The latest news from CEO Kevin Skingsley:

A warm welcome back for Esther on a phased return to work at the beginning of February. We have some catching up to do with Improving Reach Healthchecks and I am pleased to report that we were successful with our Contingency Fund application which will enable us to buy in some extra Development Worker hours in the short term.

I also welcome Claire Mitchell to the team. Claire will be doing a small amount of work for Digital Umbrella and High Peak CVS around ICT Training.

At the last High Peak CVS Board meeting, the recommendation that Digital Umbrella remains a project of High Peak CVS rather than a Trading Arm was endorsed by the Board and this will be regularly reviewed by the Digital Umbrella Shadow Board and reviewed by the High Peak CVS Board in September 2010.   

We have a new Chair, Mike Crompton and a new Vice Chair Jo Ward. Obviously, a big thank you to Pete Spriggs for his stewardship in the roles of Chair and Vice Chair. Pete has been on the Board for 5 years and I have been impressed by his warmth and common sense approach.

We are starting to develop plans for the future sustainability of High Peak CVS. Every organisation I speak with is predicting challenging financial times ahead in the next years. We have recently reviewed our charges for Training and Room Hire which will come into effect from the 1st April 2010.

Regional ICT Project

The Regional ICT Project is now up and running. This three year project will provide support and advice to third sector infrastructure organisations throughout the region, including ICT ‘health-checks’ and workshops for development workers.

High Peak CVS has a lead role for the project in Derbyshire, and Digital Umbrella will be providing ICT health-checks to infrastructure organisations in the county.

Regionally, the project is being delivered by a partnership of organisations: Purple Zebra (overall lead organisation), High Peak CVS, InvolvingLincs, Voluntary Action Leicestershire,
and Northampton Volunteering Centre, with Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living (LCIL) providing specialist support and advice to the project regarding ICT accessibility. For the latest information see www.item3.org.uk or contact Steve Webster (07595 119182).

Celebrating People Award

This year High Peak CVS introduced a new annual award in honour of its second Chairperson, Chris Woodcock, the Celebrating People Award.

Chris made a significant contribution to local groups within the High Peak including High Peak CVS. Chris had the unique ability to get to the nub of an issue, cut through to what is important and succinctly lay out the way forward. He was always dedicated, responsive, supportive and jovial. When he passed away, the High Peak voluntary sector lost one of its strongest advocates and supporters.

Through this award, High Peak CVS wants to celebrate and commemorate not only Chris’s contribution, but also his insight into the potential of voluntary activity for personal and community growth. 

This new award offers local groups the opportunity to raise their profile and gain recognition for the work they do. Our key assessment criteria is around acknowledging your achievements and progress. Examples of the types of changes we are looking for maybe around revitalising your group, attracting new members, attracting new funding, developing a new project and or making a significant impact in your local community.

You can apply on behalf of your group, you can be nominated by or nominate another group. A small panel will make the decision.

High Peak CVS will present the Award, a commemorative plaque, framed certificate and cheque for £100 for the group, at its Annual General Meeting in October. The Award is open to all groups, however small or large, newly formed or long established and we encourage everyone to apply. 

There is a simple application form which groups are asked to complete and return to: Gina Spencer, High Peak CVS, Community Space, 1A Bingswood Trading Estate, Whaley Bridge, High Peak; Email: gina@highpeakcvs.org.uk, Tel: 01663 736424.

In 2009 the Celebrating People Award went to Chinley, Buxworth and Brownside Community Association.

The organisation was set up 2 years ago to revitalise a wide range of community activities in these villages.

The group began by refurbishing a hut to provide a base where local clubs could meet.

Since then almost a dozen activities have begun, from fitness and sports classes to community cinema.

Kevin Skingsley said "This is voluntary and community work at its very best. It's had a real impact on people's lives."

High Peak Diabetic Self-Help were runners up.

Advice on Swine Flu - from DoH

This document gives background information and highlights key areas for consideration to support third sector organisations to plan, prepare and respond to pandemic influenza. By planning well, third sector organisations could play a key role in contributing to the success of the general response to, and recovery from, a pandemic.

>> Pandemic Influenza Supplementary information for Third Sector Organisations

High Peak CVS leads ‘Stepping Up to Enterprise’

High Peak CVS has won funding to encourage groups across the East Midlands region to develop trading activities in a bid to help them become more sustainable. The project, entitled ‘Stepping Up to Enterprise’ will be delivered jointly by High Peak CVS and two partner organisations, Enterprise Solutions Northamptonshire and the Development Trusts Association.

The project will initially be directed at advisory organisations such as CVSs which support a range of voluntary and community organisations. Through the project, advisors will be able to gain knowledge and skills to be able to assist groups through the early stages of exploring their trading ideas and getting started.

A comprehensive resources pack – comprising information, tools and training materials – will be developed, together with a directory with guidance on when to seek expert or specialist advice and who to approach for this. Advisors taking part in the programme will be encouraged to test out the resources with interested client groups, and share their learning with project staff and other advisors. The resources pack and directory will then be promoted widely to voluntary and community organisations throughout the region.

Funding for this project has come through the government’s Capacity Builders Social Enterprise programme. ‘Stepping Up to Enterprise’ is one of a suite of projects supporting and developing social enterprise in the region, each running between now and March 2011. For further information on other projects, see www.seem.uk.net .

Chris Woodcock - an Obituary

Chris Woodcock, who has died aged 56, was a significant contributor to the business and voluntary sectors and to partnerships whose legacy will last for future generations.

For nearly thirty years Chris was at the forefront of innovation within the business and voluntary sectors. He joined Kellogg’s in Manchester in 1977 as the in-house solicitor and managed the legal department until 1988.

In the early 1980’s Chris created and developed Kellogg’s Corporate Community Involvement Programme a trail blazer and precursor to businesses highlighting their Corporate Social Responsibility. Chris brought his unique blend of innovation and clarity to focus on some of the most challenging local communities in the country. He became one of the first corporate practitioners in the field of community based regeneration.

From 1988 onwards Chris worked almost exclusively in the fields of community and public affairs. He developed Kellogg’s approach which required a combination of hands-on involvement in many of the community and voluntary organisations with which Kellogg’s worked, together with influencing policy at national, regional and local levels of government.

Upon the National stage Chris was a founding member of the National Lotteries Charity Board, Chair of the Development Trusts Association and member of the New Deal Task Force Advisory Group, Environmental Task Force Advisory Group and Corporate Responsibility Group.

Many people will have had their lives changed by his hands-on involvement in grassroots projects with Moss Side and Hulme Community Development Trust, Community Foundation for Greater Manchester and Rathbone Training.

Chris retired from his day job at Kellogg’s aged 53 and continued playing a full and active part in the local community of the High Peak. He Chaired High Peak CVS, and was a Governor of Glossopdale Community College, a Trustee of Glossopdale Furniture Project and Glossop Volunteer Centre and was a Committee Member of Glossop Cricket Club.

Chris had the unique ability to get to the nub of an issue, cut through to what is important and succinctly lay out the way forward. He was always dedicated, responsive, supportive and jovial.

Chris was an inspiration, he was a leader, and all of us who have had the privilege of knowing him have been greatly endowed by that experience.  He was a giver, and we gladly took.  Now that he is gone, perhaps we can give back to others something of what he gave us. 

He will be missed by his family, friends and colleagues and was truly a man ahead of his time.

High Peak CVS is celebrating a great boost to its funding with a Big Lottery BASIS grant worth £440,000 over the next 5 years

The money will fund development work with voluntary and community groups and charities throughout the High Peak.

There are over 850 voluntary groups active in the High Peak and there continues to be clear demand for development support, for both newly emerging small groups, as well as for established groups that are entering a transition phase or undergoing review or setback.

Nigel Caldwell, the Development Programme Manager at High Peak CVS said “this funding is really great for us. It will mean that we can continue supporting local groups, who contribute so much to the local community”. He added “Nationally, the lottery BASIS programme was hugely oversubscribed, so we’re really pleased we’ve been able to demonstrate the need in the High Peak and to secure valuable resources”.

The new funding focuses on three specific areas of development support.

Work with small groups
Enabling the CVS’s Small Group Project to continue working with those particularly disadvantaged groups in the borough, including a newly formed Polish community group and local disability access groups which offer a range of services to disabled people.

Focus on sustainability for community groups
Groups need to secure their future i.e. to develop their own sustainability and avoid grant dependency.  This mostly means financial security by diversifying funding streams and adopting more enterprising approaches to fundraising. It could also be improved use of current assets

The Sustain development work will offer tools, techniques and training on asset development, creative approaches to fundraising through enterprising activity right up to the development of social enterprises.

Groups also need to be increasingly sensitive to their own environmental impact and the Sustain project will help them to address these issues.

Arts Development
The Arts Development project is helping to implement the High Peak Arts Strategy. In particular the work will look to extend the possibilities for young people to be engaged in the arts through a young people’s art network. 

There will also be scope to increase the potential for community and voluntary groups to incorporate arts within their work.  The project will boost support to local community celebrations like festivals, carnivals and well dressings and help them promote community identity and widen the use of creative skills.

Environmental Impact Assessment

High Peak CVS’s Sustain Project is offering an environmental impact assessment for local community and voluntary groups. The assessment looks at how environmentally friendly the group is and helps them decide what they can do to improve, through an action plan. Putting the action plan into practice needn’t cost the group money – in fact, it could save money!

The assessment has several strands: saving energy and resources; travelling wisely and shopping ethically; and creating a welcoming and inclusive environment.

This initiative is a pilot project, and could lead on to the development of an Environmental Quality Mark for community and voluntary organisations in the High Peak.

Several groups have already been invited to take part in this pilot scheme, but we are looking for more volunteers. If you would like to take part please contact Esther Jones.

High Peak CVS’s Sustain project

How do you keep a group well resourced, not grant dependent and sensitive to the environment? Our Sustain Project helps local organisations answer this tough question.

The Sustain Project was set up in 2004 to provide advice and support to VCS groups to develop economically and environmentally sustainable ways of working. Groups are encouraged to grow whilst reducing their environmental impact, and to develop social enterprises and enterprising behaviour to diversify their income and become less grant–dependent.

Read more of what the Sustain Project has achieved and plans:
>> Article on HPCVS Sustain Project for NAVCA 'Circulation' Newsletter

Visit the Sustain Project web pages

High Peak Borough Council new Community Fund Strategy and Policy

>> Download the HPBC Community Fund Strategy

The new Community Fund Strategy and Policy was approved when it went before the full HPBC Executive on February 7 2007.  The final draft was the result of a lengthy consultation process over several months seeking the views of voluntary and community organisations, including two open meetings organised by CVS in July and November 2006.

Over that period many of the voluntary sector’s views were taken on board. The result is that the policy that will guide how voluntary and community groups obtain funding from HPBC has been significantly improved and is much clearer.

1. 3 year funding agreements to organisations that need certainty of funding for core activities and longer term planning
2. Longer term funding for strategic partner organisations helping to fulfil the strategic aims of the council under a service level agreement.
3. A “Small Grants Pot”. One off grants will be made on an annual basis to voluntary and community groups wanting to undertake projects and also to new groups just starting up. The pot will be divided equally between each Area Forum and a grants panel made up of elected councillors will make decisions. The Small Grants Pot will open to bids in two rounds each year. The total amount available for next year is likely to be around £8000. The first round decisions will not be made until after the May elections.

Organisations who already receive significant funding will have transitional arrangements. They will be reviewed before the start of the financial year beginning April 2007, but any change in the level or the status of their funding will be subject to a 12 month notice - their current funding will not be affected for a further 12 months.

Applying for Funding
Soon iIt will be possible to apply on line. Closing date for applications for the first round will be May 30. Decisions will be made within the relevant area forums via a grants panel late June / early July, and groups should have a decision by the end of July. The small-pots grant will be around £8000 in total, split between the 4 area forums, so it will be small pots of money that are granted.

About the Community Fund
The Community Fund is a grant scheme available to voluntary organisations and community groups who provide services, facilities and activities to improve the quality of life for residents of the High Peak. The aim of the fund is to help in the development, promotion and co-ordination of sporting, artistic, cultural, community, environmental, educational and development initiatives within the High Peak.

Any constituted voluntary/community (non profit-making) group can apply for a grant from the Community Fund for either capital or revenue funding, to help with running costs for an event, the purchase of equipment or improvements to facilities.

If you want further information you can contact HPBC via Dave Bennett on 0845 129 7777 ex 2156 email daveb@highpeak.gov.uk ; or Nigel Caldwell at High Peak CVS 01663 736423  email.