One month into the New Year and I have been to a LOT of meetings

January is over, I have already failed on most of my New Year Resolutions and I have been to a lot of meetings. These meetings are important and as a CVS it is our role to go and represent the sector, but I do wonder what would happen if we were not there. Would the world stop turning – NO; would you stop providing services – NO; would the statutory organisations who generally call these meetings stop having them – NO; would the sector get forgotten about or marginalise – MAYBE; would the sector be misrepresented and misunderstood – MAYBE; would the sector be assumed to be able to do ‘stuff’ for ‘nothing’ – YOU BETCHA’

This is not the first time that this thought about the value of meetings has made me think What would happen differently if these meetings did not exist? It is important that we keep evaluating what it is we do and why; here at CCVS we are currently in the beginning stages of looking at what our strategy will be in the future, so once again I questioned why so much of my time is spent sitting in meetings with lots of important people talking about stuff.

For info the meetings I have attended in January include

• The Fenland Health and Wellbeing Partnership
• A County Council Communications and Project Board Meeting
• The South Cambridgeshire Local Health Partnership
• The Fenland Community safety Partnership
• A City Council Prevent meeting
• The City Council Local Health Partnership

At all these meetings the work that voluntary sector groups do is integral to the work, priorities and targets of the statutory partners; sometimes this work is recognised and the groups involved are obvious, hardly ever are the efforts of the groups rewarded with funding and support. Often the work of many groups is not thought to be contributing when it is, both directly and indirectly – and that is a big part of my job. I am there to remind people of all the wonderful and diverse work that the sector does; to point out that this work needs to be resourced; and to highlight the fact that just because a lunch club does not see itself as providing health benefits it is doing so in many ways – by reducing isolation and loneliness, by serving nutritious food and by noticing when someone unexpectedly misses a session and popping round to check they are OK.

I am good at getting the sectors profile raised; I have learnt how to sound a little less like a stuck record when reminding people that we do need money; I have helped some people who did not understand the sector understand it better. This is all good but in the long run in this time of austerity will it bring in more funding and more support and better opportunities for you to engage? A recent blog by Joe Saxton for NFP synergy railed against voluntary groups spending time lobbying politicians, my response to that was that at a local level we were not and that we are continuing to get on with helping people and doing our thing. I do however believe that we are affected by the things that happen in politics both nationally and locally. We have to make people aware of:

• the work we do,
• the impact of their decisions on those that we work with and support
• the issues that are affecting the lives of people in their constituency/district

I will continue to speak up for the sector but you need to as well. I will continue to attend meetings so that you do not have to and can get on with your important work. But at the same time CCVS relies on your input to give us a bird’s eye view of what is happening on the ground. So my challenge to you is to let me have your insights and stories, what is great about what you have done? What are the burning issues? What ways can we join up with strategies that are in place and what ways can we ensure we drive agendas in the future?

As an incentive I will donate £5 of my own money to my new favorite campaign,

Harrisons Fund for the first five VCS organisations in Cambridge, South Cambs and Fenland that get back to me with their stories and ideas of how we can drive change and show statutory partners the difference we make.

No I do not want my office painted – but give me some cash!

Some thoughts on the CCVS annual conference 2014

All too often the relationship between the business sector and the voluntary and community sector (VCS) is a series of unproductive and transient communications. The VCS view all businesses as being incredibly wealthy and therefore they have a duty to fund our work, and business all too often sees the sector as a source of ‘team building’ or feel good factor opportunities – when groups of unqualified people come and paint/build/clear something. We want to move beyond this and the recent CCVS annual conference ‘Working with Business’ was the start of a long road to developing real partnerships and relationships.

Firstly do not get me wrong, for some organisations groups of willing bodies descending to complete a task can be useful, and to be fair if there are any painting and decorating or office fit out firms out there who want a team building day then our offices could do with your help – but the bottom line is if I want the office decorated I want a decorator. I am also saying that businesses who want to give money, but nothing else, would never be turned away; again CCVS has an almost infinite capacity to use your unrestricted donations so send me your cheques! I do however believe that both sectors can get a great deal more from working together and we need to encourage, enable, and nurture this.

Our conference produced a few notes from the breakout sessions, but these were very much set up to be networking opportunities for those there rather than about feeding back information that would never be used. We also have some great slides from some of the presenters and these include many tips and ideas. Check out both on the website.

I took a lot of positives from the conference, but the bottom line is that there is a gulf of understanding and often language between the sectors. Despite this I was struck by the desire to close this, to learn more about how to work together and what is going on and the opportunities for building real relationships. To this end we at CCVS will commit to a number of actions.

• We will develop training for the VCS about how to make your pitch and how to approach your contacts
• We will work with partners including Business in the Community to find ways to bring the sectors together to facilitate that contact
• We will find ways to promote the diversity, ingenuity and sheer wonderfulness of the VCS to local businesses so that they can see the depth and variety of organisations that they can work with.

Finally, we will look out for any decorators who want to do team building so that we can utilise their professional skills and expertise, as well as their enthusiasm and desire, to support the many causes that exist out there – most notably the cause of giving my office a good makeover!

Who knew food could be so unequal?

Food is not really something I think about much, my wife is an excellent cook and does the food stuff at home, this includes much of the shopping and the planning. My job is to eat, make my share of breakfast and packed lunches, and occasionally visit the local shops. (In my defence I do most of the cleaning and ironing).

But food is a real issue and not just in the difference between what we eat and what those in the developing world eat (see the Hunger Notes 2013 World Hunger and Poverty Facts and Statistics), but in what goes on in a relatively wealthy City like Cambridge. That was the theme of the latest Cambridge City Diversity Forum.

Food, Glorious Food was held on 23^rd June at the Meadows Community Centre and saw a number of food related presentations followed by a collective exercise to produce an interactive food map of Cambridge. In no particular order we heard from a number of different projects that help to alleviate food poverty and ensure that food is used in a sustainable way.

Foodcycle in Cambridge

• Twitter https://twitter.com/FoodCycleCamb
• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/foodcyclecambridge
• Web http://foodcycle.org.uk/location/cambridge/

They are the local branch of a national movement that

 “serve a delicious lunch at The Centre at St Paul’s Church every Saturday to a range of people from the community. The Centre is at the heart of the community and helps us to reach out to people in the local area. We also work in partnership with local organisations such as the Cambridge Love Food Hate Waste campaign. Each week we collect surplus produce locally from Sainsbury’s, the City Food Bank and Lensfield Road Farmer’s Market and then we turn these ingredients into exciting and nutritious meals for our service users to enjoy”

 

Cambridge Edible Garden

• Web http://www.camediblegarden.org/
• Twitter https://twitter.com/CamEdibleGarden
• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cambridge-Edible-Garden/496793677028688

Their face book page says they are

“A new edible garden project at Murray Edwards College in Cambridge for students, University staff & the local community. All are welcome!” and that they “In short, we grow food on-site and then we eat it. Simples”

Cambridge Foodbank

Web http://cambridgecity.foodbank.org.uk/

Part of the national programme of Foodbanks Cambridge City Foodbank  works from 5 distribution centres across the City. In short

“Food is donated

Food is sorted and stored

Frontline professional agencies identify people in crisis

Clients receive short-term emergency food”

Cambridge Sustainable Food

• Web http://www.cambridgesustainablefood.org/
• Twitter https://twitter.com/FoodCambridge
• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/cambridgefood

They are

“a broad new alliance of organisations promoting healthy and environmentally sustainable food for all.”

 

So all in all it seems that there is a fair bit going on in the City when it comes to food sustainability and equality. The second half of the meeting reinforced this as all those present wandered round the room adding projects that they were aware of to giant maps of the City. These will eventually be digitised and we will share the results with you once we see them.

Once again the voluntary and community sector are coming up with innovative and practical ways to solve a problem not of their making. These solutions do not cure the disease that sees some people with not enough to eat but they go some way to alleviating some of the symptoms. As a sector (and as individuals) we need to look at how we can eliminate this imbalance.  Cambridge is a wealthy City but this does not mean everyone is wealthy, but surely it is not too much to expect that no one goes hungry!

What’s wrong with a good old fashioned clip round the ear?

Well everything really – but back in the good old days when there was a Dixon of Dock Green on every street corner (check out Wikipedia if you are too young to get the reference), and everyone knew their local bobby this is how minor nuisance and what would now be called anti social behaviour (ASB) was dealt with – apparently.

This remedy is getting a 21^st century update as part of changes to the law brought about by the Anti-Social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014 which introduces two new ideas (amongst other things) the Community Trigger and Community Remedies.

This was one of the items discussed at the Cambridge Community Safety Partnership (CSP) the papers of which can be found here. More information can be found about these new powers in this presentation.

So there are three things here, first there is a simplification of the numerous notices, orders and ASBOs that currently exist. This will undoubtedly make things easier for the Police and other agencies but will have little effect on the public. The next issue is the Community Trigger, this will have an effect on everyone and will possibly be the best thing to come out of this government for some residents groups and community associations who spend their time dealing with ASB issues and finally there is the idea of community remedies, this will allow the Police (and in some instances others) to meet out punishments without going through a court procedure.  This could be seen as a triumph of common sense over bureaucracy or as the long slippery slope to the Judge Dredd ‘I am the Law’ scenario (again check out Wikipedia if this reference means nothing to you).

Whatever you views it is probably worth making them known to the Police and Crime Commissioner as he will be making the final decisions on how this will work. There is a survey on the PCC website here.

The meeting also heard a report on the County wide Domestic Violence needs assessment and the executive summary is included in the papers and is available here, with the full report available here. This area of work always strikes me as being well co-ordinated and being a partnership that brings out the best of both statutory and voluntary sectors. Whilst there are undoubtedly areas that could be improved my feeling is that we are getting many things right, and that this issue remains a focus of not just justice partnerships but also health and wellbeing partnerships. If this is an issue that affects you there is more information on how to get help on the County Council website.

Mental health is more than just a health issue

As Mental Health Awareness Week draws to a close it seems fitting to highlight how this topic is rising up the agenda of a number of the community safety and crime partnerships CCVS attend.

Having recently attended the Community Safety Partnerships for both Cambridge and Fenland, and the Police and Crime Partnership meeting I am struck by the increasing issues raised around mental health and how it affects victims and perpetrators of crime. More and more the Police and other partners have recognised that the mental health of those that they are coming into contact with is a contributory factor to the committing of crimes and something that affects many victims.

There is a real desire to examine this issue and work out what can be done to prevent crime and to support victims and perpetrators to address any mental health issues. The new Cambridge City Community Safety Plan has a strategic objective to

“To understand the impact of mental health, alcohol and drug misuse on violent crime and antisocial behaviour”

The growing recognition that mental health is an issue and that reducing offending means looking at, and addressing, the underlying issues that people have has been recognised and the partnership recognises that it needs to find out more about this to develop effective strategies can only be welcomed.

In Fenland whilst there is no mention of mental health directly there is a strong focus on Anti-Social Behaviour and problems caused by alcohol. It is recognised that mental health problems have an impact on both these areas and that they need to be addressed.

Significantly the Police and Crime Commissioner has identified Mental Health as a priority area and will be bringing his influence to bear to look at how the system of dealing with mental health across the county can be improved with a view to reducing offending. The county has effective partnership structures in place around domestic violence that involve many agencies working together, this is overseen by a Domestic Violence Board who can ensure parity of service across the county and ensure that organisations are working together. The need for a similar board for mental health, along with the funding and partnerships to make a real difference seems to be paramount. So over to Sir Graham to make it happen!

As far as the voluntary sector goes there are numerous organisations working with and supporting those with mental health issues, reductions in funding to the NHS and increasing thresholds to get people into the clinical mental health system are putting pressure on many services. It is vitally important that everyone gets the support, treatment and information they need in an appropriate way. It is only a truly person centred and joined up system that will bring about real change for the individuals affected directly and indirectly by mental health issues; by doing this we will be able to reduce offending and create safer communities.

If you work in the mental health field please let us know your thoughts, we are looking at what we as a sector need to do in order to start influencing the agenda and providing services that work towards a common goal.