July 2015

Monthly Archives

Spotlight on Sandwell Crossroads

July 31, 2015by Leona in Blog, Local Impact Spotlight, VCS Feature tagged

Sandwell CrossroadsTell us what you do
Our charitable focus is in providing family respite care and support at home.  We also provide a range of advice and guidance to signpost family carers and the people who they are caring for.   The range of services dovetails so is holistic and person centred, with the aim of providing quality innovative care.

What is your proudest achievement?
We offer an inclusive range of services i.e., 24/7 support service, training for family carers in their own home, reducing the risk of injury and unnecessary hospital admissions.  These skills are transferrable when finally their caring role has come to an end that can be used in the work place to build a worthwhile career in care.  We are now providing specialist services throughout Birmingham, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton.

What is your experience of support received from SCVO (if relevant)?
They are very supportive. They keep us informed with the political and local agenda for health and social care commissioning and changes. They bring people together and facilitate lots of interesting discussions and debates so are very valued by the voluntary sector.

What is the most valuable lesson you have learnt about working with people in Sandwell?
Sandwell is a very different area to the rest of the country, which is diverse and interesting.  It is essential when assessing people who use our services to be respectful and a good listener and understand their daily living needs so these can be implemented and maintained, as a quality outcome.

What are your plans for the future and some of the challenges you face?
We want to make sure that we are sustainable and can continue to deliver our services and respond to what the market needs. The challenge is funding. We would like to continue our bereavement service if funding will allow, as this service helps with the transition of a caring role, enabling people back into work, that also reduces isolation and increases wellbeing.

How can SCVO help to support your organisation in the future?
Their communication and information is vital to our sector and a best friend to us all, helping us survive through difficult times.

For further information 0121 553 6483 or view their website: www.sandwellcrossroads.org

Spotlight on West Bromwich Food Bank

July 17, 2015by Leona in Blog, Local Impact Spotlight, VCS Feature tagged

foodbanklogo
Tell us what you do
We collect and store food, ready to give out to people in crisis. Last year on average we helped 100 people a week and about a third of them were children under the age of 16. People either collect food directly from the church or a support worker will get it for them. We rely on the generosity of donations from individuals, churches, businesses and various other organisations. We partner with front line agencies like the Citizen’s Advice Bureau who support us too.

What is your proudest achievement?
Our best achievement is being able to support people in need which is what we are here for. We help anyone who comes from the door and have always seen them leave with enough food for 3-4 days. There was just one occasion where we very nearly ran out of food on a Friday but luckily it didn’t quite happen.

What is your experience of support received from SCVO (if relevant)?
Excellent. We work with SCVO on the emergency provision network and we are looking at tapping into your expertise for help with funding in the future. It is a brilliant organisation and it is very handy having you right next door!

What is the most valuable lesson you have learnt about working with people in Sandwell?
From our experience of helping support people who cannot afford food, it’s the realisation that this could happen to anyone these days. We sometime use the strapline ‘You are only one pay cheque away from crisis’ which really is true. Even people who are working sometime can’t make ends meet.

What are your plans for the future and some of the challenges you face?
Ultimately we want to close the food bank. This might sound strange at first but if we could get to the stage where no one requires our services any longer than that would obviously be fantastic. This probably won’t happen any time soon though.

In the meantime we would like to continue and expand what we do. We would like to run a dedicated centre, like a one stop shop that people in need could use. Ideally this would be run by trained volunteers or even paid staff who could give advice and sign post people to get help. Getting the funding for this would be a challenge though.

How can SCVO help to support your organisation in the future?
Just by being there. We like knowing that SCVO are just a phone call away and can provide ad-hoc support when we need it.

If you would like to donate food to the bank then please contact Keith Turner on 0121 580 0068

Spotlight on Brushstrokes

July 2, 2015by Leona in Blog, Local Impact Spotlight, VCS Feature tagged

Tell us what you do
At Brushstrokes we provide a welcoming centre for newcomers into Sandwell. Over our 15 years existence we have supported refugees, asylum seekers and migrants from 130 different countries. We provide support in three key areas. The first of these is through our practical support for newcomers. Many experience an acute level of poverty. Our response is to give out food, clothes, baby packs and household items on a weekly basis to people facing multiple issues.

The second aspect of our work is offering advice, support, befriending and outreach. This involves visiting individuals and families to offer befriending to overcome isolation and exclusion and offer access to advice surgeries to meet their complex needs.

Our third area of work is offering newcomers the opportunity to learn English (ESOL) through our volunteer teaching programme. We currently have 160 people learning English in the centre.

What is your proudest achievement?
I believe every aspect of our work achieves its goal of enabling people to flourish and become more independent.
Some specific examples include: housing homeless people, helping people into work and gaining qualifications in English. Lastly, we are proud of our recent accreditation through the Mentoring and Befriending Foundation as a quality provider.

What is your experience of support received from SCVO?
We have experienced support from SCVO in a number of ways. Most recently, this was through the managing change programme which enabled us to review our governance status and adopt a local constitution.
Over the years we have benefitted from their fundraising information days as well as their operational business events. I find these events very helpful as they allow organisations to network with each other.
Overall SCVO been very supportive over the years and have helped us with access to a variety of opportunities including the current Creative Black Country programme we are involved in which is supporting our service users in accessing and taking part in a range of creative activities.

What is the most valuable lesson you have learnt about working with people in Sandwell?
Through working with newcomers and people who have been in Sandwell for a long time, I have become inspired by the community spirit and positive aspiration of wanting to become part of Sandwell amongst all its residents.

What are your plans for the future and some of the challenges you face?
Due to the growing need for our work we have outgrown the space in our current building. As a result, we are looking for a way to expand and reconfigure our internal and external space through applying for capital funding.
In terms of other challenges, funding in all sectors is shrinking and growing the organisation is more difficult. Our key goal is to sustain to our core areas of work whilst continuing to respond to the challenges of providing more resources and more services as demand for these services grows.

How can SCVO help to support your organisation in the future?
In the future SCVO could help support Brushstrokes by securing enhanced support for smaller organisations and championing their impact and reach in the public arena.

A key role of SCVO which would help us is to provide capacity building to help smaller organisations to work together collaboratively by developing the networking skills of grassroots workers in local areas.

In addition, assisting organisations like ours with funding bids and promotional activities are also important areas where we hope SCVO will still be bedrock of support in the future.

For more information please contact 0121 565 2234 or visit http://www.brushstrokessandwell.org.uk/