Resilience Resources

VCS Grants Prospectus – resilience resources and briefing What is resilience?

Resilience means the ability of individuals and communities to cope with difficult times or situations. Resilient people and communities can use local resources and expertise to help themselves. The prospectus will fund organisations that enable disadvantaged individuals and communities to be stronger and to respond flexibly to change.

How does it apply to Prospectus?

The outcomes the Prospectus will deliver are: 1. reduced disadvantage and inequality; 2. improved health and wellbeing 3. increased resilience.

In an ideal world, if the first two outcomes were achieved, perhaps people would not need to be resilient. In the real world, however, with limited funds and resources, however successfully the Prospectus achieves the first two outcomes, people and communities will still face difficulties, and increased resilience will help them to deal with such challenges.

Although resilience means people and communities helping themselves, VCS organisations have a crucial role to play in making it happen - because they give people knowledge and tools, connect people and communities together and support people to overcome obstacles, all of which can be required on the way to becoming more resilient.

How does your organisation build resilience?

Resilience means different things for different people at different times. So there are lots of way to build it. For example: â–Ą Information is often critical: someone cannot attend a local social group if they do not know it exists or when meetings take place; people cannot find employment without knowing what job opportunities are available.

Informing people about services and opportunities is therefore a simple way of increasing resilience. â–Ą Influence can be key to physical and mental wellbeing: people who believe their views are valued and their input helps to shape their community tend to feel safer, happier and more empowered. So providing ways for individuals to make their opinions count, or work together to Page 1 of 5

improve their neighbourhood or local services, will also help to build resilience. □ Turning ‘lived experience’ into expertise: if someone has already been through a particular kind of challenge or difficulty, what they did to overcome it, and where they found the strength to do so, can be a valuable lesson for other people facing a similar problem (even if they do not go about it in exactly the same way). Enabling people to learn from others through shared experience is another way of building resilience.

How does your organisation measure resilience?

The Prospectus application form will contain questions that ask your organisation to explain how your proposed project will create impact and build resilience. For example: 1. What will change as a result of your project (what differences will it make to people and how will you know if it has been successful)?

2. How will your project build on the existing strengths of people, community organisations and local communities?

3. How will your project connect people with their communities better so that they are more able to weather changing and difficult times?

4. How will you work together with others to connect, share, draw in and/or pool resources?

To help you answer these questions, you will be asked to describe the impact and changes you aim to bring amount using a logical framework, such as the one in the table below A - I. The level of detail you are expected to describe will relate to the three sizes of Prospectus grant available.

Describing your project in this way will help you answer all the questions above: your proposed activities (in column C below) should be designed to address questions 2-4 above, and how they’ll change things for your beneficiaries (in column F below) will answer the first question.

For example, if you were proposing project 2 below (Volunteering support for people recovering from drugs/alcohol), to answer question 2 above, you might say: Our project builds on the existing strengths of people by supporting them to identify their personal interests and motivations, then finds volunteering opportunities that connect with these interests as a way of helping people remember what they enjoyed and were good at. These things could cooking, sport, art, music, IT or walking – not necessarily Page 2 of 5

activities directly related to employment, but from which people, for a start, can gain enjoyment and satisfaction. Having then got into a routine of volunteering as an assistant in a kitchen cooking meals, we then help people take the next step of thinking about how to turn this positive experience into more formal training, learning and employment.

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A Challenge

B Evidence of need

C Proposed activities

D Who will benefit

(challenge to be addressed)

(assets to be built on and how)

(what will (Which types your project of people, do?) where, current/new client groups?)

E How many people will benefit

F How will your proposed activities change things for people

G Evidence that your proposed activity will work

H Measure/ indicator for reducing disadvantage

I How to monitor

(estimated total number of people who will benefit)

(“what differences will it make?”)

(e.g. evaluation of previous projects, third party research.)

(“how will you know the intended outcome has been achieved?”)

(how will you collect the proposed indicators/ measures?)

240 per year

They will be more able to: □ buy fresh food □ cook nutritious meals □ have a healthier diet □ be more in control of their own

Evaluation of equivalent pilot programme in Rotherham (Rotherham CCG, 2012).

1. Self1. End of assessment project by client at assessment end of form; programme 2. Surgery 2. Number of records.

GP appointments in six months following programme

1. Social prescribing for healthy eating Ill health and reduced wellbeing due to bad diet

The number of visits to GPs that vulnerable people make for specific symptoms

Social Prescribing programme available to GPs in Southmead, Hartcliffe, Whitchurch and St George

People who lack: □ Skills □ Knowledge □ Confidenc e □ Money

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physical health and mental wellbeing

2. Volunteering support for people recovering from drugs/alcohol People recovering from drug and alcohol use face barriers to regaining selfconfidence and employmen t

Consultation with people in recovery regarding personal and external challenges

Volunteering opportunitie s tailored to address recoveryrelated issues (e.g. dealing with DBS checks, providing food and transport, using people’s skills and experience)

People coming to the end of recovery programmes who want to gain: □ Confidenc e □ New (and renewed) skills □ Work experience □ Social activities to sustain their recovery

60 per year

They will be more able to: □ Find and apply for volunteer roles that develop their existing interests and skills □ Discuss criminal records with confidence □ Rebuild their confidence in seeking paid work

Annual report for 2014-15 which reported: □ 88% of clients reported increased confidence; □ 76% gained new skills through training; □ 64% found and completed a volunteer role; □ 8% gained paid employmen t after completing their placement.

□ Selfassessment by client at end of programme; □ Number of clients completing formal training courses; □ Number of clients completing suitable volunteer roles; □ Number of clients gaining formal employment after the programme.

□ End of project assessment form; □ Training records from external providers; □ Evaluation reports from volunteer organisation; □ Follow-up reports on ex-clients.

Draft 3. 23.06.2016.

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