V4CE AGM Report 2014

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ANNUAL REPORT2013-14

Voice4Change England

SUMMARY VERSIONFull version available online

#V4CEAGM


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Chairs Foreword

INFORMATION is a source of power, and

for those challenging race inequality andtrying to achieve positive outcomes for

their communities, it is a challenging

time. My predecessor observed last year

that change was going to be an ongoing

theme for us. Its clear that this year has

been equally challenging for us and we

face significant challenges ahead. Our

income has dropped dramatically but not

our aspirations. We recognise that most of

our members are experiencing similar dif-

ficulties and our resolve to offer support to

our members is reinforced.

In the last year a small, dedicated staff

team, led by our Director, have worked

hard to give voice to the numerous issues

faced by members in an effort to influ-

ence change. We welcomed two new

trustees, Nathalie Richards and Mohamed

Ahmed, and the Board had to make some

tough decisions this year. It hasnt been

easy. We had to move offices and reduce

staff hours. This meant we could not keep

some very able staff at the end of theircontracts. However, these decisions have

also seen us reduce our running costs,

make savings and provide continuity of

support to our members. I wish to thank

my fellow trustees for their ongoing sup-

port to fulfil our mission.

We are committed to supporting our

members; strengthen front-line service

providers and small organisations, and

social enterprises in our communities. We

aim to turn collective knowledge withinour communities into meaningful policy

change on race equality issues. Despite

the perennial barriers our members face

there are also opportunities for new con-

versations on social justice issues that mat-

ter to our communities. We wish to nur-

ture and enhance collective capacity and

help to influence change. As ever, our abil-

ities and successes are dependent on the

hard work and goodwill of many people.

My thanks to our volunteers, staff, funders

and my fellow trustees. I wish to thank our

members who continue to show us why

our support work must continue.

DirectorsIntroduction

VOICE4CHANGE ENGLAND remains

the only membership based BME in-

frastructure body in England and, de-

spite the continuing lack of support

for infrastructure from central govern-

ment, and on-going weakness in the

economy, our membership has not

only held up but has grown. Linked

to all of our work in 2013-14 was an

imperative to grow our membership

to establish a more credible and con-

nected BME voice.By taking this course we want our

members to receive all the benefits of

mainstream services and at the same

time strengthen our voice at the ta-

bles where important policy decisions

take place. However, the way rapid

structural change impacts negatively

on disadvantaged communities is still

a key issue for us. Its clear from the

numerous consultations and reports

that the BME third sector continuesto exist as a significant component of

the UK society, albeit in perhaps much

more difficult circumstances than 10

years ago.

The impact on Voice4Change and the

remaining handful of regional infra-

structure bodies is of a rising demand

for infrastructure services, alongside

reduced resources and capacity. Our

challenge today is to find a way to re-

solve that contradiction.Our trustees have supported me in

taking steps to map out a course of

action for sustainability. Inevitable

reductions in relation to staffing and

budgeting will take us into 2014-15

with a much leaner operation. Next

steps for us will mean a revamp of

our overarching Strategic Plan to

take us into 2016 and beyond. Find-

ing new ways to meet our members

needs in new times, will be a con-

tinuing theme for Voice4Change for

some time to come.

Neena Samota - Chair

Kunle Olulode - Director

30 Binney Street,London W1K 5BWTel: 020 3405 5210

Email: [email protected]: www.voice4change-england.co.uk


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Achievements2013-14

AT THE conclusion of the lastfinancial year I outlined how

Voice4Change objectives were to

understand in greater depth how

the BME charities and community

sector were changing, and to sta-

bilise our own financial position; to

push for greater social enterprise

development, particularly amongst

young people, and to explore the

possibility of close partners such as

possible merger.

Voice4Change was entering into

a period of transition in terms of

our finances and in the way future

policy initiatives would be shaped.

We therefore set about be looking

to restructure while developing

new collaborative relationships

around V4CE in order to continue

our longstanding support of BME

charities and communities across

England. How we set about meet-

ing these aims with six objectivesset out below.

Objective 1:Completion of Basis

Programme Strengthening Voices

In 2009 we were commissioned by

Big Lottery to play a central role in

delivering support services to BME

c h a r i - ties and communities

enterprises over a 5

year period, This

came to anend in

July 2014. Big Lottery has reported that

they were impressed by the work done

and that they could feel the energy and

momentum within the project, and that

BASIS was successfully completed. With

five years of the project behind us, V4CEare well placed to consider Big Lotterys

Fresh Thinking review (2013-14). Big

Lottery have shown they are still inter-

ested in building

partnerships

and facili-

tating

collaborations on social issues, includ-

ing partnership working between VCS

organisations and the public and private

sector aiming for improved performance

and resilience. In terms of specifics, over

the last year of the project, 54 organi-sations were involved in sharing best

practice, and an additional 31 trained in

fundraising. We have held Policy & Parlia-

mentary Training sessions in Manchester

(Sept 13), London (Nov 13), Greenwich

(Feb 14) and Sheffield (Mar 14) skill-

ing up 37 people from a range of

community groups. We also held

a social enterprise networking

event in July 13 with OImec

and delivered nine fundrais-ing training sessions in Feb &

Mar 14 in five locations and

four towns. Our website now

has a sector directory. We are

developing a more

interact ive


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Achievements 2013-14 (cont)

website with a revamped social direc-

tory and members area and our online

interactive Sector Directory encour-

ages partnership working. Twitter fol-

lowers increased 46% over the reporting

period to 1,485. Facebook likes have risen

28% in the same period to 656. Websitevisits rose to a monthly average of 28,000.

Our monthly e-bulletins are distributed

to 2,000 organisations containing sector

news and advice. We are also a member

of NAVCAs Independent Commission on

the Future of Local Infrastructure.

We have been working with organisa-

tions to strengthen partnerships to en-

courage groups to share resources and

find new ways of collaborating in difficult

times. And we are also developing con-sortia approaches to funding bids in part-

nership with Locality and published a

guide to partnerships and collaborations

between BAME and mainstream organi-

sations in Oct 13. Plus 30 infrastructure

organisations were involved in sharing

best practice, and improving service

provision more effectively.

The CORE policy group, consisting of

regional BME networks, was established

and supported as a pilot to develop

policy forum. V4CE played a part in this

forum, led by BTEG, which produced

BTEGs policy skills training manual. V4CE

played a key role in establishing the CORE

network, bringing together regional BME

networks, and acted as its first secretariat

as well as assisting its policy develop-

ment. V4CE identified policy and par-

liamentary training and fundraising as

the key skills development areas. The

former commenced in Jul 13, and the

latter in Feb 14, incl. sessions on build-ing a campaign. Looking ahead we

are actively seeking to engage with BL

to secure further funding for the BME

sector but give feedback to funders to

eliminate any bumps and difficulties

in terms of disconnection between

quality of services to the diverse com-

munities they serve. The report will also

go on to inform the Fairer and More Eq-

uitable Collaborations programme that

will seek to engage the sector to deliver

on this by providing a variety of resources

and support services.The funding from City Bridge has

enabled us to do a specific piece of

project work that has wide ranging

implications. Many BME organisations

including infrastructure ones have

gone out of business. So financial im-

potential recipients and funders.

Objective 2: City Bridge Barriers to

Collaborations & Partnerships

This project has given V4CE an oppor-

tunity to generate a dialogue and lead

a debate on the barriers of collaborative

working between mainstream and BME

organisations. It has enabled organisa-

tions working in partnership to share their

experiences. This report will be dissemi-

nated to the sector to highlight some

of the challenges faced by organisations

that have undertaken or attempted to

undertake collaboration across BME and

mainstream lines. The report will also en-

courage organisations to consider theirrole in improving the nature of collabora-

tion between the sectors and reflect on

their ability to engage better with differ-

ent organisations in order to improve the

peratives are driving organisations to

work together.

V4CE managed to complete all of the tar-

gets that were set and achieve key mile-

stones. However new milestones weregenerated along the way necessitating

an extension to the project until Mar

15, subsequently agreed by City Bridge

Trust in June 14. The work has evolved

by engaging with frontline groups on

the ground and improving the effective

impact of partnership and collaborative

practice.

Highlights of the programme so far have

included: working with London Volun-

tary Services Council (LVSC) to look at theissues on a wider London level delivering

a key note presentation at their Collabo-

rations and Mergers Event in April 2013.

We also ran workshops for BTEG event, at


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Hackney CVS.

V4CE launched a new strategic partner-

ship with BEMA in Hackney, and Volun-

tary Arts England, presentating to the

young audience focused on how we

secure better knowledge of free availablesupport and resources amongst estab-

lished and emerging BME arts groups.

The case studies are available on the

V4CE website.

The range of sectors covered means that

we have been able to provide relevant

resources which are suitable for the di-

verse services that are being provided

by BME groups. The publication of the

Guiding Principles, and a structure for

the framework for fair and equitable col-laborations and partnerships, has been

important for V4CE and has enabled us

to engage with more third tier infrastruc-

ture organisations such as Hackney CVS

but also to work with a range of smaller

organisations and networks on consortia

and partnership development.

In conclusion, through the localised work

we have been engaged groups are be-coming far more confident in collaborat-

ing and developing partnership work. As

government cuts and general austerity

kick in many more BME groups as well

infrastructure organisations may recon-

sider how they work together in collabo-

rations or through more formal partner-

ships. We want to continue to work with

groups in the London area and partners

such as LVSC to provide support and

guidance to engage with funders to pro-vide resources to enable this to happen.

Objective 3:Understanding Changes

to the BME Sector

Never has it been more obvious the old

race equality policy needs refreshment.

Race is no longer a key driver of central

government policy and to an extent has

become disconnected from the mind-set of young BME Brits who do not share

the tougher racial experiences of those

that came of age in the 80s and 90s.

Policy makers and advocates today are

faced with a relatively young BME con-

stituency who see their identity shaped

much more through local relationships

and being British as evidenced from the

research results of the national popula-

tion census. This shift is laying down a

challenge to leading third sector institu-tions that care about equalities.

With the situation in mind V4CE commis-

sioned Clore Fellow and LSE Researcher



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Dr Sanjiv Lingayah to write a new Think

Piece Rethinking Black Politics in the 21st

Century.The document was publishedas a conversation and debating piece

to initiate a serious exchange about

the changes in the way race equality

viewed by newly emerging BME com-

munities themselves, government and

policy makers. In the spring of 2014 the

Alternative PerspectivesConference was

held at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in

North London. The think piece formed

the main theme for the panel discussion.

The huge interest nationally and in social

media on the debate, showed there is a

great demand from BME voluntary and

community sector to come together

in hard times of austerity. A veteran of

equalities policy, Russell Proffitt, Chief

Executive of the Greenwich Inclusion

Project ,

added a note of caution, stating that

we must remember past struggles and

not be seen to be throwing the baby out

with the bathwater. We at Voice4Changethank those who took the time out to re-

spond to the paper.

Objective 4: Supporting The Race

Equality Coalition To become CORE

The second Selsdon summit of Race

equality organisation was held at Sels-

don in Croydon hosted by V4CE in Aug

13. Over two and a half days represen-

tative from Black South West, Rota, Run-

nymede, Equanomics, Family, Friends &

Travellers, Operation Black Vote, The RaceEquality Foundation and others met to

discuss the first draft of the development

plan Race Equality Coalition (REC). Partic-

ipants were able to reflect upon how far

things had moved since the first Selsdon

summit event held in 2011 establishing

the coalition and what more work was

needed on the plan to take the ideas

back to funders to ensure the resourcingof the project. The successful two day

meeting paved the way for completion

of the report. Differing views on the scale

of the coalition and criteria for member-

ship and future proved difficult resolve. It

was agreed not to go ahead with a bid

to funders in April 14 but to reconsider

approaches to funders in the autumn of

2014.

Objective 5: Exploration of Merger

Talks

In last years annual report and in its ac-

companying document aA year in Transi-

tionwe spelt out our intention to explore

closer formal ties to some of our partner

organi-

sations. By Easter 2013 we entered

into preliminary discussion with a num-

ber of organisations, large and small,concerning the possibility of merger. By

the end of that year only one potential

serious candidate remained NAVCA. The

two organisations held a unique simi-

larity with both seek to champion and

strengthen voluntary and community

action with a strong emphasis and com-

mitment to equality.

Both parties saw it this as an opportu-

nity for a strong structure maximising

opportunities for partnership working

and collaboration ensuring each party

had a unified vision of both organisa-

tions future aspirations. Building a stron-

ger infrastructure would ensure that the

combined specialities of the respective

organisations would provide greater

depth and influence in government

policy; strengthen reach and support to

members; developing the potential forgreater solutions to sector challenges

creating an economically stable struc-

ture.

Unfortunately after extensive consid-

eration both boards we were unable

to come to agreement on a full merg-

er. It was decided to look at other

models of how the two organisations

could work collaboratively short of

merger. These discussions are still on-

going at the end of the financial year afirm commitment was given by both

side to continue the exploration into

the new financial year until a mutually

beneficial structure could be found

along the

lines of a strategic alliance.

Objective 6:Growing Social Enterprise

In 2009 V4CE, in partnership with the

School for Social Entrepreneurs, pub-

lished the first comprehensive examina-

tion of BME activity in social enterprise

business development. The main thrust

of the report was to consider the extent

of BME involvement and how it could

be improved. In 2014 all the evidence

points to the fact that there is now no

problem getting people into creating

social enterprises the real issue is estab-

lishing support needs of community

projects to maintain long-term viabil-

ity. One of solutions is through owning


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their own capital assets via asset transfer.

Evidence show that unrestricted, earned

income for organisations with an asset is

three times higher than for those with-

out good news in these tough times.

However, the vast majority of groups we

engaged with were completely unawareof the scope of the Locality Act and com-

munity asset transfers and the potential

that exists for our communities.

In the last year government have an-

nounced further proposals about help-

ing communities to buy locals assets.

Big Society Capital & Big Lottery Fund

have agreed to make a long term com-

mitment to provide a quarter of a billion

pounds over the next seven years to help

communities with ambitions to own lo-

cal assets like pubs, shops, community

centres and affordable housing

We have delivered 20 sessions of one to

one support to BME groups looking to

use the Community Rights powers to

transfer buildings and deliver services.

Our Development Officer worked with16 organisations with two thirds being

based in London and the remainder in

the regions. We assisted seven of these

organisations to complete Feasibility and

Pre-Feasibility applications to Social In-

vestment Business and referred others to

Locality during this time.

V4CE as a national strategic partner of Lo-

cality has reached out to BME VCS groups

who are interested in community rights/

asset transfers across the regions. We are

disseminating Locality / ATU materials

through our network. Offering Infrastruc-

ture support to groups regarding prefea-

sibility governance etc.

We now have a substantial portfolio of

projects stretching from Brighton on

the South Coast to Northamptonshire inthe Midlands. Our role is to support the

growth of these projects taking them

through the process conception to final

acquisition of the assest. As an infrastruc-

ture organisation it is in our interests that

groups survive and prosper in these diffi-

cult times and asset based development

offers this as well as ensuring a measure

of economic independence.



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Media &Membership

Influence and ImpactV4CE has a stable membership and

through our media plan we continue to

drive our core message that V4CE is the

leading advocate in the BME VCS. V4CE

membership programme was launched

in March 11. Today V4CE has 357 mem-

bers, up from last years total of 327

members: a 9.5% increase. V4CE has

sought to give members a voice and to

share various funding, support and train-

ing opportunities. Communicating this iskey to our future plans. Partnership work-

ing with organisations has expanded

our communications and cemented our

stake holder relationships.

Visual Presence

The visual presence of V4CE in the sector

has been one of continual improvement

in both trade press and with members,

supporters and external stake holders.

We have strengthened our presence

within the wider spectrum of the sec-

tor, for example we were featured as a

case study on the National Council for

Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) Know

How Non Profit online portal through

the Big Assist Programme. In addition

V4CE was also featured in Ethical Prop-

erty and other publications. On radio we

have been covered by BBC regional news

stations (Nottingham, Birmingham, East

Midlands) and Colourful Radio. We haveforged relationships with key journalists

who have provided us opportunities to

be featured in The Voice and Eastern Eye

newspaper.

Looking Ahead

Moving forward, the next General Elec-

tion of May 2015 will no doubt be the key

influence in shaping the policy agenda

for the communities we represent. Their

political and social demands are going

to be significant and may well through

their numbers have a significant say in

affecting the final outcome of the elec-

tion. V4CE will involve itself in honing the

voluntary ask through a range of volun-

tary networks including: NCVO, CORE

and Rota with Lord Adebowales elec-

toral network group who have now also

taken onboard the Rethinking of Black

Politics think piece mentioned earlier inthis report .

Designed by Lester Holloway

Documents

V4CE AGM Report 2014