19th June — Fundraising Day The Friday will see a range of fundraising opportunities you can take advantage of and raise some money for your cause.

Saturday 20th June — Celebration Day Small Charity Week closes with a day to celebrate small charities everywhere. Join the big screen messages and let Small Charity Week know how you will be celebrating.

Monday 15th June — I ♥ Small Charities Day. Nationally Small Charity Week launches with a day to raise awareness of the work of all small charities across the UK, whether you take part in Here at SCVS we’ll be celebrating the work of some of our local organisations for the third year one of the competitions or carry out your own running. Throughout the week we’ll be activity. highlighting some of our local groups and charities — follow us on Twitter (@SuttonCVS) Tuesday 16th June — Big Advice Day A day of free one to one advice and support across and Facebook (SuttonCVS) and join the celebration. the country; you choose the topic, Small Charity Week will match you to an advisor. Book now to avoid disappointment.

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Inunity’s Keeley Wilcox and Joseph Jeffers from the Sutton Centre for Equalities tell us why they love their small charities. Follow us on Twitter @SuttonCVS during Small Charity Week to hear from more local organisations.

What SCVS can do for you

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Did you also know that as a small charity or voluntary group, at SCVS we offer a variety of services to support you? : 

Initial development check – A check list to explore what organisations have in place  and where the gaps are.

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Funding advice – not sure what funds are available for you to apply to? We can help you find opportunities for funding, and write your funding bids.

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Governance Support – this can be exploring legal structures, business planning, quality systems and fundraising.

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Policies and procedures – Reviewing and updating policies.

Training – We offer subsidised training for voluntary organisations in Sutton on subjects ranging from fundraising and business planning to roles and responsibility for trustees, and governance.

Small Groups Forum – run bi-annually, the forum is a chance for groups in the borough to come together to share good practice and network.

If you would like to book a appointment or would like to find out more about the services we have to offer you email razia@suttoncvs.org.uk or call her on 020 8641 9544

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Local organisations

On board the Envirobus When a Sutton Community Fund application arrived late last year promising a new lease of life for hundreds of items of unwanted furniture the Panel was intrigued.

One successful application and six months later and the Vine Projects' vision has been turned into a reality.

Joel O’Loughlin tells us how the project has been getting on...

Where do ideas come from? Sometimes they wash into consciousness on a riptide of popular culture.

Institutions like Universities and corporations specialise in generating them. But every so often an idea comes out of left field and makes us think “I wish I thought of that”. We are beginning to appreciate that the Envirobus is one of those wishful ideas.

Visitors to the bus tell staff how nice it is to have a pop up shop in their neighbourhood. They feel valued and connected to what is going on. The arrival of the Envirobus in each location will be heralded by a “Happening”. This is aimed at generating awareness of the bus through a one day extravaganza with artists, music, treats for children in a carnival atmosphere. The Happening says to locals “The Envirobus has arrived”. Everyone is welcome, because no one wants to feel left out, and it’s always a good idea to make people part of things.

The Vine Project launched The Envirobus in March as the platform from which to promote our Reuse Reduce and Recycle campaign. In short we encourage communities to do their bit to honour the planet and respect the earth’s resources. Big ideas for a small organisation nestled in the bosom of Willow Lane industrial estate.

The project arose out of a mix of

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circumstances which includes my memories from a trip to New York many years ago, and an unused bus parked in the Vine yard. The Vine Project agrees that the old model of “make - use throw away – make another”, is unsustainable.

We cannot continue in this way because at some point we will not have raw materials to produce more products. In responding to the challenge of developing new projects, I recalled wandering through Soho, in Manhattan, browsing through trendy pop-up-shops. I thought we could open an environmental pop-up-shop on Sutton High Street, but then there was that bus... just sitting there! In a brilliant moment someone suggested putting all our services on wheels and in a flash the Envirobus was born. We put an application into the Sutton Community Fund, which was successful and off the idea went full throttle.

The project is running as a pilot for three months from pitches in shopping areas and large estates in Sutton. It offers low cost household and reuse items for sale and provides customers the option of bringing items for repair that would otherwise go to waste. The bus offers a 'bring it and we show you how to fix it' service aimed at breaking the cycle of ‘use and discard’ of consumer goods.

The arrival of the Envirobus in some locations has been heralded by a “Happening”.

This is aimed at generating awareness of the bus through a mini extravaganza with artists, musicians and treats for children. The Happening says to local people “The Envirobus has arrived”.

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Local organisations Volunteers have been an essential part of the Happenings and essential to managing the pitches and engaging the community. We are particularly keen to offer volunteers with craft skills and handypersons an opportunity to showcase their talent. They will be given a prominent pitch in the Pop-Up Shop locations to help customers fix broken appliances, make usable artefacts from waste materials and textiles. The particular skills we are looking for are:  Electrical equipment and gadget repair  Sewing, tailoring, dressmaking  Upholstery  Arts and craft skills using recycled material  Bicycle repair

engage and support them. The Envirobus will be touring the streets of Sutton and neighbourhood estates until the end of August 2015.

Look out for the Envirobus coming to a community near you. For more information on the Envirobus contact Joel O’Loughlin at joel@thevineproject.org or call him on 020 8685 6640. To find out more about the Vine Project visit their website at www.thevineproject.co.uk or follow them on Twitter @TheVineProject1

We envisage providing 20 volunteer places for the life of the project. Volunteers will be responsible for collections and marketing the services to local residents and will receive training in the principles of reuse, reduce and recycle as well as effective communication. We will provide training sessions to skill up volunteers to support them in their efforts to gain valuable experience that bolsters their CVs and stand them in a good position to find work. We are indebted to the Sutton Community Fund for providing the resources to

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local organisations

Sutton Talking Newspaper Formed in 1975 Sutton Talking Newspaper (STN) is a charity which was started to help spread Sutton’s news to blind and visually impaired residents of Sutton. June from Sutton Talking Newspaper tells us all about their work...

Sutton Talking Newspaper produces audiorecorded versions of some of the news from local papers which are distributed throughout the borough. We are now in our 40th year and have produced over 2,000 editions since the formation of the Association.

The organisation was founded in 1975 by the Rotary Club of Carshalton, and members of the Rotary Club are among our many volunteers. We recently moved to our new “state of the art” recording studio behind the Charles Cryer Theatre.

Every Thursday afternoon and evening, rotas of volunteers meet at our small studio in Carshalton. Four readers take it in turns to read extracts from the Sutton Guardian, which have been prepared by that day’s presenter.

The news section of the recording lasts for 30 minutes, and “side two” (which is also 30 minutes long) is “The Clarion” magazine which contains an assortment of interesting, entertaining or informative items, such as useful information and advice for the visually impaired, as well as items of more general interest including interviews with local people. This is prepared in advance by another presenter.

As well as readers, we have recording engineers who operate the microphone mixing desk during recording, and people to unpack and sort the returned pouches containing the memory sticks and CDs, as well as others who use machines to fast copy the recordings and check for quality. After the recording is produced each Thursday evening, the CDs and memory sticks are carefully put in individual pouches with reversible labels and taken in sacks to the main

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post office by local Rotarians.

The majority are delivered to our listeners in the first post on Friday. This gives them the weekend in which to listen to the recording, before posting it back to STN by the following Thursday when the process is repeated.

A recent innovation has been that we are now able to supply on memory sticks, twelve national magazines each week: Hello, My Weekly, People’s Friend, Woman’s Own, Woman’s Weekly, Sport Weekly, The Week, Amateur Gardening, Nature, BBC Good Food, BBC History and BBC Wildlife.

These magazines have proved extremely popular with our listeners.

thenetworker

local organisations Many people already have a device such as a television, radio, daisy player, tablet, or internet radio which is capable of playing memory sticks. Any listener who does not already own a memory stick player can be given one free of charge by STN, and demonstrated in their own home by one of our volunteers.

The organisation is administered and staffed entirely by volunteers, and is funded by generous donations and legacies.

There is no charge for the service.

Many of our listeners have been with us for years, but we know there are many more out there who are not aware of what we do, so we are trying to spread the news about our news!

If you know of anybody who might like to take our service, would like to join us as a volunteer, or display our leaflets and posters, please contact the studio by phoning 020 3759 6679, emailing secretary@suttontn.org.uk or publicity@suttontn.org.uk, or writing to us at: Sutton Talking Newspaper, 1 Grove Cottage, Grove Park, High Street, Carshalton, Surrey, SM5 3BB To find out more about Sutton Talking Newspaper visit www.suttontn.org.uk

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what’s on

July - Sept 2015 Carshalton-on-sea

The Wind in the Willows

19th-21st June Carshalton A weekend of seaside fun with a programme of events throughout the village. Activities at the Honeywood Museum, a Punch and Judy show, crafts, sandpits and more. There will also be a market in the village car park and music performances around Carshalton.

possible to enter hibernation when the weather turns cold at the end of summer. Go on this short walk and talk about how bats live. Bat detectors will be provided.

Cost: £4.50 per person. Suitable for: all. Booking is recommended.

20th-21st July Secombe Theatre Join Mole as he abandons his spring-cleaning for the riverbank, and stumbles into an adventure with Mr. Toad and friends. Mr. Toad has an obsession with the fast and suttonnature.wordpress.com chaotic and it’s left to his friends to save him from himself, battle Carshalton Environmental against the weasels and save Mr. Fair Toad’s beloved Toad Hall. www.friendsofhoneywood.co.uk 31st August, 10.30am-8pm www.suttontheatres.co.uk Carshalton Park, Ruskin Rodd, Diamond Dash Summer Carshalton Over 150 stalls, children's Fete activities, local craft, interactive 5th July, 8am-6pm demonstrations, farmers' Diamond Riding Centre, market, music and performing Woodmansterne Road, SM5 4DT arts, lots of tasty food, a bar with Live music, pet the pony, BBQ, real ales and more, information, treasure hunt, cake stall, Pimm’s campaign groups and more.... tent, sports day events and more in aid of the Diamond Riding Centre. www.diamondcentre.org.uk

Sutton Live

Crazy Golf

11th July, 12noon-3pm Trinity Square, Sutton High Street

1st-31st August, 10am-4.30pm Trinity Square, High Street Sutton

Sutton Live returns this summer with an eclectic mix of local musical talent. Bands, solo artists and choirs will perform live with something to suit all musical tastes. So sit back in a deckchair, enjoy a spot of lunch and some great free entertainment.

Throughout August you can teeoff on Enjoy Sutton’s free ninehole crazy golf course, which is showcasing local sustainability guaranteed to keep the kids initiatives. amused over the school holidays.

There's even a FREE bus to get you there! On average www.enjoysutton.co.uk around 10,000 people attend.

The event is organised by Bat Walk EcoLocal with a team of 29th August, 8-10pm volunteers.

Beddington Park www.envfair.org.uk Bats are busy feeding up, trying to put on as much body weight as

www.enjoysutton.co.uk

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thenetworker

Training and networking Training SCVS runs subsidised training throughout the year on all sorts of subjects from crowdfunding, to fundraising to governance. To find out what courses are coming up, just visit the what’s on page of our website.

contact us thenetworker The Networker is the bi-monthly magazine of : Sutton Centre for the Voluntary Sector (SCVS) Granfers Community Centre, 73-79 Oakhill Road,

Forums

020 8644 2867

Children, Young People and Families Forum Thursday 25th June, 9.30am - 12 noon

info@suttoncvs.org.uk

Health, Wellbeing and Social Care Forum Wednesday 15th July, 10am - 12 noon All forums take place at Granfers Community Centre, Sutton, SM1 3AA. Email Jackie@suttoncvs.org.uk or call 020 8644 2867 to book your place

Dates for the diary Superhighways Impact Aloud Event Monday 21st September, Wimbledon SCVS AGM Monday 12th October, 3pm - 5pm at Granfers Community Centre, Sutton, SM1 3AA SCVS Annual Event for Trustees Thursday 5th November (time and venue tbc)

@SuttonCVS facebook.com/suttoncvs www.suttoncvs.org.uk Registered Charity No: 1063129

Chief Executive: Susanna Bennett Communications and Admin: Claire Avery Jackie Parr Development Team Razia Sattar Hilary Chisnall Accountancy Services: Glory Sivaraja Laura Corney (from July 2015) Creative Payroll Solutions Ltd (CPS): Karen Adorjan Melanie Brannan Healthwatch Sutton Pete Flavell Pam Howe Sara Thomas

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Payroll that stacks up

Get CPS to manage your payroll and see how much time you could save Focus on service delivery - getting us to sort out your payroll means that you can concentrate on what’s important for your organisation Comply with current legislation - we make sure that pay is calculated correctly, and HMRC have all the correct up to date PAYE information for your organisation No need to purchase specialist software or train staff - we are specialists in payroll and up to date with all the latest legislation

Contact us today: t: 020 8644 2867 e: creativepayroll@suttoncvs.org.uk w. www.cpspayroll.co.uk