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You are here: Home » Archives for Network

Inspiring Change: Voluntary Sector Responses to COVID-19

18 June 2020 By Tessa Williams Leave a Comment

“Thanks for still being there for me.”

As we read through the stories of local responses to Coronavirus this one stood out. Said by a young person who is being supported by The Junction, it was the shortest and simplest, but summed up the fact that in the toughest of times, local organisations have found a way to adapt, focus on people in need and make people feel heard and looked after.
Behind any quote like this are thousands of people, hundreds of hours of work, new tech systems rapidly created, funding bids written, proposals created. We wanted to show how Edinburgh’s voluntary sector has collaborated to create new opportunities and meet the needs of the city’s most vulnerable. People Know How, The Junction, Health Opportunities Team, The Yard and Go Beyond gave us their insights.

1) Maintaining Connection: Children, Young People and Families Organisations

Overcoming the sheer scale of potential disconnection between people and support organisations has been a logistical triumph. We’ve seen many services have moved online or to phone support, 87% of organisations in Edinburgh who responded to the TSI Survey said they had moved support to online and phone-based approaches. This has required tech support, new kit, staff training and flexibility from beneficiaries.

Community support has been offered in new ways, such as People Know How’s online befriending and group support for young people. This provides a safe, supportive online environment where young people and their befrienders can talk, play games, learn and share stories in these uncertain times. People Know How have also adapted their Reconnect service, supporting adults into distance befriending and offering a friendly ear to someone who may feel isolated. Adapting these services meant recruiting over 100 new volunteers and supporting 240 new service users.

 

”It’s nice to have somebody who understands your situation regularly check up on you, it helps with feeling like you always have somebody to talk to throughout the week if you need it.”

A young person who is supported by the Junction.

Maintaining relationships with the young people who access support for their health and wellbeing was The Junction’s first priority at the beginning of lockdown. They did this through adapting services to offer one-to-one and counselling support on the phone and online. Once this was up and running, The Junction widened their support and launched a digital drop in for all young people aged 12-21 across Edinburgh.

Connections have also been maintained in innovative ways. Health Opportunities Team (HOT) have developed their e-working practice to ensure important services continue to be available. HOT has utilised social media to interact with young people through their ‘Feel Good’ programme, the organisation also offers one-to-one support for young people completing the ‘Turn Around’ programme and digital drop-in services for any young person aged 12-25.
When The Yard’s site closed in March, staff began creating online video content for the disabled children, young people and families who access their services. The online video content enabled sharing of ideas and supporting play at home during lockdown, the staff also recorded personalised video greetings to keep in touch with their members. Staff from The Yard say they have learned that they can successfully adapt and innovate to keep their community going strong while we all stay at home.

“He was really happy to see them and some big smiles throughout. Thanks for all the efforts when we can’t be with you in person.”

Feedback from a member of The Yard’s online videos for early years.

2) Collaboration
58% of respondents from Edinburgh-based organisations said they have seen improved collaboration during this period (TSI Survey). For many, barriers have been broken, new connections have been made quickly and a willingness to ‘get it done’ has shone through.

Go Beyond is a community network that is responding with greater capacity to support vulnerable people in South West Edinburgh.
Bridie Ashrowan of Space & Broomhouse Hub, who initiated the GoBeyond Network, with support from Leah Black at Whale Arts and Craig Wilson at Big Hearts Community Trust, told us… told us that dilemmas arising from the coronavirus were not unique to certain organisations, in fact a range of organisations within the locality were facing similar challenges. In the first days, organisations were hearing worries about a lack of baby milk and began discussing the idea of a network to quickly and efficiently find solutions to issues like this. Go Beyond has three lead organisations: Space, WHALE Arts and Big Hearts Community Trust.

“The network has created a new sense of togetherness between many of us who exist to serve our communities. The chances of duplication and confusion has really reduced and in fact, true partnership working from beginning to end of the service design is hopefully an outcome we will see soon.”

Craig Wilson, General Manager, Big Hearts Community Trust

Go Beyond told us how they use Slack (an online communications tool) to connect as a locality in South West Edinburgh. This has meant 130 members, from small third sector groups and churches, through to social workers and members of the anchor Go Beyond staff can easily connect with each other. It allows the locality to have group discussions, private conversations and share information with each other easily and safely online. For five years the South West has had four local action groups meeting in areas of high poverty, and the Go Beyond Slack means they can connect quickly throughout the crisis. The South West Voluntary Sector Forum can now be backed up with an organic network of people who can connect with each other outside of quarterly meetings as needs arise.

Responses to the TSI Survey show that 54% of Edinburgh based organisations are concerned about their communities’ access to digital. People Know How have been running projects to combat digital exclusion for over five years, and due to the coronavirus outbreak this subject came into the spotlight more than ever, prompting the development of their computer delivery project. In collaboration with Venture Scotland, they are providing devices to those who need help staying connected. The project is now on track to deliver over 1,000 computers thanks to donations from organisations such as the University of Edinburgh, Taranata Group, Inverclyde Community Trust and the Good Things Foundation, as well as generous individuals from the community.
So many success stories have been about knowing who can help, collaborating and getting the local area response up and running with volunteers from neighbourhoods. This says a lot about what local insight means to communities – there aren’t blueprints for the ‘right way’ to do something and local nuances and connections are important to make something work well.

“Let’s not go back to normal. Things weren’t so good back then. We can join together with communities and the academic, business, public and third sectors to share knowledge, join resources and improve the wellbeing of communities. We have an opportunity now to reset the status quo.”

Glenn Liddall, People Know How

3) Future Thinking
Now we know what we can do, we want to embed it in our services but we also have to find new ways to make them sustainable. Many have put new ideas into practice, so innovation is possible.
For organisations such as The Yard, who mainly focus on delivering in-person services and support, they have shown great resilience and a willingness to find new ways of working.
The Junction has found that for some young people who struggle with talking, being able to communicate through writing has been helpful. In the future, it is important to offer blended services in order to widen access to support.
Similarly for HOT, the new ways of working are likely to be incorporated into standard services, to stay adaptable for schools and young people in the uncertain times ahead.
People Know How told us that after their experiences of supporting people through digital exclusion projects, the organisation is supporting a campaign for digital equity and published a research briefing considering the problem of digital exclusion and how it should be combated.

The take-home message for Go Beyond is that the voluntary sector needs to seize the chance to do things differently as COVID-19 has brought great hardship, with more to come. We need to be agile and we’re going to be needed.

If you have an inspiring story to share, contact Tessa Williams (tessa.williams@evoc.org.uk).

#SideBySideEdin is a campaign showing how Edinburgh’s charities work with Children, Young People & Families across the city.

Extension of FOI regulations to voluntary organisations

4 December 2019 By Ian Brooke Leave a Comment

Many organisations may be aware, and others not yet alert to the fact that a Scottish Government consultation has just closed, seeking views on further extending the coverage of FOISA, with a focus on those who provide services on behalf of the public sector.

The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA)

The full consultation description is here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/freedom-information-extension-coverage-consultation/ 

At the last meeting of the Third Sector Strategy Group the proposals were discussed and it was agreed that Edinburgh TSI would submit a succinct consultation response copied below:

We believe that the proposed extension is a ‘sledgehammer to crack at a nut’. Members of the public and all stakeholders are entitled to receive information on the provision of public services and this entitlement should be ‘blind’ to the nature, sector or legal form of the ‘provider’ of services.

However, to ask hard-pressed and already stretched third sector organisations to take on the responsibility of dealing with requests for information under FOISA is unnecessary, counter-productive, time consuming and would likely cause confusion amongst both organisations and members of the public. The necessary investment in training and awareness-raising would be, in itself, a waste of time and resources for all concerned.

The solution is a simple one; local authorities, Health Boards or other public bodies who contract-out services falling under FOISA regulations, should write into such contracts that they as the contracting authority can request from the contractor appropriate and proportionate information, should they receive requests from members of the public that require a response from organisations delivering that contract. Public bodies have the resources and policy frameworks required for dealing with FOISA requests. Using these existing channels for public enquiries, and seeking information from contractors for the public body’s FOISA team to then collate as a response to FOISA requests is a sensible and simple solution.

Fellow voluntary sector infrastructure bodies such as our friends at SCVO are taking a similar view to that expressed above and have developed an unrivaled depth of understanding around this issue.

Hopefully Scottish Government will listen and take a sensible approach.

ian.brooke@evoc.org.uk

Localities – A New Way of Working

9 May 2016 By EVOC Communications Team Leave a Comment

By Denise Horn, Senior Development Officer – Strategic Partnerships, EVOC   

During the last few weeks I have been out with colleagues discussing locality working in the four Edinburgh localities, trying to demystify the whole thing, making sure people are up to speed with developments, and gathering your opinions on this new model.

The events grew in intensity, with the last being a very lively discussion for the North East locality. There are still so many things to be fully decided and while that may leave some feeling frustrated, others see it as an opportunity to shape the way things are done. 

Feeding in to events like this is hard work, frustrating and time consuming but we hope that you also feel it’s worth it. Representing third sector interests at citywide meetings can be challenging. It would be so much easier for everyone if the third sector would become more organised and easy to deal with…but we just aren’t like that – thank goodness.  The myriad of charities and community groups has evolved over time and from communities’ needs. There is no overarching command and control: just discussion, common sense and, where possible, consensus of opinion with people serving the interests of those with whom they are working. 

Prevention is often talked about, and I do hope that this becomes an increased focus in localities. The outlook is promising and as ever the third sector is heralded as being expert in prevention, so hopefully this will be fully recognised as we go into locality working.  

As I said, it can be slow going to effect change when representing third sector interests, and we know that our sector colleagues can feel impatient with us reps when we don’t get the hoped for changes quick enough. As an old boss of mine used to say we are talking about turning round a tanker here…..it is neither nimble nor quick (unlike the qualities of our own sector).  However, being able to hear first-hand the opinions of those we represent makes a huge difference, so thanks to all who attended these events. We do emerge feeling stronger and with a greater voice.  We heard a lot that was familiar, and much we have already expressed quite forcefully at meetings. We know that our role is to represent the sector, we are listening to your views and try our best to act as a conduit expressing things that public sector bodies perhaps don’t like to hear, as well as what they are keen to embrace. 

Locality working: we are sceptical and optimistic in equal measure, but we are embracing it and hope that it works for the benefit of our sector and local communities.

Read the report from these Thinkspaces here Report from four Locality Think Space Events.

 

 

 

 

 

Tagged With: Locality working, public sector transformation, third sector

There’s Lives behind these Numbers – JRF publishes #MIS2012

10 July 2012 By EVOC Communications Team Leave a Comment

THREE, four and 8.42 – these are the numbers that define the state of poverty in the UK today.

Three million more people fail to meet the Minimum Income Standard than did in 2008 before the Lehmans-driven financial crisis (the first year the Loughborough University research funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation was released.)

One in four of us do not earn enough for a decent standard of living.

And a working-age couple with two school-age children need to allow £8.42 each week so that they can buy each other birthday presents.

That last one brought it home to me – the lives that live behind the numbers, the stories that sit beside the stats – one in four of us do not have enough to buy our partners and our children a present for their birthdays.

The experience of never having enough demonstrably damages our self-esteem, health and our social relationships – the grinding poverty that too many of us experience saps our strength and our resilience, damaging the warp and weft of our shared social fabric.

Launched at 10pm yesterday, in time for the nightly news,  the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s annual Minimum Income Standards report holds some grim statistics.

You can find the full report, and a press release on the Minimum Income Standards website.

Meanwhile, on the JRF website, you can view an MIS calculator – and the rich detail below the headline figures.

Since 2008, the researchers have tracked what the public agrees that we need, in order to have an acceptable standard of living.

The level of detail goes down to agreeing that an internet connection is essential, but only a moderately-priced service which includes free weekend and evening calls.

On birthday presents – remember that figure of £8.42 per week – the public agrees that an acceptable standard of living would enable the children to give presents, and the parents to give each other presents as well, but the children themselves account for the most spend in this category, an eye-watering £3.45 each week.

Read it, and weep.

Upcoming change in EVOT’s funding arrangements

5 July 2012 By EVOC Communications Team Leave a Comment

I’m really sad to share the news that from September we will no longer be administering the BBC Children in Need small grants scheme.

EVOT has been working with BBC Children in Need for nearly 25 years, and we’ve helped around 60,000 families in Edinburgh during that time. Over those years I’ve worked with many good colleagues – health visitors, social workers and agencies – who depend on the Children in Need funds to assist families with basic necessary items for their children.

Much to our disappointment, the administration of the Children in Need money will be moving to the Buttle UK Trust in Glasgow from September 2012. This is part of an overall move by BBC Children in Need to centralise the administration of the fund across Scotland. So the fund itself is not disappearing, but the application process for it will be changing. 

EVOT will still be accepting individual grant applications (the next funding round begins 1st October) but there will be less money for us to use in our awards.

We hope that this change of process will go smoothly for all concerned and we will keep you informed of any other developments in due course. Meanwhile, please familiarise yourself with the Buttle UK Trust. For further information you may contact Anne Marie Peffer, Casework Manager, on applications@buttleuk.org with ‘request’ in the subject line. Alternatively, you can download an application form at their website and send it by post (together with a full supporting statement) to PO Box 5075, Glasgow, G78 4WA.

As the grant administrator of BBC Children in Need over these many years, I’d like to say thank you to all those with whom I’ve worked to help improve the lives of children in Edinburgh.

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