1. Tell us what you doCentre Spot was established in 2008 as a community project which builds young people’s capacity, especially focusing on disadvantaged and socially excluded groups in Sandwell. We use the power of sport to engage young people, and as a catalyst to re-ignite their passions, whether that’s for learning, gaining new skills, volunteering, building confidence and resilience, or simply getting young people active, and physically active.
2. What is your proudest achievement?
As we approach our 10 year anniversary in 2018, we can look back at surviving through a difficult period for third sector organisations as our proudest achievement. In the early years we concentrated our energies on building a strong foundation, underwritten by quality of service and delivery, which we closely linked to our brand identity. Centre Spot has benefited from word-of-mouth referrals, which has been a major contributing factor to our sustainability. In terms of quality, we have ensured we are able to obtain trust from both our funders and our beneficiaries.
3. What is your experience of support received from SCVO
SCVO have been invaluable in supporting the growth of our project over the years, SCVO were there to “hold our hands” in the early years , including supporting us through a PQASSO Level 3. We have continued to gain support from SCVO through attending various network events, as well as receiving monthly funding news.
4. What is the most valuable lesson you have learnt about working with people in Sandwell?
The needs of people in Sandwell in terms of sports and physical activity is varied, and provides different challenges. These challenges have meant that over the years we have learnt to diversify our services to meet the needs of our beneficiaries. This has required us to achieve an internal capacity to convert our service standard into a beneficiary-driven model. To this end, we expended resources in training our staff members, besides taking every opportunity to shout about our high quality work. None of these displaces the sheer hard work and belief in our vision, and our readiness to learn from our mistakes, and this remains our consuming passion. We have perfected perseverance and resilience, and strive to always get it right.
5. What are the plans for the future and some of the challenges you face?
We are looking forward to continued growth, and being recognised as community focused organisation. We have grown from being very reliant on grant funding when we started to being more self sufficient through delivering contracts and commissioning. We aim to let more people know about the Centre Spot brand and what it represents, as well as being a stronger, and trusted name in the community.
6. How can SCVO help to support your organisation in the future?
We feel that beyond the valuable support we already receive from SCVO, we could do with support around measuring and demonstrating impact, and high quality project monitoring.
For more information on Centre Spot call them on 0121 569 2411 or visit their website at
www.centrespot.org
The aim of the Project was for a group of unemployed your people supported by Sandwell HUB, Talent Match, West Bromwich JCP and Barnardo’s On Track Project, to create and complete an identified community social action, by organising and donating a number of shoeboxes containing needy toiletries and dry food products for young adults with visual disabilities.
