Community & Voluntary Sector Forum representative's report for 2007/8

Participants in Newsletter Workshop, 2007

Photo by kind permission of the Community & Voluntary Sector Forum

Representing the sector

By Jackie Fuller, NLCA Community and Voluntary Sector representative

Contact point

I have continued to be the main contact point for NLCA in relation to its membership of the Community & Voluntary Sector Forum (CVSF). This organisation brings together community groups, charities and voluntary organisations, enabling them to exchange ideas and good practice. The CVSF also provides its 500 members across Brighton & Hove with information and various kinds of support and the members elect people to represent the views of the sector on a wide range of strategic partnerships across the city.

Quarterly conferences

During 2007 I managed to attend some of the CVSF's quarterly conferences, held at Brighthelm, and I'm pleased to say that Peter and Sandy Crowhurst came with me to some of them. It is important that others in the NLCA apart from me benefit from the networking and interesting presentations that take place at these meetings.

The conferences usually start off with a plenary session on some topic of relevance to the whole sector, for example, Local Area Agreements. (These are three-year agreements between central government and local authorities, setting out what the priorities for the local area are, what improvement targets have to be met and how they will be measured.)

People then break out into separate workshops - usually about four to choose from. At one of the conferences last year I attended a workshop on community newsletters. We were addressed by a local printer who attempted to explain some of the mysteries of the printing process. We all took along examples of our own newsletters to compare and look for best practice or to discuss problems.

Stronger communities

The CVSF also has a number of ongoing programmes. For example, there is the 'Stronger Communities Programme', which aims to bring together organisations and communities so that they can have a meaningful voice on the 2020 Community Partnership (the city's Local Strategic Partnership) and its wider family of partnerships. I was pleased that Helen Cornish and Elly Hargreave attended one of the meetings under this initiative during 2007 on behalf of NLCA.

ChangeUp

There is also 'ChangeUp'. The community and voluntary sector provides a range of services and activities which support and improve the quality of life for people in the city and these organisations need to be supported by high quality, effective and valued support services - often referred to as infrastructure.

When the initial ChangeUp consultation was carried out, one of the main problems that community and voluntary groups spoke about was not knowing which organisations provide what help, support and advice. Work is now underway on improving information and support for groups, including a common database, a new joint website called 'Support for Groups', and a new joint magazine called Spoke.

Part of a wider group of organisations

It is important that we see the NLCA as part of a wider community of organisations in the voluntary sector, so that we can learn from each other and get a sense of how we can fit into the bigger picture in the city as a whole.

[Previously published in the North Laine Runner, No 191, March/April 2008]