North East Skills Sharing

The Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector is extremely diverse, and includes multi-national charities, local community groups and everything in between. There are more than 15,000 organisations in the sector in the North East tackling a range of issues including disability, health problems, poverty, worklessness, isolation, discrimination, and homelessness, working with people of all ages and in all corners of the region.

Political and economic changes have led to increasing demand on the sector. Frontline organisations traditionally funded by the public sector are being challenged with a shift away from grants towards contracts, commissioning and tendering, as well as taking on buildings, social investment and finding new ways of generating income.

We think that skills sharing…

… is the right thing to do. The North East is a philanthropic, caring, interconnected region with a unique sense of place and a tradition of self-help.

… helps you to act responsibly, and to show it.

… can help you with staff retention, motivation and development. Volunteering can improve people’s wellbeing, confidence and skills; helping you nurture a healthy, happy workforce.

… supports the community that supports you. Voluntary organisations keep money circulating locally and support the independence, resilience and confidence of the people they support.

… helps you demonstrate your social value. In line with the Social Value Act, demonstrating your social value can support you to win public sector contracts.

… supports the 3 day pledge The last Conservative manifesto included a commitment that, in time, employees of large firms will be entitled to three ‘volunteering leave’ days per year

… helps you with the bottom line! For all the reasons mentioned above, and more besides.

There are many ways in which businesses can support local voluntary organisations but the most useful thing you can do is to share your business expertise with organisations that lack specific skills. You could:

• Offer your staff’s time to provide professional advice and support free of charge to voluntary organisations. This could include support with:
  Strategic planning
  Business planning
  Leadership mentoring
  Financial management
  Property management
  Human resources
  Marketing and communications
  Customer service
  Computing
  Health and safety
  Risk assessment
  Equality and diversity
  Legal issues
  In short, just about anything a high-performing business does on a daily basis.
• Encourage staff to become a trustee of a voluntary organisation;
• Develop a long term support partnership with a local voluntary organisation and work to support them in a number of ways;
• Encourage and support staff to take part in a team challenge for a voluntary organisation (e.g. redecorating premises);
• Offer direct support to beneficiaries of voluntary organisations e.g. helping with interview skills or CV-writing;
• Make meeting rooms or spare places on in-house training schemes available to local community groups;

If you can’t do these what about :

• Encouraging staff to fundraise or to use payroll giving to donate to a local organisation;
• Donating surplus products, equipment and materials;
• Making meeting rooms or spare places on in-house training schemes available to local community groups.